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CHRISTIANITY »™ 
UNITED STATES 



FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT 
DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME 



BY 



Daniel Dorchester, D.D, 



REVISED EDITION 




OF 



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OCT 26 1895 



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^73- 



HUNT & EATON. NEW YORK 
CRANSTON & CURTS, CINCINNATI 



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Copyright by 

HUNT & EATON, 

1895. 



typing, 
printing, and binding by 
A Eaton, 

j | 1 ifih Av L .. N'csv York. 



PREFACE. 



THE genesis and purpose of this volume are easily told. It had 
a genuine spiritual conception, birth, and growth. 

Before the death of that eminent historian of Religion in America, 
Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., the undersigned held correspondence with 
him upon questions pertaining to the religious history and prospects 
of our country — the beginning of a series of inquiries resulting in 
this volume. 

Believing that Christianity is best known and attested by its in- 
fluence in the actual life of communities, not only have the religious 
statistics of the churches been studied, but also the moral and social 
phenomena, and the tidal movements and trend of the nation's life. 
These phenomena, sometimes subtle and latent, sometimes overt 
and out-bursting, sometimes vibrator)-, and sometimes complex, re- 
quire the most careful discrimination in the work of interpreting, 
analyzing, and classifying. Conscious that the historian cannot too 
carefully guard lest he discolor or distort by his lens, the work has 
been undertaken and prosecuted under conscientious convictions, 
in the hope that the best interests of Christianity may be subserved 
by it, and that it may prove helpful to the Christian ministry and to 
the public at large. 

No attempt has been made to write the history of the various 
religious denominations, for the author did not so conceive his task. 
The moral and religious life of the people pressed more weightily 
upon his mind. Apprehending what are currently regarded as three 
great competing forces in the religious life of the nation — Prot- 
estantism, Romanism, and a variety of Divergent Elements — he 
adopted and has kept this classification throughout the volume. 

As to the Protestant Churches, the beonnnin^ of each, the organic 
changes, schisms, and reunions, and the great benevolent, illumi- 
nating, and evangelizing agencies employed by them, have been 



4 PREFACE. 

sketched, and, for the most part, kept grouped together, either by 
express statements or by implication, avoiding so far as possible 
invidious comparisons, and seeking to do full justice to all. Very 
much matter relating to individual denominations was, from neces- 
sity, omitted. The Roman Catholic Church has been freely, fully, 
and generously treated, eulogies have been expressed upon some 
of the earlier gifted and devoted emissaries, and a great amount of 
expensive and wearisome labor put forth in efforts to adequately 
represent the body in the later statistical tables. The Divergent 
Elements, existing, as they do, as drifts of sentiment only slightly 
organized, have required different treatment from either evangelical 
Protestantism or Romanism. The statistical exhibits of all the re- 
ligious bodies are the best their own official "Minutes" or Year 
Books make possible. To go behind them would be unfair and 
impracticable. Newspaper statistics have been omitted almost en- 
tirely, because very liable to errata, and only under stern necessities 
have estimates been accepted and used. 

Deeply sensible of the delicacy of an undertaking in which such 
diverse and multiform interests are involved, the author commends 
his work to the Christian indulgence of the public. 

DANIEL DORCHESTER. 

Chelsea, Mass., December i. 1887. 



EDITION OF 1 



'-v 



In revising this volume much care has been taken, and all data 
has been brought down to the end of 1894. This has involved great 
labor and correspondence, so that the book may be a reliable refer- 
ence book to this date. A few more diagrams have been inserted 
to aid in illustration. 

DANIEL DORCHESTER. 

MELROSE, Mass., January, 1895. 



CONTENTS. 



HAOK 



I. THE COLONIAL ERA. 

CHAPTER I. 

The First Discoveries and Settlements— Under Roman Catholic Auspices. 

The Spaniards in the South 13 

CHAPTER II. 
Protestant Beginnings. 

*> i. Discoveries 23 I § 3. Churches Organized 35 

$ 2. Settlements 27 ; 

CHAPTER III. 
Later Roman Catholic Beginnings. 

§ 1. The French in the North 44 j § 3. The French in the Mississippi Valley. 68 

§ 2. The English in Maryland 66 j § 4. Resume of Early Papal Movements. . 78 

CHAPTER IV. 
Church and State. 

§ 1. Diverse Colonial Constitutions 84 | § 4. Religious Legislation 89 

S 2. Points of Agreement 86 j § 5. Religious Intolerance 108 

$ 3. Religious Limitations 87 \ § 6. General Considerations 121 

CHAPTER V. 
The Religious Life of Protestantism. 

§ 1. From 1607 to 1662 126 I § 4. From 1745 to 1776 145 

§ 2. From 1662 to 1720 134 § 5. Fruits of the Half-way Covenant 150 

§ 3. From 1720 to 1745 139 | 

CHAPTER VI. 
Religious Customs Among Protestants. 

§ 1. The Ministry 153 J § 4. The Catechism 167 

§ 2. The " Meeting-houses." 156 § 5. Thanksgivings and Fasts 171 

§ 3. Public Worship 161 j 

CHAPTER VII. 
Protestant Missions Among the Indians. 



? 1. In New England 172 

§ 2. In the Middle Colonies 185 

§ 3. In the South 189 



§ 4. Jesuit and Protestant Missions Com- 
pared 190 

§ 5. Results 192 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Diverse Currents. 

PAGE I PAGE 

§ i. Inception of American Skepticism 195 § 3. Inception of Universalis™ 209 

£ 2. Inception of Unitarianism 196 | 

CHAPTER IX. 
Morals. 

5. Indentured Servitude 220 

6. African Slavery 222 

7. Antislavery 225 



<j 1. The Drinking Habits 212 

£ 2. Sabbath Observance 214 

£ 3. Unchastity — Lotteries 217 

I 4. Superstitions 219 



CHAPTER X. 

Education Under Protestantism. 

£ 1. The Common School System 230 1 § 3. Education of the Ministry 250 

S 2. The Colleges 240 I 

CHAPTER XI. 
General Summaries 253 



II. THE NATIONAL ERA 
Period I -From 1776 to 1800. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Revolution and the Churches. 



£ i. Union Through Suffering 259 

£ 2. Patriotism of the Clergy 261 

* 3. Unfavorable Effects 267 

? 4. Civil Troubles 271 



5. Sundering of Ecclesiastical Ties 273 

6. The Churches After the War 278 

7. Revivals of Religion Rare 287 



CHAPTER II. 
Protestant Beginnings Beyond the Alleghanies. 

£ 1. Roman Catholic Preoccupancy 289 I § 3. Evangelizing Efforts 292 

s 2. Anglo-American Settlements 291 [ § 4. Early Privations, etc 298 

CHAPTER III. 
Diverse Currents. 

. 1 . The Unitarian Trend 300 I § 3. The New Jerusalem Church 310 

. j. Universalism 304 I £ 4. The Shakers 312 

CHAPTER IV. 
The French-American Infidelity. 



£ 1. Type of French Unbelief 313 

j; 2. Introduction into America 314 

£ 3. Skf-pticism Among Statesmen, etc 315 



§ 4. Infidel Organizations 318 

§ 5. Testimonies 323 



CONTEXTS. 7 

CHAPTER V. 
The Roman Catholic Church. 

PAGK I fAr.K 

$ i. Patriotic Under Disabilities 325 J£ 4. Religious Orders and Publications 335 

* 2. The Hierarchy Established 327 § 5. Indian Missions 335 

£ 3. Progress in Individual States 330 



CHAPTER 

Morals. 

g 1. Post helium Irritations 337 § 4. 

* 2. Political Bitterness 339 § 5. 

$ 3. The Family, Dueling, etc 341 § 6. 



VI. 



The Social and Physical Condition, etc. 343 

Intemperance 347 

Survey of the Dark Period 34S 



CHAPTER VII. 

Reforms Initiated. 

i 1. Early Temperance Seed-Sowing 351 I £ 2. Early Anti-slavery Seed-Sowing 355 



Period ll.-From 1800 to 1850. 

CHAPTER I. 
New Life in the Protestant Churches — An Era of Revivals Inaugurated, 
i . A Survey of the Period 363 I § 4. Subsequent Revivals 372 



* 2. The Revival of 1800 Incepted 367 

^ 3. Character of the Revival 369 



College Revivals 376 

Effects 378 



CHAPTER II. 
The New Life Expanding— The Mississippi Valley. 

1. Moral and Religious Conditions 381 j ^ 4. Roman Catholic Opposition 390 

2. Ecclesiastical Beginnings 383 | $ 5. Condition from 1830 to 1850 395 

3. Trials of Pioneer Preachers 388 § 6. Benevolent and Educational Work. . . 395 



CHAPTER III. 
The New Life Organizing. 



Evangelizing Agencies 399 

1. Home Missions 399 

2. City Missions 408 

3. Foreign Missions 410 

4. Societies for Seamen 415 

5. Efforts for the Jews 416 

Religious Publication Agencies 416 

1. Tract Societies 416 

2. Bible Societies 419 



3. Denominational Publication 

Houses 421 

4. Religious Periodicals 424 

Religious Educational Agencies 426 

1. Sunday-schools and Sunday- 

school Societies 426 

2. Educational Aid Societies 429 

3. Colleges and the Churches 435 

4. Theological Schools 437 



CHAPTER IV. 
The New Life Reformatory. 

$ 1. The Temperance Reform 440 § 3. The Sabbath Reform 

§ 2. The Anti-slavery Reform 448 



47.? 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 
Organic Changes in Protestant Churches. 



Organic Changes 



PAGE 

47* 



CHAPTER VI. 
Divergent Currents. 



§ i. Unitarianism 492 

«j 2. Universalism 510 

5 3. The Christians 515 



4. The Progressive Friends 517 

5. The New Jerusalem Church 518 

6. Millerism 518 



1. Radical Doubt, 



CHAPTER VII. 
Skepticism, Socialism, Etc. 
521 I § 2. Socialism . 



530 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Mormonism. 

1. The Earliest Phases 538 I § 3. Organized Mormonism . 

2. Secondary Stages 539 | 



54i 



CHAPTER IX. 
The Roman Catholic Church. 

1. General Progress 543 § 5. Native American Movements 553 

2. Bishop England and B shop Hughes. 548 § 6. Councils 554 

3. The Lay Trustee Contest 550 § 7. Propaganda Funds 556 

4. Common School Contest Begun 551 § 8. Statistics for 1850 558 



Period 111 -From 1850 to 1894. 



CHAPTER [. 
Moral Phases. 



3 i. Emancipation 562 

^ 2. Temperance 570 

ij 3. Sabbath Observance 575 



Chastity and Divorce 578 

Crime 580 



CHAPTER II. 
The Roman Catholic Church. 
% 1. General Progress 585 

S 2. The System of Church Tenure 595 

§ 3. The Common School Contest 599 

$ 4. The Religious Orders 604 



Benevolent Institutions 609 

Educational Institutions 611 

Growth 614 



CHAPTER III. 
Divergent Currents. 
3 1 . The Jews 624 § 

3 2. Shakers 625 § 

i 3- Progressive Friend^ 625 

§ 4. The New Jerusalem Church 626 

$} 5. Universalism '. . . 626 



6. Unitarianism 628 

7. " Free Religion " 635 

8. Multiform Skepticism 640 

9. The Latest Socialism 644 

o. Mormonism 6-)6 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER iV. 
Convergent Currents. 



|S i. From Atheism to Theism 653 

<i 2. From Science vs. the Bible to Science 

with the Bible 658 

§ 3. From Christ Discarded to Christ 

Honored 661 



§ 5. From the Poverty of Skepticism to 

the Wealth of Christianity 664 

§ 6. From Defiant Discourtesy to Patron- 
izing Respect 667 

§ 7. From Scholastic to Vital Truth 668 



<? 4. From Negative to Biblical Ethics. . . . 663 , § 8. Vibratory Movements 673 

CHAPTER V. 

Life in Protestant Churches. 

*j 1 Organic Relations 675 I § 3. Revivals 693 

£ 2. Lay Activity 680 | § 4. Spirituality 696 

CHAPTER VI. 
Evangelizing and Illuminating Agencies. 



* 1. Foreign Missions 700 

*J 2. Home Missions 710 

$ 3. Progress and Test of Pecuniary Benev- 
olences 714 



§ 4. Religious Publication Agencies 717 

1. Religious Periodicals 717 

2. Religious Publication Houses. . . . 721 
§ 5. Higher Education and the Churches. . 724 



CHAPTER VII. 

Growth of "Evangelical" Protestant Churches. 

1. The Actual Growth 733 i £ 3. The Interdenominational Test 755 

2. The Population Test 747 j 1. The "Evangelical" and the 

1. The Large Cities 7481 ''Liberal" Chinches 756 

2. In New England 753 2. The Evangelical Protestant and 

3. In the Whole Country 754 Rom. Cath. Bodies Compared. 756 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Review and Outlook — Pending Problems. 



The Problem of the Population 764 

The Spirit of Free Inquiry 773 

Modern Revolutionizing Tendencies 776 



The New Functions of Public Opinion .... 778 

The Civil Problem 780 

The Problem of Protestantism 782 



APPENDIX. 

Table I. Statistics of Church Organizations, Edifices, Sittings, and the Valuati n of 

Church Property in the United States for 1850, i860, 1870, 1890 789 

Tab'e II. Arrival of Immigrants by Nationalities and by Decades from 1790 to June 30, 

l8 94 794 

INDEX 795 



LLUSTRATIONS. 



•AGE 



^1. Map of French, English, Dutch, Swedish, and Spanish Prov- 
inces facing 22 

A II. Map of Aboriginal America between 70-71 

. III. Chart. Clergymen of the Seventeenth Century facing 138 

IV. Chart. Colonial Period between 256-257 

V. Chart. Clergymen of the Eighteenth Century facing 360 

VI. Map. Territorial Growth between 392-393 

Yll. Diagram. Absurd Roman Catholic Estimates facing 616 

YII1. Diagram. Growth of Young Men's Christian Associations in 

the United States " 686 

IX. Diagram. Growth of Young Men's Christian Associations in 

the World " 687 

X. Diagram. Progress of Sunday Schools " 693 

>4XI. Chart. Communicants in the Foreign Missions of the 

Churches of the United States " 707 

>iXII. Chart. Our Latest and Greatest Home Mission Field .between 712-713 

XII 1. Diagram. Total Wealth of the United States facing 714 

J XIV. Chart. Distribution of Wealth in the United States " 715 

XV. Diagram. Colleges of Denominations " 726 

XVI. Diagram. Denominational Students in Colleges " 726 

XVII. Diagram. Growth of City Populations " 743 

XVIII. Diagram. Foreign Elements in Fifty Cities " 750 

XIX. Diagram. Protestantism, Romanism and the Population in 

Xew England " 757 

XX. Diagram. Protestant and Roman Catholic Growth Com- 
pared with the Population " 758 

XXI. Diagram of Increases between 760-761 

XXII. Chart. Church Accommodations " 762-763 

XXIII. Diagram. Valuation of Church Property facing 764 

XXIV. Diagram. Growth of Immigration " 766 

XXV. Diagram. Immigration from Four Leading Countries " 768 

XXVI. Chart. Foreign Elements in the United States " 776 

XXVII. Map. Center of Population of the United States " 784 

XXVIII. Diagram. Church Organizations " 789 



I. 
THE COLONIAL ERA. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE FIRST DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS -UNDER 
ROMAN CATHOLIC AUSPICES. 



The Spaniards in the South. 

RELIGIOUS motives manifestly acted a conspicuous part in the 
earliest discoveries and settlements in America, though consid- 
erations of maritime enterprise and commercial advantage, not 
wanting from the first, soon directed and dominated the New 

o 

World movements. 

It is a striking but not unfamiliar fact that those portions of 
our national domain, the last to become integral parts of the 
United States, were the first upon which the efforts of the papacy 
were expended, and that In all of them, for many years, the Roman 
Catholic became the dominant and only faith. These, therefore, 
will first receive attention. 

Columbus, Perez, and Isabella, a trinity of Roman Catholic 
devotees — a mariner, a monk, and a queen — under the solemn 
benediction of the Church, projected and achieved the discovery 
of the New World. 

" Piety," says Prescott, " gave a peculiar coloring to Isabella's 
mind; " a remark not less true of Columbus, " the Christ-bearer," as 
his name (Christopher) signifies. Explorer though he was, and filled 
with enthusiastic conceptions of a new route to the East, opening up 
regions of untold wealth and splendor, he was also a deeply relig- 
ious man and a diligent student of the Bible, especially of the proph- 
ecies, in whose fulfillment, through his cherished plans, he saw 
an easy communication established between the uttermost parts of 
the earth, and the entire human family brought under the influence 
of the " Holy Catholic Church." Believing that God had singled 
him out and set him apart for this work, he solemnly declared, 
"God made me a messenger of the new heavens and the new 
earth,- " and the power and riches to accrue from his looked-for dis- 
coveries were, in anticipation, consecrated to the bringing of souls to 



14 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Christ, in the East as well as in the West, and even to the rescue of 
the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidel. Juan Perez, the 
prior at Palos, deeply interested in maritime subjects, and a former 
confessor to Isabella, exerted his priestly influence to forward the 
interests of Columbus at the court. 

Starting from a deeply impressive service of the Holy Commun- 
ion, in a temporary chapel on the shore of Palos, the adventurers 
broke the silence of ages over the trackless waters, with prayers 
and hymns to the Virgin Mary. The first sight of the New World 
was greeted with a Gloria in excelsis — " the first Catholic hymn 
whose swelling cadences were wafted to the shores of America ; " 
and the first landing witnessed Columbus upon his knees, with 
tears of joy giving thanks to God and kissing the earth. Religious 
names, San Salvador, Santa Trinidata, Santa Maria, etc., were given 
to the first islands discovered. 

On his second voyage Columbus was accompanied by the first 
band of missionaries, consisting of twelve priests and a vicar apos- 
tolic, who, at Isabella, on the Island of Hayti, consecrated the first 
chapel, on the feast of Epiphany, in the year 1494 — the date of the 
founding of the Roman Catholic Church in the New World. 

" Isabella the Catholic " took a deep interest in the welfare of 
the natives, " ordering," says Irving, " that great care should be 
taken of the religious instruction of the Indians ; that they should 
be treated with the utmost kindness; and that Columbus should 
inflict signal punishment upon all Spaniards who should be guilty 
of outrage or injustice toward them." 

It will not be questioned that the discovery of the New World 
was a maritime enterprise ; but the religious auspices and inspira- 
tion Under which it was conducted were Roman Catholic, then 
almost the only religious faith of Europe, and every-where blended 
with the civil power. The great Protestant reformation was waiting 
for its leader, a lad of only nine years, when the cross first touched 
the shores of San Salvador. 

The success of Columbus aroused the spirit of enterprise and 
turned all minds to the West. In the fifty years following his first 
discovery, voyages of exploration were conducted by more than 
twenty adventurers, among whom were John and Sebastian Cabot, 
Gaspar and Miguel Cortereal, Vespucci, Ponce de Leon, Balboa, 
Cordova, D'Ayllon, Magellan, Verazzano, Gomez, Narvaez, Cartier, 
and De Soto, all acting under the patronage of Roman Catholic na- 
tions, and most of them carrying on their expeditions ecclesiastics 
of that faith. 



FIRST DISCOVERIES AXD SETTLEMENTS. 15 

Motives. 

The motives actuating these explorers, Spanish, French, and 
Portuguese, despite national jealousies, were essentially alike, secular 
considerations largely predominating, sustained in most, if not in all 
(A them, by a substratum of devotion to the Church of Rome. At 
first, gorgeous visions of the " far Cathay," where, for centuries, had 
reigned " a line of mighty monarchs of the race of Kublai Khan," 
of which Marco Polo had told fabulous, entrancing stories— a land 
redolent with aromatic spices, filled with birds of gayest plumage, 
and teeming with all manner of precious things which enrich king- 
doms, and make states and princes powerful— furnished the inspira- 
tion for expensive, tedious and dangerous expeditions. Some Ophir 
or Aurea Chersonesus of the Indies, filled with magnificent cities 
and crowded with commerce, flitted like bewitching lights before 
their minds. This fair land of the East they believed lay not far to 
the westward. When, after a few years of exploration, the discovery 
of a vast western continent, every-where presenting itself as an un- 
reclaimed wilderness, peopled with naked savages, made it apparent 
that they had not found the short passage to the much-coveted 
East, their feverish imaginations were still haunted with glowing 
panoramas of tropical beauty, alluvial fertility, and inexhaustible 
riches. Under this alluring impulse, European sovereigns vied with 
each other to share the glory, wealth, and extended dominion of 
new discoveries. Voyagers were sent forth in quest of unknown 
islands and continents, full of gold and heathen men, or to find some 
north-west passage to the Indies, now further than ever from their 
insatiable grasp; while other expeditions advanced beyond the un- 
promising coast-line of the continent into the remote interior, 
attracted by stories of rich and powerful kingdoms far to the. west- 
ward. 

Explorers. 

Amerigo Vespucci, in early life an agent for a commercial house 
in Seville and a familiar acquaintance of Columbus, whose story of 
the newly-opened regions he had heard, longing to share in the glory 
and profit of the New World enterprises, sails upon extensive expe- 
ditions which identify his name with an immense continent. 

Ponce de Leon, whose youth has been spent in the military serv- 
ice of Spain, sharing in the wild predatory exploits of the wars of 
Granada, a fellow-voyager of Columbus in his second expedition, 
the subjugator and governor of Porto Rico, when trembling under 
the decrepitude of age, beguiled by marvelous stories of a land in 



16 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the deep recesses of whose forests was a hidden fountain of perpetual 
youth, fits out an expedition, discovers, names and overruns the 
flower-clad peninsula of Florida. 

" The wise and prudent Coronado," inspired by the flaming- 
reports by Mexican priests of cities far to the north larger and richer 
than those of Mexico, parting from his lovely wife and vast posses- 
sions, leads forth a band of chivalrous adventurers to hunt in the 
wilderness for " the seven great cities of Cibola " and the fabled 
wealth of their mighty princes. 

Lucas Vasquez D'Ayllon, setting out in quest of a sacred river 
with healing waters akin to those of the fabled fountain of youth, and 
Stephen Gomez, in search of a passage to the romantic Cathay, sup- 
posed to be reached through some of the broad estuaries to the north- 
ward of Florida, return with cargoes of Indians doomed to servitude. 

Pamphilo de Narvaez leads a formidable expedition in search of 
gold to replenish the coffers of Charles V. 

And Hernando De Soto, the favorite companion of Pizarro, in 
Peru, returning to Spain with the opulence of South American con- 
quests, blinded by avarice and an ambition to achieve new 
dominions, where he shall no longer be a subaltern, leads forth the 
elite of Spain and Portugal in a splendidly equipped but singularly 
ill-fated expedition for the subjugation of magnificent cities with 
richly endowed temples, supposed to be concealed in the interior 
wilds of Florida and Mississippi. 

However much inspired by cupidity and ambition, it should not 
be forgotten that patronizing princes and adventurers alike perform- 
ed their parts in close subordination to the Church. So complete 
was the ecclesiastical ascendency, in that age, that each sovereign 
felt bound to promote its cause — an element serving both as an im- 
pulse and a check. Expeditions were fitted out under impressive 
ecclesiastical benedictions; and adventurers, soldiers and priests 
landed together, taking possession of new countries in the name of 
" THE CHURCH — the Queen and Sovereign of the World." 

However strange the characters of many of these leaders, they 
seem not to have vacillated in their devotion to the Papal Church. 

Alonzo de Ojeda, a companion of Columbus in his first expe- 
dition, subsequently sailing under the patronage of the Bishop of 
Fonseca, with stolen charts of the great navigator, explores the 
Isthmus of Daricn, "his track every-where marked," says Bryant. 
•■ with lust for slaves, for women and for gold," but often pausing in 
those trackless wilds to worship the picture of the Madonna, to whom 
he was enthusiastically devoted. 



THE CROSS AS AN ENSIGN. 17 

Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish freebooter, though " pitilessly 
cruel, unscrupulous and dissolute," is " at the same time zealous for 
the Church." Fighting his way through the hostile Indians 'of 
Darien, " he hews them in pieces," says the quaint Peter Martyr, 
" as the butchers doe fleshe in the shambles; from one an arme, from 
another a legge, from him a buttocke, from another a shoulder, and 
from some the necke from the bodie, at one stroke ; " but when, at 
last, from the top of a high mountain, he first beholds the vast 
Pacific, sparkling and glorious in the sunlight, overcome with mingled 
emotions of ecstasy and devotion, he prostrates himself upon the 
earth, giving thanks to God that it has " pleased his Divine Majesty 
to reserve for him on that day so great a thing," and praying for 
success in subduing those lands " to the glory of his holy name and 
the increase of his holy religion." 

De Soto, in whom " avarice rendered ferocious " is singularly 
united with religious zeal, in his great expedition from Florida to 
the Mississippi valley, while reveling in scenes of robbery, carnage 
and lust, massacring and " leading Indians in chains " with " iron 
collars around their necks," marches under the insignia of the cross, 
is attended by ecclesiastics, scrupulously maintains the solemn pro- 
cessions and festivals of the Church, and even himself explains the 
significance of the cross, and discourses homilies on the atone- 
ment to assembled natives. 

The cross, as a symbol of papal supremacy, was borne by Ma- 
gellan in his world-wide voyages, and planted on the southernmost 
cape of South America; by Fernando de Cortez, who subjugated 
the land of the Montezumas and made it obedient to the Roman 
Catholic faith ; by Cartier down the great river of Canada, to which 
he gave the name of a celebrated saint; and by Champlain, a devoted 
son of the Church, who established its ecclesiastical supremacy in 
all the northern region. 

Mexico. 

The first portion of North America subjugated and held by 
Europeans was Mexico. The thrilling story need not be here 
related. The Aztec priesthood was overthrown and the ecclesias- 
tics of Rome were installed in their stead. Thenceforth, Mexico 
is the radiating point of the Roman Catholic Church, from which 
colonies and missions penetrated northward within the present limits 
of our national domain. These Spanish missions, radiating from 
Mexico, extended across the continent from Florida to California. 
A little later, we shall see Quebec also becoming a papal focus, and 



18 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

extending her missions along the valley of the St. Lawrence to the 
great lakes, down the Mississippi, till they meet those on the Gulf, 
and sagaciously plotting and attempting the conquest of the vast 
region inclosed. 

These missionary movements present many scenes of unexcelled 
devotion, invincible purpose, patient toil, and sublime martyrdom. 
Unappalled by the New World barbarians, the emissaries of the 
papacy hasted to bring them to her embrace. Her wonderful 
religious orders, Franciscan, Aupustinian, Dominican, and Carmelite, 
with organizations eminently adapted to missionary work, were 
already extended through many countries ; and in the same epoch 
with the American discoveries the new order of Jesuits, expressly 
intended for missionary labors, arose, and hastened to achieve its 
earliest triumphs on the new continent. However notorious this 
celebrated order subsequently became, it must be allowed that the 
record of its earliest missionary toils in North America abounds in 
thrilling incidents and examples of rare devotion. 

" Habituated to self-denial, a solitary man, with no earthly tie 
to make life dearer than the call of duty, a man who had renounced 
not only the luxuries but most of the comforts of life, the Catholic 
missionary, crucifix in hand, bearing a few articles of church service, 
hastened to rear the cross amid the scenes of idolatrous worship. . , . 
Sometimes a mission rose by royal command, and a missionary, sup- 
plied or supported from the public treasury like a soldier, proceeded 
to his post. Sometimes the settlers collected yearly means to en- 
able the frugal priest to live and obtain what he needed for his 
ministry ; but most generally the princes, nobles, and people of 
Europe raised funds for each particular mission, which enabled proc- 
urators of religious orders, in seaport towns, to send across the 
Atlantic missionaries, books, church articles, and often objects of 
agricultural or mechanical industry for the Indian tribes."* 

Florida. 

Florida, from its first discovery to the founding of St. Augustine 
( } 565)> was the scene of numerous unsuccessful colonies and missions. 
Regarded as " a paragon of wealth and beauty," expeditions were 
fitted out to explore and settle it, soldiers and priests accompanying 
the adventurers. The savage inhabitants so effectually resisted their 
invaders that most of the latter perished. In 1528, Pamphilo de 
Narvaez, with the title of Governor, and accompanied by a large 

* John G. Shea, Catholic Missions in the United States, p. 29. 



PEACEFUL COX QUEST ATTEMPTED. 19 

force of soldiers, undertook the conquest of the country. Fran- 
ciscan priests, under Father Juarez, one of the first of that order 
who entered Mexico, attended the expedition. With great re- 
ligious solemnities, they took possession of the Bay of Pensacola, 
Scenes of exacting toil and terrible suffering followed ; disease 
and savage hostilities decimated their numbers, and all but four 
perished. 

In 1547, Father Louis Cancer, a Dominican priest, hoping to win 
new conquests for the cross by " subduing unarmed and in peace a 
country that had baffled the hardiest military expeditions," projected 
the spiritual conquest of this region. Drawing into his plan " the 
great Las Casas." Bishop of Chiapas, a fellow-passenger to Spain, 
he gained the full approbation of Philip II. for "the peaceful and 
bloodless conquest of Florida." With three other Dominican fathers 
Cancer landed upon the coast, and by presents and other friendly 
means sought to win the favor of the natives. But kindly acts 
failed to disarm their ferocity, and within a few days two of the 
missionaries were massacred, and the others immediately withdrew 
from the field. In 1553, five Dominican priests belonging to a large 
expedition bound for Mexico were wrecked upon the coast, and 
only one survived to reach Mexico. In 1559, Don Tristan De Luna, 
a scion of the nobility of Arragon, with a fleet of thirteen vessels 
and fifteen hundred men, accompanied by families and six Domini- 
can missionaries, were sent to subdue and colonize the peninsula. 
After a series of terrible calamities and sufferings, extending through 
several years, the field was abandoned. 

In 1565, Pedro Melendez. the most distinguished naval command- 
er of his day, whose banner had long floated over the Mediterranean, 
the Atlantic, and the North Sea, and who at his own expense 
had served his royal master against the Corsairs and the French, 
after a series of humiliating reverses was rewarded by Philip II. with 
the grant of Florida, on two conditions : twelve Franciscans and 
four Jesuits were to be carried as missionaries, and the Huguenot 
colony under Ribault, on St. John's River, w r as to be dispersed. 
" Melendez himself," says Bryant,* " was a bigot who could conceive 
no better manifestation of love to God than cruelty toman, when man 
was heretical." Fitting out his expedition with alacrity, he sailed 
with thirty-four vessels, two thousand six hundred and forty-six 
men, eleven Franciscans, one father of the order of Mercy, one sec- 
ular priest, and eight Jesuits. His first work was to extirpate the 
Huguenots, which he effected with the most diabolical and mer- 

* Popular History 0/ the United States, Vol. I., p. 206. 



20 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ciless slaughter. The details'* are too sickening to be related 
here — the first Protestant blood shed on American soil. 

St. Augustine was immediately founded, and a small colony, 
under the spiritual direction of the Jesuits, was also planted on the 
Chesapeake, the latter having, however, only a brief existence. 
Among the Indians in the vicinity of St. Augustine, missions were 
undertaken, the Jesuits leading, and Father John Baptiste Segura 
soon appeared as Vice Provincial, full of zeal and plans for action. 
The instruction of the natives in Christian principles was under- 
taken, and a school for Indian children was established at Havana, 
while Father Segura and others made their novitiate in missionary 
life amid the hardships of the wilderness, in the provinces of Carlos, 
Tequestra, and as far as Tocobaga on the Appalachee Bay. Grounds 
were selected, agricultural impliments obtained, and commodious 
houses erected ; but the natural fickleness of the Indians soon pre- 
vailed, the village was abandoned, and the wild life in the woods 
was resumed. The Jesuits followed, patiently instructing, and bap- 
tizing a few. Calling a council of the chiefs, they proposed that the 
tribe should renounce the devil and embrace the new faith. A 
scene of confusion followed. " The devil is the best fellow in the 
world," was the unanimous cry; "we adore him; he makes men 
valiant." The discomfited missionaries abandoned them. In 1572 
the Jesuits left Florida for the more inviting field of Mexico: three 
priests and four lay brothers having fallen victims to the perfidy of 
the natives, and one sinking under the exactions of his arduous 
toils. 

In 1573, a new band of Franciscans landed at St. Augustine, but 
no missions beyond the immediate vicinity of the colony were 
undertaken until after 1592, when a re-enforcement of twelve Fran- 
ciscans arrived and efforts for the conversion of the Indians 
were resumed. Mission stations were established, an abridgment 
of Christian doctrine was drawn up and printed in the Indian 
dialect, and villages of neophytes were formed ; but suddenly a 
storm arose which turned the smiling garden into a howling wilder- 
ness. Missionaries were massacred and the neophytes were scattered. 
The work was resumed in 1601. In the next twenty years about 
fifty Franciscans labored in Florida, and no less than twenty convents 
or religious houses were established. Subsequently missions were 
founded among the Appalachees and Creeks, in West Florida and 
Georgia, and in 1643 a Cherokee chief received baptism. The 

* A Roman Catholic writer, Mr. John G. Shea, says : " In no point of view can his conduct be 
justificV History of Indian Missions, p. 55. 



MISSIONARY HEROES. 21 

founding of Pensacola, in 1693, gave a new impulse to missions in 
that region, and the Spanish colony, though small, was surrounded 
by Indian tribes most of whom received the Roman Catholic faith. 
Villages of converts, directed by Franciscans, existed along the 
the Apalachicola, Flint, and other rivers. 

New Mexico 

was the next scene of missionary labor within the recently adopted 
territory of the United States. Coronado's famous expedition from 
Mexico, in 1540, in search of a fancied realm of wealth and splendor, 
traversed the territory of New Mexico even to the borders of Colo- 
rado. After a long and unsuccessful search, wearied of journeyings 
and disappointed in discoveries, he turned his course homeward ; 
but, when not far from the present site of Santa Fe, the two Fran- 
ciscans, Father Padilla and Brother John of the Cross, who had 
accompanied the expedition, remained behind to establish a mission. 
Turning his steps to Ouivira, Father Padilla labored assiduously 
among that fierce people, but with no success. Hearing of a tribe 
more docile in character, he started for their town, but on his way 
he fell pierced with a shower of arrows, sealing his mission with his 
blood. Of his companion no tidings were ever received. Only the 
previous year, the brilliant, cruel, and unfortunate expedition of De 
Soto had penetrated several hundred miles west of the Mississippi, 
into the territory above the Red River. 

Coronado's unfavorable reports discouraged further secular ex- 
ploration of this region for a long time. Meanwhile the Indian 
missions of Mexico steadily advanced toward the north, and there 
dwelt in the valley of St. Bartholomew a pious lay brother, Augus- 
tine Rodriguez, who had grown gray amid the austerities of the 
Franciscan missions. Hearing of populous countries far to the 
north, unvisited by Spaniards, he burned with desire to proclaim to 
them the Gospel. A mission was projected ; Father Francis Lopez 
was appointed Superior, and the learned and scientific Father John 
de Santa Maria and Brother Rodriguez accompanied him, escorted 
by ten soldiers and six Mexican Indians. Reaching the country of 
the Tehuas, the soldiers, seeing seven hundred weary miles behind 
them, refused to advance further. Honor, pride, patriotism, and 
religion were appealed to in vain. They abandoned the missiona- 
ries to their fate. A mission was commenced among a people 
dressed in cotton mantles and living in houses, unlike the wild 
Indians of the plains. Father Maria was sent back to Mexico for 



22 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

auxiliaries, but while asleep by the wayside he was surprised and 
killed. In an attack upon the town, soon after, Father Lopez fell 
beneath the shafts of the assailants, and Brother Rodriguez was 
left alone until, weary of his presence and reproaches, the natives 
silenced his voice in death.* 

Don Antonio de Espejo, a rich, brave, and pious man, set out 
the following year to explore the head-waters of the Rio Grande. 
He named the country New Mexico, and founded the city of Santa 
Fe, next to the oldest city within the present limits of the United 
States — twenty-five years older than Jamestown, Va. The Francis- 
cans immediately undertook the task of converting the natives — a 
work slow, difficult, and attended with dangers. The blood of the 
missionaries flowed freely ; their number was recruited ; the work 
went slowly on ; the dusky savages yielded ; whole tribes accepted 
the faith ; and, in the year 1608, eight thousand Indians had received 
baptism in New Mexico. In 1626 the twenty-seventh mission was 
established. 

Texas. 

Father de Olmos, a Franciscan, visited this region in 1546, and 
founded a mission among the wild tribes of the Chichimecas. 
Gathering around this solitary envoy, they listened in peace to his 
message. He studied their language and made translations into it ; 
but no further data have been transmitted to us concerning this 
" humble conquest of Olmos' hardy zeal, ,? and a long interval with 
no records of missions followed. 

California. 

A series of explorers visited California at a very early date : 
Cortez, who is supposed to have reached its extreme southern part ; 
Cabrilla, who landed at San Diego in 1542: Sir Francis Drake, who 
sailed along its coast in one of his expeditions, and spent the sum- 
mer of 1579 in tne Bay of San Francisco; and Vizcaino, who ex- 
plored the coast in 1596, and again in 1601, proceeding as far as 
Monterey, where the Carmelite Friars who accompanied his expe- 
dition erected a rustic altar beneath the branches of a spreading 
oak and celebrated the mysteries of the papal faith. 

* See History 0/ Roman Catholic Missions, by J. G. Shea, pp. 77, 78. 



SUCCESSORS OF COLUMBUS. 23 



CHAPTER II. 
PROTESTANT BEGINNINGS. 



Sec. i. Discoveries. Sec. 2. Settlements. Sec. 3. Churches Organized. 



Section 1.— Discoveries. 

COLUMBUS and his successors in discovery accomplished great 
Providential purposes, opening up pathways for nations and 
imparting new impulses of progress to the world. The amazing 
foresight, indomitable purpose, superhuman energy and lofty hero- 
ism of Columbus verify his personal conviction that he was " the 
called of God" to a great mission. A spirit so elevated and far- 
seeing, so patient and enduring, so potent to resist and wear out 
opposition, so fruitful in expedients and creative of resources, clearly 
evinces a divine co-working. But he had a very feeble conception 
of the grand results of his wonderful career and the new life he im- 
parted to the age. Nor was it necessary, in order to the part he 
performed, that he should see the far-reaching consequences. He 
was not chosen to be the founder of a perishable empire nor to wear 
the diadem of a fading royalty. But he fulfilled his mission and 
gained the crown of enduring immortality — the true saintship. 

The Successors of Columbus 

were men of inferior character, in whom, says Bancroft, " avarice 
and religious zeal were singularly blended ; and the heroes of Spain 
sailed to the West as if they were bound on a new crusade for which 
'infinite wealth was to reward their piety." The visions of vast 
riches which the newly-discovered country inspired stimulated in the 
breasts of Europeans the powerful passions of ambition and avarice, 
and eager adventurers were sent forth with ships and stores to the 
new El Dorado. Numerous disasters and disappointments attended 
the early navigators, but countries were subdued and vast sums of 
gold and silver transmitted to Europe. These singularly mixed 
motives were potential factors, mysteriously working under a super- 
intending Providence, by which willing agents were strangely led on, 



24 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

though often effectually checked and frustrated. What striking 
evidences do those times afford of a superior power controlling the 
movements of men ! What alluring openings and also inscrutable 
reservations of Providence ! In this higher light how weak and nar- 
row the schemes of human cupidity and ambition ! While thirst for 
gold, lust of power and love of daring adventure served the Provi- 
dential purpose of opening the New World to papal Europe, and 
Roman Catholic colonies were successfully planted in some portions, 
the territory originally comprised within the United States was 
mysteriously guarded and reserved for another — a prepared people. 

The Upheaval in Europe. 

Under the great Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe a 
new social order, invested with new ideas and an improved civiliza- 
tion, was developed, and soon thrust forth into the central portion 
of the American Continent — a fitting theater for the sublime 
achievements of the advancing age. Speaking of the Spaniards, 
Bryant says : * " Fortunately for the progress of the human race 
and the future history of North America, all their efforts to gain a 
permanent foothold north of the Gulf of Mexico were in the main 
unsuccessful." 

English enterprise followed, but with hesitating steps. English 
voyagers sailed along the main coast of North America as early as 
1497, but no conquests or settlements were attempted. Distracted 
by civil disturbances, agitated by the Reformation and crippled by 
the poverty of her people. England was prevented from taking ad- 
vantage of her first discoveries. 

One hundred and ten years passed from the time that Cabot, 
under the authority of Great Britain, sailed along the coast of Nortli 
America until the first permanent English settlement. It was the 
most important century in modern history, noted for that mighty 
upheaval styled " The Reformation," which powerfully shook the 
continent of Europe and ushered in the brighter and wonderfully 
expanding phases of progress which have gladdened our day and 
prophesy of better days to come. Spain and Portugal, engrossed 
with avaricious schemes, only slightly affected by this great religious 
movement, remained in passive acquiescence to mediaeval ideas and 
absolutism, sacrificing intellectual and religious freedom upon the 
altar of lust and power. Not so with the more northerly nations. 
In Germany, Switzerland, France, England and Scotland, a great 



* History 0/ the United States, Vol. I, p. 



ENGLISH ENTERPRISES. 23 

emancipation was going on, destined to bring in its train the highl- 
and more enduring resources — intelligence, freedom of conscience, 
commercial enterprise, the triumphs of inventive genius, supremacy 
in the world of thought and social and religious elevation. In the 
Lutheran Reformation a new people was begotten, with new ideas, 
invested with loftier prerogatives and aims, and intended by Provi- 
dence to found in the New World a great Christian Republic, one 
of the mightiest agencies in human progress. 

English Voyagers. 

Secular motives were not wanting in the early English discover- 
ers in North America. England's conflicts with Spain had devel- 
oped her navy and marine. To equip and command a ship had 
attractions for ambitious courtiers, and the capture of a richly-laden 
Spanish vessel from the New World amply repaid the cost of an ex- 
pedition. To this was soon added the alluring hope of making 
profitable foreign settlements. The rich products of America glit- 
tered before the vision of ardent Englishmen, who, on easy terms 
of paying one fifth part of the precious metals to the queen, eagerly 
exchanged a patrimony for a fleet in the hope of golden acres across 
the Atlantic. In 1576-78 Captain Martin Frobisher made several 
unsuccessful voyages to the frozen shores of North America, hoping 
to bring home large stores of gold. Quaint stories * are told of the 
expectations, delusions, and sufferings of the voyagers; of "cruel 
stormes of snow and haile, great islands of yce, and mighty deere 
that seemed to be mankind," of finding " spiders which are signs of 
great store of gold," of streams beneath the frozen surface, " by 
which the earth within is kept warmer and springs have their re- 
course, which is the only nutriment of gold and minerals," and car- 
goes of worthless " black ore " carried to England. These " pain- 
full mariners and poore miners were faine to submit themselves 
and their ships to the mercy of the unmerciful yce," and endure 
" the brunt of so great and extreme dangers, praysing God, and 
altogether, upon their knees, giving Him due, humble, and heartie 
thanks." In those inhospitable solitudes the Lord's Supper was 
celebrated, " the first signe, seale and confirmation of Christ's name, 
death and passion ever knowen in those quarters." 

From 1 579-1 583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a courtier of Queen 
Elizabeth, " with nobler aims than finding ore of gold," made 
several attempts at discovery and colonization. u To prosecute 

*Hackluyt, Vol. Ill, pp. 63-68, 87, 88. 



26 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



effectually the full possession of those so ample and pleasant coun- 
treys for the crown and people of England," " the honor of God, 
the compassion of poore infidels captivated by the Devil," and "the 
reliefe of sundry people within this distressed realme," are the ele- 
vated motives under which Sir Humphrey went forth, authorized by 
letters patent, " to discover all such heathen lands as were not 
acutally possessed by any Christian prince or people." Sir Walter 
Raleigh followed, but both were unsuccessful, and as late as the 
year 1600 the American continent was wholly untenanted by the 
Anglo-Saxon race. At that time Roman Catholic countries had 
planted permanent colonies from Florida and New Mexico to Chili. 

A tabulated view of the discoveries and settlements in the New 
Hemisphere, from 1492 to 1733, will be helpful. 



•ERIOI) 



108 Years. 



Settlements from countries not affected by the Reformation, 
made either before or during its progress. 



DISCOVERIES. 



PERMANENT 

SETTLEMENTS. 



[492 San Salvador ] 

t> ,.„ t>- ' West India 

'493 Porto Rico \ ^^ 



[494 Jamaica. . . .• 

j ^ The main coast 
[407 - of North Amer- 

( ica 

[498 South America... 



j 500 'The Amazon 

1502 Pay of Honduras. 



[512 Florida 

517 Yucatan 

: 518 Southern Mexico. 



RELIGIOUS 
FAITH. 



Roman Catholic 



Isthmus of Darien 



1520 
1525 
T 537 
1545 
1565 
1600 



Roman Catholic 



Mexico Roman Catnolic 

Peru Roman Catholic 

Chili Roman Catholic 

Bolivia Roman Catholic 

Florida Roman Catholic 



PERIOD II.— 133 Years. 

Settlements from countries pervaded by 
the Reformation. 



[605 
[607 
1608 



PERMANENT 
SETTLEMENTS. 



RELIGIOUS 
FAITH. 



Nova Scotia . . j Protestant. 

Virginia Trotestant. 

Quebec ! Roman Catholic. 

1614 j New York Protestant. 

1620 'Massachusetts. . . . jProtestant. 

1623 New Hampshire . Protestant. 

1626 Maine . I Protestant. 

I 
1664 New Jersey jProtestant. 

1631 Delaware Protestant. 

1633 Connecticut Protestant. 

1634 Maryland Roman Catholic. 

1636 Rhode Island Protestant. 

1650 North Carolina... Protestant. 

1670 South Carolina... Protestant. 

Protestant. 
Roman Catholic. 
Protestant. 



:682 Pennsylvania. 

[700 Louisiana 

:733 Georgia 



Stirring Events in Europe. 

The Protestant colonies within the original limits of the United 
States were chiefly founded amid the stirring events of the first half of 
the seventeenth century. The long and prosperous reign of Queen 



EUROPEAN DISTURBANCES. 27 

Elizabeth closed four years before the settlement of Virginia ; and 
under her successor the crowns of England and Scotland were united, 
James VI. of Scotland becoming James I. of England. Under 
Elizabeth's reign the Puritan agitation became a distinctive move- 
ment, and it grew and expanded under James and Charles I. James- 
town was settled in 1607; Plymouth in 1620. Charles I. ascended 
the throne in 1625. Buckingham was assassinated in 1627. Laud, 
the champion of prelacy, was tightening his clutch upon the Puritan 
throat, a reaction from which, a few years later, took off his head. 
Cromwell was born April 25, 1599, and in 1628 entered Parlia- 
ment. In 1636 John Hampden uttered his bold protest against 
exorbitant impositions upon mariners. In 1642 the fomentations 
that drove many colonists to America culminated in a terrible civil 
outbreak at home. Under the administration of Richelieu, France 
was recovering from her disordered state and reviving her financial 
and political strength. The Thirty Years' War was raging in 
Europe, Protestantism and Catholicism being the sub-issues. Gus- 
tavus Adolphus's grand career dates in the same period, and the 
victory of Protestant Germany at Lutzen. The glory of Spain was 
declining, and the emancipated Netherlands were growing into 
the dignity of "the Dutch Republic." Italy was turbid. The 
Crescent was waning and its military power was eclipsed. Cortez, 
Pizarro and Almagro had passed away during the previous century. 



Section £.— Protestant Settlements. 

French Protestants were vainly trying to establish colonies in 
Brazil while the Puritans were struggling with Elizabeth. Then 
followed the planters to Virginia ; next came, in the same year, the 
Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock and a cargo of slaves to Jamestown, 
Virginia; and after them, in rapid succession, the Puritans to Salem, 
Boston and Dorchester. At the time Boston was settled " William 
Shakespeare and the author of Don Quixote had been dead seven 
years ; John Bunyan was an infant of two years ; Pascal was but 
seven; La Fontaine nine; Bossuet but three. Tillotson and Barrow 
were born that very year and Dryden a year later. Jeremy Taylor, 
Cudworth, La Rochefoucauld were in their teens; Cowley and Mo- 
liere had not reached theirs. Spinoza was born two years, Boileau 
six years and Racine nine years after. John Milton, Thomas Fuller, 
the church historian, Lord Clarendon, the author of the history of 
the English rebellion, were each twenty-two years of age ; and 



23 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Hobbes, Des Cartes, Grotius, Lord Herbert, Isaac Walton, Massinger, 
Selden, Archbishop Usher, Guido and Van Dyke, were all in the 
prime of life. Ben Jonson was still living, and so was Robert Bur- 
ton. Bacon had been dead but four years. The English Bible 
received official recognition only nineteen years before." * 

Such was the period, its actors and events, amid which the early 
Protestant settlements in the United States were effected. No 
previous century for long ages could parallel it. 

Three Parties in England. 

The earliest English settlers in America comprised three 
religious parties which had long been at sore variance with each 
other in the mother country, but all of whom agreed in their op- 
position to the Church of Rome. The prelatical party who founded 
Jamestown, Virginia, exalted the order and functions of the clergy, 
investing them with hierarchical prerogatives and retaining ancient 
forms and ceremonies, hoping thereby to conciliate the papists to 
the Protestant faith. The Puritans bore an implacable hatred to the 
Roman Catholic Church, and contended that the work of the Refor- 
mation was left half done so long as any of the forms of the Romish 
Church were retained in the Church of England. They rejected 
every ceremony and vestment not clearly enjoined in the Word of 
God. The surplice and square cap they regarded as the livery of 
superstition, and the decisions and prerogatives of the priesthood, 
the king and the parliament, in religious matters, as the setting up 
of human authority above the Divine Word. But both parties ad- 
hered to the Church of England, the latter in the hope of purifying 
it. Seeing its evils they nevertheless acknowledged the value of the 
Church and hoped to reform it. They, therefore, remained in it. 
The third party was the Separatists, or Independents, who denounced 
the Church of England as an idolatrous institution, false to the 
truth and to Christianity, and fit only to be destroyed. They, 
therefore, separated from it. 

Thus the struggle went on through Elizabeth's reign. The acces- 
sion of King James to the throne at first gave new hopes to the 
reformers; but they were not long cherished. He declared, " I will 
have no liberty as to ceremonies ; I will have one doctrine, one dis- 
cipline, one religion, in substance and ceremony." Nor would he 
allow contradiction. In 1604 three hundred Puritan and Separatist 
ministers were silenced, imprisoned, or exiled. But their principles 



* Rev. S. J. Barrows, D.D., at the Quarter Millennial of the first church in Dorchester, Mass. 



THE PLYMOUTH COLONY. 29 

kept spreading. After severe trials and delays a company of Sep- 
aratists, self-exiled, reached Holland, whence, after twelve years, see- 
ing no hope for them in England, they sailed in the Mayflower for 
America, and landed on Plymouth Rock, December 22, 1620. Still 
the contest went on in England, until companies of Puritans, in 
1 628- 1 630, etc., embarked for New England and founded the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony. 

The former came as Separatists, Independents, bringing the 
first Congregational Church to the New World. The latter still 
claimed to be Puritans, avowing that they were not Separatists,* 
but continued to adhere to the Church of England, though discard- 
ing many of her ceremonies and her prelatical assumptions. In a 
few years, however, they too became Separatists, or Independents. 

The Founders of New England. 

Within twenty years from the planting of the Plymouth Colony 
all the other chief colonies in New England were founded, their 
governments organized, and the Atlantic coast, from the Kennebec 
River almost to the Hudson, was marked by various settlements. 
Such were the founders of New England. They were iconoclasts, 
reformers, in Church and State, men of strong religious convictions. 
To them the Bible was every thing ; the source of religious principles, 
the basis of civil law, the supreme authority in matters of common 
life. Numbering many men of great learning who had been edu- 
cated at the English universities, they gave great prominence to clas- 
sical education, and established schools, seminaries and colleges. 
They were men of self-denying, abstemious and industrious habits. 
Far in advance of their times in respect to integrity of conscience, 
they were nevertheless very defective in their views of toleration ; 
but they were eminently religious, with high conceptions of the duty 
of living for God and advancing his kingdom in the world. " In 
coming to this new continent they were influenced by a double hope : 
the enlargement of Christ's kingdom by the conversion of heathen 
tribes, and the founding of an empire for their own children in 
which his religion should gloriously prevail." 

The fathers of New England were no mean men. John Cotton, 
John Wilson, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, Governor Win- 
throp, Dunster and Chauncy, associates or correspondents of Milton, 
Bunyan, Lightfoot, Selden, Baxter, etc., are names which can never 
be obscured in history. They have left a deep and lasting impress 
upon New England. 

* Cotton Mather, Book I, Chap. iii. 



30 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

The Founders of the Southern Colonies. 

Widely different in character were the early colonists of the Southern 
from those of the Northern States. It has been said, if New England 
may be regarded as colonized by the Anglo-Saxon race, with its sim- 
ple manners, more equal institutions, and love of liberty, the South 
was colonized by men very Norman in blood, aristocratic fn feeling 
and spirit, and with superior dignity of demeanor and elegance of 
manners. If New England was the favorite asylum of the Puritan 
"Roundhead," the South became, fn its turn* the retreat of the 
" Cavalier," upon the joint subversfon of the altar and the throne 
in his native land. And if the religion of the one was strict, 
serious, in the regard of its enemies unfriendly to innocent amuse- 
ments, and even morose, the other was the religion of the court 
and of fashionable life, and did not require so uncompromising 
a resistance to " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the 
pride of li'fe.'* 

The Virginia Colony was a Christian colony in intent and in fact. 
The charter required the maintenance of religious worship ; bor- 
oughs were erected into parishes, with glebes and other provisions 
for the clergy. The assembly and the governor were urged to civ- 
ilize the natives and bring them under the influence of the Gospel, 
and Indian children were educated. The Proprietaries of North 
and South Carolina were not wanting in high professions of zeal for 
the propagation of the Gospel, but it was left for later settlers to 
practically illustrate the purpose. Varied in origin, the number of 
those interested in promoting religious ends soon increased. " The 
good Oglethorpe, one of the finest specimens of a Christian gentle- 
man of the cavalier school," led over a mixed people to settle upon 
the banks of the Savannah — poor debtors from English prisons, 
with godly Moravians from Germany, and brave Highlanders from 
Scotland. 

The Settlers of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc. 

" The spirit of the age was present when the foundations of New 
York were laid. Every great European event affected the fortunes 
of America. Did a State prosper — it sought an increase of wealth 
by plantations in the West. Was a sect persecuted — it escaped to 
the New World. The Reformation, followed by collisions between 
English Dissenters and the Anglican Hierarchy, colonized New 
England. The Reformation, emancipating the United Provinces, 
led to European settlements on the Hudson. The Netherlands 



NEW NETHERLANDS. 31 

divide with England the glory of having planted the first colonies 
in the United States; they also divide the glory of having set the 
example of perfect freedom. If England gave our fathers the idea 
of popular representation, Holland originated for them the principle 
of federal union." * 

In the year 1609 the long conflict of Holland with Spain was 
suspended at the suggestion of Philip III., a confession on the part 
of Spain that she could no longer hope to successfully contest the 
supremacy of Holland, and a practical establishment of the inde- 
pendence of the United Netherlands. In the very same year that 
Holland took her position among the nations as a free, self-govern- 
ing republic, Henry Hudson appeared at Manhattan Island and 
took possession of the region from the capes of Delaware to Canada, 
which he styled New Netherlands. The first occupancy was trading 
stations by the merchants of Amsterdam, who quickly perceived its 
admirable adaptation as a center for trade and commerce. First, 
the New Netherlands Company, in 1614, then the West India Com- 
pany, in 162 1, held the situation, the latter purchasing the island of 
the Indians. The West India Company appointed its governors, 
and public affairs were conducted by Dutch men on Dutch prin r 
ciples. 

Though trade was the prime object with the first settlers at Man- 
hattan, colonization soon became the ruling motive. Bold and 
enterprising were the first colonists, and intent upon the acquisition 
of wealth, but, having been educated in the National Dutch Church, 
they were much attached to it, and adopted early measures to estab- 
lish religious worship in their new home. Although the Dutch came 
to Manhattan in troublous times, they were not fugitives from papal 
persecution, as were the Huguenots, nor from Protestant persecution, 
as were the Puritans. They belonged to the ruling party in the 
mother country, and brought with them the established Church 
order and the Calvinistic creed. These " contra-remonstrants " 
brought the Heidelberg Catechism stamped with the seal of orthodoxy 
by the Synod of Dort. A wise policy guided the West India Com- 
pany in supplying their trading-posts and colonies with the means 
of religion and education at a very early date. 

The earliest settlers in New Jersey were from New York. En- 
glish Puritans from the eastern end of Long Island, at an early 
period, settled at Elizabethtown ; and others from Connecticut soon 
followed. Later a considerable number of Scotch and Irish em- 

* Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. II, p. 256. 



82 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

igrants — all Protestants and most of them Presbyterians — settled in 
the central portions. English Quakers settled in West Jersey. 
Among them all the Puritan type decidedly predominated. 

Delaware was claimed by the Dutch, in right of discovery, who 
made an unsuccessful attempt to settle it ; but subsequently it fell 
into the hands of Gustavus Adolphus, the eminent Swedish prince 
and benefactor, and an eager promoter of colonization. Falling on 
the plains of Lutzen, his minister, Oxenstiern, carried out his plans, 
and Delaware was settled with Lutheran Swedes. Though the col- 
ony was subsequently subdued by the Dutch from New York the 
Swedes are supposed to have constituted a large part of the sub- 
stratum of the population. Quakers, New Englanders, Scotch and 
Irish Presbyterians were subsequently added. 

The Quakers. 

The Quaker origin of the population of Pennsylvania is one of 
the familiar facts of history. A few settlers occupied positions with- 
in its ample area prior to the settlement by William Penn, in 1682. 
Swedes, Dutch and New Englanders, who had previously established 
themselves within the limits of Penn's charter, were kindly tolerated, 
as were also the Moravians, Mennonites, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, 
Huguenots, etc., who came at a later date. A colony from Wales 
settled on " a sort of table-land " in the center of the Alleghany 
Mountains. 

Scotch Presbyterians. 

Not much behind the Puritans were the Scotch in their contribu- 
tions to the religious character of the United States. On the acces- 
sion of Charles II. to the throne of England, Presbyterianism was 
almost immediately abolished, and Episcopacy, in a very extreme 
form, was established in Scotland. An intense revulsion was awak- 
ened among the population. Many Scotch Presbyterians went over 
from Scotland to Ireland, and others emigrated to America. A long 
and steadily flowing stream of Scotch and Irish Presbyterian em- 
igration to America continued down to the time of the American 
Revolution. Some came to Londonderry, N. H., to Boston, Pelham 
and Palmer, in Massachusetts ; to Ulster County, Orange and Albany, 
New York ; to East New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, Maryland, South 
Carolina, etc. 

The Huguenots. 

Closely after the Puritans and the Scotch Presbyterians follow 
the Huguenots, in the list of those who contributed largely to the 



HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS. 33 

formation of the religious character of the United States. With 
the revocation of the Edict cf Nantes, in 1685, all public worship 
among Protestants was suppressed. Dark, lurid, bloody scenes of 
persecution and torture followed. Multitudes perished at the stake 
or on the gibbet and the wheel. It has been estimated that not 
less than half a million Protestants left France. In vain were the 
frontiers guarded. The fugitives sought refuge in all the Protestant 
countries of Europe, at the Cape of Good Hope and in America. 
Many of them, skilled in useful arts, introduced new manufactures 
in their new homes. In the American colonies they were welcomed 
every-where. New England cordially received them ; New York 
was not backward ; but " a warmer clime was more inviting to the 
exiles of Languedoc, and South Carolina became the chief resort of 
the Huguenots." But the Huguenot emigration to the English 
colonies of America had been going on from the time of the Siege 
of Rochelle, and even as early as 1656, and continued down through 
the whole colonial history. 

We find Huguenots in Boston in 1662. In 1686 they settled in 
Oxford, Mass., and also erected a church in Boston. From these 
excellent people were derived the Faneuils, the Bowdoins, the Le- 
gares, Dehons, etc. Smith, the historian of New York, says that in 
1 700, next to the Dutch, they were the most numerous and the 
wealthiest class of the population in that colony. New Rochelle, 
X. Y., was settled by them, and their descendants are numerous in 
Ulster and Dutchess counties. In 1679, Charles II., at his own 
expense, sent two ship-loads to South Carolina. In 1690, William 
III. sent a large colony to Virginia, and two more colonies came 
thither within ten years. In 1752, no fewer than 1,600 settled in 
South Carolina, and more than 200 others in 1764. In Virginia 
they were exempted, by a special edict, from parochial assessments 
as early as the year 1700. It is evident that the Huguenots con- 
stituted a very considerable element numerically, and a very potential 
and beneficent one in character, in our colonial population. Some 
of the most eminent persons, divines, educators, financiers and states- 
men, that ever adorned the United States were Huguenots. " The 
very best of the old ministers of Virginia were from this stock ; Mon- 
cure, Latane, the two Fontaines, the two Maurys, and others." * In 
later times "the pious McDuvall, of Richmond," and, among the 
patriots and statesmen, Chief Justice Jay, Elias Boudinot, the 
Bayards, Legare, the Lawrences, the Grympys, Marion, Rutledge, 
etc., were of Huguenot origin. 

* Old Cktirc/ies, Ministers and Families -of Virginia. By Bishop Meade, Vol. I, p. 465. 



34 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

The Palatines, Moravians, Lutherans, etc. 

Large numbers of Protestant Germans, conspicuously those suf- 
fering from the devastations of the French in the Upper Palatinate, 
a country lying on both sides of the Rhine, came to the United 
States in the colonial era. Successive waves of pillage, fire, and 
blood rolled over that unhappy land, causing a long stream of emi- 
gration. About 2,700 " Palatines/' refugees in England, were 
shipped to New York in 1710; and 5,000 more came soon after and 
settled on the Hudson and the Mohawk. Mennonites from Ger- 
many founded Germantown, Pa., about 1681-84, and in 1707 a 
large number settled in Lancaster County, Pa. In 1722 they were 
supposed to constitute the third part of the population of that re- 
gion. Some of these German emigrants were Presbyterians of the 
Reformed Church, others were Lutherans, and others still Mora- 
vians. The earlier German emigrations spread into Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Maine. Previous to the time of the 
American Revolution the German emigration was not only exten- 
sive but very pure, and almost wholly Protestant, with a high 
standard of morality and distinguished for Christian virtues. 

A few Protestant Poles settled in New Jersey about 1683, and a 
few Piedmontese, fleeing from persecution, found an asylum in the 
colony of New York. 

How different in respect to religious character and intelligence 
were these early settlers in the United States from the colonists of 
Phenicia, Greece and Rome, or, in later times, the papists from 
France, Spain, and Portugal. They were not the rich, the voluptu- 
ous and the effeminate, nor were they poor and spiritless; but from 
the middle class, noted for industry, temperance, and frugality. 
Taken as a whole, they were not ignorant, but well informed for 
their times. Many had acquired a good education, almost all could 
read, and were too much developed in thought to be slaves of 
despotic power. They were not vicious men of unbridled appetites 
and lusts, like the colonists of South America and Mexico, but 
virtuous. Some emigrants in the colonial era there were whose 
profligacy could no longer be endured at home ; and some broken- 
down gentlemen, too lazy to work, and some infamous dependents 
upon aristocratic families, sent away to screen their friends from 
shame. These were, however, not the earliest colonists who laid 
the new social foundations in the United States. The former were 
religious men, in whom religious motives predominated. Their 
minds had been agitated by the religious questions which had hith- 



CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. 35 

ertc chiefly occupied the attention of the schoolmen, but were now 
brought prominently before the minds of the people. Not a few 
fled from persecution for conscience' sake. Secular considerations 
were not wanting, for they hoped to improve their temporal cir- 
cumstances and found States. If some of the prejudices and errors 
of former ages adhered to them in respect to rights of conscience, 
etc., they were, nevertheless, even in these respects in advance of the 
rest of the world, and opened here the best asylum for liberty the 
world had ever known. To extend the kingdom of God was the 
prominent object of their labors. With the exception of the colony 
of Lord Baltimore, they were Protestants ; men " of stern and lofty 
virtue, invincible energy, and iron wills— the fitting substratum on 
which to build great States." 



Section 3— Churches Organized. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church was the first planted within the 
limits of the original United States. Introduced by the Virginia 
Colony in 1607, only thirteen years later within that jurisdiction 
there were eleven parishes and five clergymen. Being the only 
religious body legally recognized within the vast territory granted 
to that colony, at a very early period, it acquired an extensive in- 
fluence. It also soon entered Maryland, where, notwithstanding the 
Roman Catholic religion was the faith of the founders of the colony, 
yet, by the terms of the charter, toleration was allowed to all churches 
recognized by the crown at home.* In the latter State it soon out- 
stripped the Papal Church, its adherents becoming a majority of the 
population before the close of the century, and the Church itself the 
established Church, in 1692. In Virginia, however, although it was 
the favored Church, sustained by the whole strength of the civil 
power to the exclusion of all others, yet its prosperity was not com- 
mensurate with its external advantages. 

The Episcopal Church was not introduced into New York until 
after that colony surrendered to the British forces in 1664. It made 
no progress toward ecclesiastical distinction until after 1693, when, 
under the governorship of Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, who was 
devotedly attached to that communion, a foundation for the estab- 
lishment of the Church „was laid and the people were taxed for its 
support. 

■* Maryland enjoyed religious toleration until 1692, when the Episcopal Church was legally 
established and the privileges of the Roman Catholics were curtailed, 



36 CHRISTIAXITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

The first attempt to establish the Episcopal Church in New En- 
gland was at the settlement of Portsmouth, in 1638, when John 
Mason, one of the first grantees of New Hampshire, sent from across 
the ocean a communion service. Bible, prayer-book and altar-cloth. 
William A. Gibbons, the assistant governor, and other persons pre- 
sented a glebe of fifty acres of land. Rev. R. Gibson was rector 
until 1642, when the Puritan government at Boston compelled him 
to leave, and along interregnum followed, until ij$2, when a church 
was permanently founded. 

In Massachusetts no Episcopal Church service was held until 
the arrival of Andros in Boston in 16S6, when he compelled the 
opening of the Old South Church for a Church of England service. 
11 King's Chapel '" was erected in 16S8. Dr. Bradford, in his biogra- 
phy of Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, says that the governors of Massachu- 
setts, being appointed by the king, were Episcopalians sent over 
from England. Thus, for nearly a hundred years before the Revo- 
lution, the few Episcopal clergy enjoyed official patronage and favor 
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut dates from 1722, when several 
Congregational ministers, led by Rev. Timothy Cutler. D.D.. with- 
drew from the colonial church and sought Episcopal ordination. 

At the time of the Revolution the Episcopal Church had been 
established in most of the colonies. Some adverse circumstances 
operated against it. The American churches, forming a part of the 
diocese of London, were far removed from Episcopal supervision, 
and could obtain fresh supplies of clergy only from England. A 
very hostile feeling long before the Revolution existed in the north- 
ern colonies toward Great Britain, biasing the people against clergy- 
men coming from England. For these reasons, notwithstanding 
this Church had able ministers, yet her energies were only partially 
developed, and in the whole country north of Maryland at the com- 
mencement of the Revolution the parochial clergymen did not ex- 
ceed eighty, all of whom, with the exception of those in Boston, 
Newport. New York City and Philadelphia, received their principal 
support from the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts, and thirty of whom were in New England. In Virginia there 
were 164 churches and chapels and 91 clergymen supported by a 
I establishment. 

American Congregationalism dates from the landing of the Pil- 
grims in 1620. In its doctrines being very similar to the Presby- 
terians of the Middle States, it did not extend much beyond New- 
England until after the beginning of the present century. As early 
as 1700 its churches in New England numbered one hundred and 



CONGREGATION ALISTS AND BAPTISTS. 37 

twenty, of which seventy-seven were in Massachusetts, thirty-five in 
Connecticut, six in New Hampshire, and two in Maine. At that 
time only five churches of all other denominations existed in Mas- 
sachusetts ; namely, two Baptist, one Episcopal, one Quaker, and 
one French Protestant ; but at the time of the Revolution there 
were three hundred Congregational churches in Massachusetts to 
seventy-eight of all others. In the other New England States this 
denomination held nearly the same relative rank, though in Con- 
necticut it was probably even stronger. Two memorable synods 
were held during the colonial era— at Cambridge in 1648, and at 
Saybrook, Conn., in 1708. 

It should not be overlooked that New Jersey had a considerable 
number of Congregational churches between 1640 and 1740, and a 
few even later. Being settled largely by emigrants- from New 
England they naturally brought their ecclesiastical polity with them. 
In Morris County there was a cluster of those churches whose form 
of government was pure Congregationalism and which were served 
by Congregational ministers. The first church in Newark was or- 
ganized on a Congregational platform at Branford, Conn., and emi- 
grated to Newark in 1666. A competent authority affirms that the 
first churches (now Presbyterian) at Orange, Bloomfield, Caldwell, 
Shrewsbury, Piscataway, Connecticut Farms, Woodbridge, and a 
number of others were originally as thoroughly Congregational as 
the churches of Massachusetts or Connecticut. The same is true of 
the oldest churches of South Jersey, in Sussex and Warren counties, 
settled by sons of New England. But Presbyterianism and Congre- 
gationalism in that day were so intertwined that the denominational 
names were often interchanged, until it was not easy to draw the 
line of separation. During the first half of the present century only 
a half dozen Congregational Churches were left in the State. 

The Regular Baptists had a purely American origin in Rhode 
Island in 1639. Baptist churches and ideas had previously existed, 
but the organization of the Church in America was entirely the re- 
sult of local circumstances, and not from a foreign impulse. In 1663, 
twenty-four years after the beginning in Rhode Island, amid much 
opposition the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts was constituted 
in the town of Seekonk, or Swansea, and two years later another in 
Boston. Baptist preaching and ordinances are reported in the New 
York Colony in 1656. Excluded by civil edicts, they do not appear 
again until after 1700. First Church, 1714-24. The first Church in 
Maine, formed at Kittery in 1682, was broken up. In 1768 perma- 
nent churches were organized in Berwick and Gorham. The first 



38 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

in South Carolina was organized in 1683, but in 175 1 there were 
only four small Baptist churches in that State. The first in Penn- 
sylvania dates back to 1684; in New Jersey, 1688; in Delaware, 
1701 ; in Connecticut, at Groton, 1705 ; in Virginia, 1 7 1 4 ; in North 
Carolina, 1727; in New Hampshire, 1755; in Georgia, 1772; in 
Vermont, 1768; in Kentucky, 1781 ; in Tennessee, 1786; in Illinois, 
1796. It should be added that many important accessions of Bap- 
tists were received from England, Wales, the Isle of Wight, etc. 

For nearly a century the Baptists were a persecuted people in 
many of the colonies, and in 1762 they numbered only about 109 
churches in this country. In 1775 they had increased to 252 and 
were situated as follows: in Maine, 3 ; New Hampshire, 7 ; Massa- 
chusetts, 41; Connecticut, 19; Rhode Island, 18; New York, 7 ; 
New Jersey, 22; Pennsylvania, 19; Delaware, 1 ; Maryland, 4; 
Virginia, 67 ; North Carolina, 28; South Carolina, 12; Georgia, 3.* 

The Six Principle Baptists are accustomed to date their origin 
back to 1639, in Rhode Island. 

The Seventh-Day Baptist Church in the United States was first 
formed in Rhode Island. In 1664 Mr. Stephen Mumford, a mem- 
ber of this denomination, came from England to Newport, R. I., and 
soon alter Mr. Samuel Hubbard, a member of the regular Baptist 
Church, embraced these views. In 1671 there was an open separa- 
tion, and a Seventh-Day Baptist Church was organized in that city. 

The movement which resulted in organizing the "United Breth- 
ren in Christ" in 1800, had its origin in a spiritual quickening in the 
mind of Rev. William Otterbein, a devoted minister of the German 
Reformed Church in 1755. This occurred after he landed in Amer- 
ica. Two other German ministers soon entered into hearty sympa- 
thy with him. At one time they were called German Methodists, 
and were in close fellowship with Rev. Messrs. Asbury and Wright, 
early Methodist itinerants. 

The Reformed (Protestant Dutch) Church was planted on Man- 
hattan Island in 1628, though some religious services had been pre- 
viously held. Rev. Jonas Michaelius was the first pastor. Rev. 
Everardus Bogardus, a prominent early divine, came in 1633, This 
denomination held exclusive sway until the English took possession 
of the colony in 1664. During the next thirty years the English 
population increased. After the Episcopal Church was established, 
in 1693, all non-episcopal inhabitants in the counties of New York, 



les on the " Baptist Interest in the United States,'" by Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D. 
in the American Quarterly Register, 1840, 1841, 1842, and 1844. 



DUTCH CHURCH, FRIEXDS, PRESBYTERIANS. 39 

Richmond, Queens and Westchester were compelled by law to sup- 
port the Episcopal Church. The growth of the Dutch Church was 
therefore much retarded ; but immigration favored the Church, and 
from 1664 to 1737 about fifty churches were added to the denom- 
ination. This Church being dependent on the Church of Holland 
for ministers, and in all ecclesiastical matters subject to the Classis 
of Amsterdam, existed at a great disadvantage, agitated by many 
internal troubles, until, through the influence of Rev. Dr. John H. 
Livingston, an independent organization was effected in 1771 . In 
1775 it numbered in New York and New Jersey 25 churches and 
60 ministers. 

The Friends first appeared in New England about the middle of 
the seventeenth century, where they suffered severe persecution 
in all the colonies except Rhode Island. As early as 1672 George 
Fox found an established settlement of Friends, in Perquimans Coun- 
ty, North Carolina. In 1674 another colony was founded in New 
Jersey, and in 1682 the famous William Penn Colony settled in Penn- 
sylvania. They rapidly increased, and at the time of the Revolution 
exerted a large influence in some of the Middle States. Yearly 
meetings, which are in a limited sense diocesan, having each a de- 
fined territorial jurisdiction and independent of each other in govern- 
ing and legislative powers, were established in New England in 1661, 
in Philadelphia in 1683, in New York in 1695, in North Carolina in 
1708. 

The Presbyterians were of Scotch and Irish origin, the first com- 
ing to this country to escape persecution. The Huguenot exiles 
from France were of the same religious faith. The earliest Presby- 
terians settled in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Eastern Maryland and 
Central Virginia. In 1688 they existed in considerable numbers in 
Pennsylvania. The first Presbyterian churches * in America of 
which we have record were founded on the eastern shore of Mary- 
land, at Snow Hill, Rehoboth, Monokin, etc., about 1684; at Free- 
hold, N. J., in 1692 ; at Philadelphia, in 1698 ; in New York City in 
1 7 16, after ten years of occasional services. Rev. Francis Makemie 
was the first pioneer of this denomination in the 2s ew World. The 
first Presbytery was constituted in 1 706, consisting of seven minis- 
ters, and was called the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Ten years later 
it became a Synod. The first Presbyterian church in New York was 
erected in 17 19. Others followed in the New York Colony and in 



* History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 
Also Sprague 's Anna/s, volume on Presbyterian Church. Introduction. 



40 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

New Jersey, and the Synod was called the Synod of New York and 
Philadelphia. From 171 3-17 19 large emigrations from the North of 
Ireland and Scotland came to New England and the Middle States. 
Irish Presbyterians settled in Boston, Worcester, Pelham and New- 
buryport, in Massachusetts ; at Casco Bay, Macosquin, Boothbay, 
etc., in Maine ; and in Pembroke, Peterborough and Londonderry, 
N. H. The first Presbytery in New England was constituted at 
Londonderry, N. H., April 16, 1745. 

A new phase of Presbyterianism developed. The old Scotch 
and Irish Presbyterians mingled largely with Presbyterians from 
England, Wales and New England. The latter had more liberal 
views in regard to some practical matters than the old stanch men 
of Scotland and Ireland. The opinions began to differ until, in 1741, 
there was a complete division into the two synods of New York and 
Philadelphia. The old side, representing the Scotch and Irish Pres- 
byterians, made a great deal of what they called " literature; " the 
new side, representing the revival element, made a great deal of per- 
sonal piety. Out of this division, under the new side, came the 
College of New Jersey, first at Elizabeth, then at Newark, and finally 
at Princeton. In 1758 these two bodies came together again. In 
1773 the Presbyterian Church in the United States numbered 2 
Synods, 10 Presbyteries and 104 ministers. 

The Reformed Presbyterian Church is composed of descendants 
of the persecuted Presbyterians in Scotland, who refused to accede 
to the Erastian " Settlement of Religion " at the Revolution of 1688, 
and who in that country still maintain dissent from the union of 
Church and State. As early as 1752 some Reformed Presbyterian 
congregations had been formed in North America, but owing to 
various difficulties they did not unite in a regular organization until 
the year 1798, when ''The Reformed Presbytery of the United 
States of North America " was constituted in Philadelphia. 

The Associate Reformed Church in this country originated in a 
union formed June 13, 1782, between the Reformed Presbyterian 
and a portion of the Associate Church. The Associate body in 
Scotland commenced its existence in 1747, on the basis of opposition 
to the Burgess oath, by means of which the seceders were divided 
into the Burgher and Anti-Burgher Synods, the latter assuming 
the name of " Associate." Companies sympathizing with both of 
these parties emigrated and settled in Pennsylvania, and petitioned 
the mother churches for pastors, which resulted in the organiza- 
tion of the Associate Presbyterian Church in the United States in 
1754 and the Reformed (Covenanter) in 1765. 



THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. 41 

In 1734 a colony of Schwenkfelders emigrated from Silesia to 
the United States and settled in Pennsylvania, where their descend- 
ants have chiefly resided in the counties of Montgomery, Bucks, 
Berks and Lehigh. 

The first German Reformed pioneer in the United States was 
Peter Minuit, a deacon of the Reformed Church in the city of 
Wesel, who led a colony of Germans to the banks of the Delaware". 
Of Minuit and his colony no permanent record exists. Revs. John 
Philip Boem and George Michael Weiss were the earliest German 
Reformed ministers in this country, and laid the foundations of that 
Church in Pennsylvania. Mr. Boem commenced preaching at Falk- 
ner Swamp. Skippack and Whitemarsh, as early as 1720, and within 
ten years of that date nearly a dozen churches were founded, though 
1727 has been generally, but, as now thought, erroneously, re- 
garded as the earliest date. These people, re-enforced by emigrants, 
spread into New Jersey, New York, Virginia, North and South Car- 
olina. In 1746 Rev. Michael Schlatter arrived from Germany, author- 
ized to collect and organize the scattered and confused congregations, 
The preliminary steps for the formation of a Coetus, or Synod, were 
taken in 1746, and the first annual meeting was held in Philadelphia, 
September 29, 1747. Thirty-one persons were present, 5 ministers 
and 26 elders. The meetings were regularly held each year, except 
during the Revolutionary War, and the proceedings were reported 
to the Synods of Holland, no action being final without their 
approval. 

In the colony of New York there were many early German 
Reformed churches. The church on Nassau Street, New York City, 
numbered among its pastors such men as John Michael Kern, Dr. 
J. Daniel Gross and Dr. Philip Milledoler, who were famous in their 
day. There were churches at Claverack, Montgomery, Schoharie, 
and in the Mohawk Valley, some of which passed over to the Dutch 
Reformed Church. 

The Lutlieran Church, though early represented in America, was 
slow in gaining an organized existence. Lutherans appeared on 
Manhattan Island as early as 162 1, but they came without a shep- 
herd. The Swedish Lutheran settlers, who came to the banks of the 
Delaware in 1638, brought with them a minister, but no Church 
organization long existed. Other Lutherans came to New York in 
1644, but were dependent on lay instruction. In 1653 they had so 
increased as to seek the services of a preacher, but vainly presented 
their petition to the Dutch Directory. In 1664 the English author- 
ities granted the Lutherans religious liberty, and in 1669, Rev. Jacob 



42 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UXITED STATES. 

Fabricius, their first pastor, reached this country. Two years later 
the first house of worship was erected. The Lutherans received 
large accessions in 1710 to 17 17. when 4.000 Germans, victims of 
oppression, took refuge in Xew York, Pennsylvania and South Car- 
olina. In 1734 a colony of German Lutherans, accompanied with 
pastors, settled in Georgia. As early as 1739 Waldoborough, Maine, 
was settled by Lutherans. The towns of Frankfort and Kennebec, 
in Maine, and Leyden, in Massachusetts, were also settled by Ger- 
man Lutherans. With the year 1742 opens a new epoch in the his- 
torv of the Lutheran Church in America, when it assumed an organic 
form under the leadership of that eminent man Rev. H. M. Muhlen- 
berg. D.D. In 1748 a Synod was formed, and in 1765 a private the- 
ological seminary was started. 

The German Seventh-Day Baptist Church was introduced into 
this country by a company of German emigrants, who settled in 
Germantown, Pa., in 1723. 

The " Drinkers" " German Baptists" or " Brethren" as they have 
been variously called, came in considerable numbers from 1719 to 
l 73°i an d settled in Pennsylvania. 

The Mennonites first came from . German}- to Pennsylvania in 
1683. Others followed in 1698, settling near Germantown, where 
they erected their first school and meeting-house m 1708. Others 
followed in 171 1, 171 7 and 1727. In 1735 they numbered five hun- 
dred families in the county of Lancaster alone. 

The first colony of Moravians came in 1734. Count Zinzendorf 
visited the United States in 1741, and churches had been consti- 
tuted in Bethlehem, Emmaus, Philadelphia and Lancaster, in Penn- 
sylvania, and in Xew York City, before 1750. 

Methodism commenced its career in this country twenty-seven 
years after its origin in England. Followers of Rev. John Wesley 
had settled in different localities, not as colonies, or by any concerted 
action, but as individuals and families. Their first religious services, 
held in New York City in 1766, were the result of spontaneous relig- 
ious convictions ; but the first societies were organized under the 
ecclesiastical supervision of Mr. Wesley, who sent some of his 
preachers as missionaries to America. The first church edifice was 
erected in 1768. Francis Asbury came to America in 1 771. The 
first Conference was held in Philadelphia, in 1773. consisting often 
preachers, whose fields of labor, as indicated in the Minutes of that 
year, were in the States of Xew York, Xew Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland and Virginia; 1,160 communicants were 
reported. In 1776 their number had increased to 24 preachers 



FIRST SYXAGOGUE ERECTED. 43 

and 4,921 communicants, and they had extended their labors as far 
south as North Carolina. Paul and Barbara Heck, Philip Embury, 
Capt. Webb, a local preacher, who preached the first sermon, and 
Robert Strawbridge, * were the earliest Methodist names in America, 
if we except the transient visits of John and Charles Wesley thirty 
years before, and of George Whitefield, who, at the time of his first 
tour through the colonies, had not broken away from Rev. John 
Wesley. 

The Jezcs first came to America for the same reason that the 
Puritans, Huguenots and others did — to escape persecution. Man- 
hattan Island was their first refuge, whither Jews of Spanish and 
Portuguese descent fled to escape the Inquisition. The name of 
Assur Levy, a Jew, appears on the New York City Records for 1660. 
Peter Stuyvesant opposed giving them protection, and it was not till 
the end of the century that they obtained freedom of worship. In 
1728 their first synagogue was erected, and the following year their 
first cemetery was dedicated. Noe Willey, of London, gave the 
land to his three sons, who were New York merchants, as a lasting 
heritage for the Hebrews. Subsequently the terms of the gift were 
violated by the Tradesman's Bank, and later still by the New Bowery. 
A Jewish synagogue was built at Newport, R. I., in 1658 ; at Savan- 
nah, Ga., in 1733; in Charleston, S. C, in 1750; in Richmond, Va., 
in 1719. 

* Strawbridge is now claimed by some as being the first to actively and formally promote Meth- 
odism in America. See History 0/ Methodism, by Bishop H. N. McTyeire, D.D., p. 253. 



A4 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER III. 



LATER ROMAN CATHOLIC BEGINNINGS 



Sec. I. The French in the North. ISec. 3. The French in the Mississippi Valley. 

" 2. The English in Maryland. I " 4- Resume of Papal Movements. 



Section 1— The French in the Horth. 

AS in the South, so also in the North, papal missions closely 
follow in the wake of discovery; in the former section the 
Spaniards leading the way ; in the latter, the French. 

In a short period, the Spaniards subjected the continent south of 
31 degrees north latitude to their dominion. France promptly en- 
tered the lists, competing for the possession of the New Hemisphere, 
But within seven years of the discovery of the continent the bold 
mariners of Normandy became familiar with the fisheries of New- 
foundland, and as early as 1506, a map of the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, drawn by a citizen of Honfleur, was exhibited in Paris. Two 
years later North American Indians were presented at the French 
Court. 

During the next 130 years French-American exploration clus- 
tered around three distinguished names — Verrazano, Cartier, and 
Champlain — the second following ten years after the first, and the 
last seventy years after the first voyage of the second. Verrazano 
sailed for America in 1524. Touching the coast of North Carolina, 
he proceeded northward, entered New York harbor, tarried fifteen 
days off Rhode Island, inspected the broken line of New England, 
reached Newfoundland, and returned to France with a detailed ac- 
count of his discoveries. 

Cartier next bore the flag of France into the Western Hemi- 
sphere. Reaching Newfoundland, he entered the great gulf and 
river beyond, to both of which he gave the name St. Lawrence, 
sailed up the river as far as Montreal and returned to France. Two 
other expeditions under Cartier, with colonists, reached the territory 
of the St. Lawrence, but made no permanent settlement. 

During the next fifty years, rent by civil strife at home, France 



CHAMPLAIN. 45 

made no attempt to gain new possessions in America. Under the 
mild and tolerant reign of Henry IV. the star of France once more 
emerged from the clouds that had enshrouded its glory. After 
several futile attempts, the period of permanent success dawned, 
and French dominion in America was extended from the Frozen 
Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Champlain. 

Champlain, a naval officer of high repute for science, keen intel- 
lect, cautious inquiry, and versatility, had also become noted for 
enterprise and courage. Delighting in bold adventure, he had 
already, in the service of Spain, visited Porto Rico, St. Domingo, 
Cuba, and the City of Mexico ; and his fertile, penetrating mind had 
suggested the project of uniting the two great oceans, by a canal 
at Darien. Him the merchants of Rouen selected to secure a 
monopoly of the fur trade in the vast regions which Cartier had 
explored. But Champlain could not be restricted to so narrow a 
sphere. Faithfully executing the designs of his patrons, he aspired 
not merely to the profits of trade, but also to the higher glory of 
founding a State. Sailing from France in 1604, after leaving colo- 
nists in Nova Scotia, he visited various points along the New 
England coast and the River St. Lawrence. In 1608, he founded 
Quebec. For about a quarter of a century, he presided over the 
province, extending his exploration up the Saguenay and the 
Ottaway, into northern New York, and as far as Lake Nippissing 
and the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, and entered into friendly 
negotiations with all the Indian tribes except the implacable Iro- 
quois. His wise policy and energetic administration firmly estab- 
lished French dominion in all those vast regions. 

The standard of the papacy was every-where united with that 
of France ; Verrazano, Cartier, and Champlain all being devoted 
sons of Rome. When Champlain embarked with colonists the 
benediction of the Roman pontiff followed the families which 
exiled themselves to evangelize the Indians. Roman Catholic 
missionaries accompanied the expedition, Mary de Medici contribut- 
ing money for their support ; and the Indian tribes, soon " touched 
with the humanity of the French, listened attentively to the mes- 
sage of redemption." A little earlier than this, De Monts, the 
Huguenot founder of Nova Scotia, to obtain the free exercise of 
his own religion consented to allow the Indians of that province 
to be instructed in the Catholic faith. This was the first foothold 
of the papacy in the north. Two Jesuit missionaries labored among 
4 



46 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the Micmacs in Nova Scotia, but soon removed to the coast of 
Maine," where, seven years before the Pilgrim fathers anchored with- 
in Cape Cod, they planted a French Catholic mission on M't. Desert. 
The latter was soon destroyed by fishermen from the Virginia Colony 
on their way to Newfoundland. 

Quebec Founded. 

Quebec furnished a more secure as well as a more strategic cen- 
ter for French and papal aggression, and religious zeal, not less than 
commercial ambition, inspired its settlement. The commercial 
monopoly of a privileged class alone could not foster a colony ; 
the climate " where summer hurries through the sky "■ did not invite 
to agriculture; no persecution of the Catholics in France swelled the 
stream of emigration, and at first " there was little except religious 
enthusiasm to give vitality to the province." 

First, three Recollets, a reformed branch of the Franciscans, re- 
sponded in 1615, one establishing a mission at Quebec, another at 
Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, among the Montagnais, 
and the other among the Hurons and other tribes of the great 
north-western lakes. In 1625, three Jesuit priests arrived to aid 
them. On the capture of Quebec by the English, in 1629, all the 
missionaries were carried to England. The province was restored 
to France in 1632, when the missions fell exclusively into the hands 
of the Jesuits, who soon returned to wrestle with paganism in the 
northern and western wiLds. They traversed not only the Canadian 
solitudes, but also entered within the present domain of the United 
States, in Maine, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Missis- 
sippi Valley. But Quebec was the center whence they issued forth 
on their widely-extended missions. We shall soon see them dis- 
covering the Mississippi River, founding missions at Mackinaw, on 
the Green Bay, in Illinois, in Arkansas, and Louisiana, all except the 
last three subject to the Superior at Quebec * 

" Thus," says Bancroft,")-" it was neither commercial enterprise 
nor royal ambition which carried the power of France into the 
heart of our continent ; the motive was religion. Religious enthu- 
siasm colonized New England, and religious enthusiasm founded 
Montreal, made a conquest of the wilderness on the upper lakes, and 
explored the Mississippi. . . . Within three years after the second 

* Quebec was the central point of the papal faith — the strategic center of Roman Catholic 
propagandism, above the tropics, as Mexico, for more than 100 years, had already been, within 
the tropics. t Centennial Edition, Vol. II, pp. 299, 300. 



THE JESUITS. 47 

occupation of Canada, the number of Jesuit priests in the province 
reached fifteen." They rapidly increased, and " the history of their 
labors is connected with the name of every celebrated town in the 
annals of French North America; not a cape was turned nor a 
river entered but a Jesuit led the way." 

The Jesuits. 

At an early morning hour, near the end of May, 1633, the boom- 
ing of cannon from the fort on the hill at Quebec heralded the ar- 
rival of the old Governor, Samuel de Champlain, who had returned 
to resume the command of the province. He was accompanied by 
four Jesuit fathers. Conspicuous among them was Jean de Brebeuf, 
" a tall, stern man, with features which seemed carved by nature 
for a soldier, but which the mental habits of years had stamped 
with the visible impress of the priesthood." A descendant from 
a noble family of Normandy, he had become more eminent for self- 
mortification, austerities, and devotedness. He had been abundant 
in labors, in vows, in visions, and ecstasies ; and, as the highest of 
all human attainments, he eagerly coveted the crown of martyrdom. 
Edward Masse, Anthony Daniel, and DaVost were his companions. 

" These men," says Parkman, " aimed at the conversion of a 
continent. From their hovel on the St. Charles they surveyed a 
field of labor whose vastness might tire the wings of thought itself 
— a scene resplendent and appalling, darkened with omens of peril 
and woe. They were an advance guard of the great army of Loy- 
ola, strong in the discipline that controlled not alone the body and 
the will, but the intellect, the heart, the soul, and the innermost 
consciousness." 

On Christmas day, 1635, the spirit of Champlain, the founder of 
New France, passed away. Who will be his successor ? Will he 
be zealous for the faith ? These anxious inquiries of the Jesuits 
were soon satisfactorily answered. The following June, Charles de 
Mortmagny, a knight of Malta, arrived. Climbing to the heights of 
Quebec, he prostrated himself before the uplifted crucifix and 
zealously espoused the cause of the missions. Slowly the popula- 
tion of Quebec increased. A school for Indian children, a convent, 
and a hospital were founded. The fort was rebuilt with stone ; be- 
hind the fort a church was erected and streets were laid out. In 
1640, the inhabitants did not exceed two hundred, chiefly agents of 
the fur company and men in their employ, few of whom had fam- 
ilies. The remainder were priests and nuns. There were few 



48 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

motives to emigration. Hunting was freely allowed, but trade and 
fishing were restricted, and the rude soil yielded meager crops. 
The climate was rigorous, and the civil affairs arbitrary. All were 
kept in passive subjection to the priest and the soldier, and liable, 
for the neglect of any religious service, to be tied like a dog, with 
collar and chain, to a post. Quebec life was mediaeval. Monastic 
and military appendages were every-where visible. Processions, 
penances, masses, and confessions were punctiliously observed. 
All were under the watchful eye of the Jesuit, not even the Gov- 
ernor excepted. A system of espionage was established — a female 
association, called Saint e Famille, met every Thursday in the church, 
with closed doors, and related, as they had previously pledged them- 
selves to do, all they had learned, good and evil, concerning other 
people during the week. It was not strange that some people became 
restive, and that deputies were sent to France begging relief " from 
the hell in which the consciences of the colony were kept." But 
little relief, however, came. 

" To the Jesuits," says Parkman, " the atmosphere of Quebec 
was well-nigh celestial. ' In the climate of New France,' they 
wrote, ' one learns perfectly to seek only God, to have no desire but 
God, no purpose but for God.' And again, ' To live in New France 
is to live in the bosom of God.' " 

In the still depths of convent cells, and in the self-sacrificing scenes 
of distant missions, there were doubtless deep fervors, enkindling 
quenchless longings in devout hearts unperverted by the prestige 
of royalty, the wiles of intrigue or the patronage of power. It 
would be difficult to do justice to some great examples of self-for- 
getfulness and devotion in this truly heroic period of Jesuit mis- 
sions. But others possessed a different spirit. Blinded by love of 
power, they aspired for extended dominion. Regarding the Church 
as supreme over the State, the political Jesuit schemed to make 
them play into each other's hands. 

I would not asperse this distinguished order nor its Canadian 
missionaries, however credulous, supersitious, or shorn of some of 
the best attributes of real manhood under the self-mortifying proc- 
esses of their peculiar discipline. The patient, toiling, suffering, 
dying sons of Loyola, scattered through those rigorous, barbarous, 
and far-reaching wilds, were not open to the suspicion of personal 
ambition. And yet, in this early period of the comparative purity 
of the order, their religious propagandism seems to have been di- 
rected by worldly policy, which had reference largely to the ends of 
commerce and national expansion. They sought to establish 



MONTREAL FOUNDED. 49 

French dominion in the hearts of savages by subduing their stub- 
born necks to " the yoke of the Faith." The power of the temporal 
ruler was to follow the power of the priest. Thus it was hoped, 
with the divided and scattered Indian bands, to build up " a vast 
united wilderness empire which in time might span the Continent." 

Montreal Founded. 

The founding of Montreal, in 1642, and its early history were not 
less religious. For several years it was almost wholly a religious 
community. Its founders bound themselves to seek no earthly re- 
ward, but hastened to this perilous outpost, then exposed to the 
inroads of the ferocious Iroquois. It was an excellent position for 
a mission ; for here met two great rivers. The St. Lawrence flow- 
ing from the west, the outlet of the great inland lakes, with their 
countless tributaries covering the heart of the continent, and the 
Ottawa, draining a vast northerly region, jointly embraced, in 
their uniting waters, the island of Montreal, " the key of a bound- 
less heathenism." Montreal and Quebec continued under the 
governor, with his seat at Quebec, down to the conquest of the 
province by the English in 1763. 

From this burning focus of intense religious propagandism the 
emissaries of Rome irradiated the northern borders of the United 
States, and bore the torch of discovery and missions through the 
great western regions. 

Champlain could conceive of no more feasible plan of building 
up the French kingdom in Canada than an alliance with the Hurons, 
the most mighty and stationary of all the Indian tribes, and of no 
method of confirming that alliance but by the establishment of 
missions. The charter of the province favored the measure, " for it 
recognized the neophyte among the savages as an enfranchised citi- 
zen of France." 

The Hurons, in respect to location, held the key of the great 
west. They must therefore be the first to be won to the faith. 
With their aid he hoped to be able to subdue the Iroquois, whom 
he had failed to attach to him, and thus ultimately gain possession 
of New York. 

The Huron Mission. 

About eighty miles north of the present city of Toronto, on an 
irregular indented peninsula extending from Lake Simcoe into the 
southern portion of the Georgian Bay, lived the great Huron tribes. 
Dwelling compactly in eighteen populous villages, they numbered 



CO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

thirty thousand souls. The region was " an alternation of meadows 
and forests interlaced with footpaths leading from village to village." 
The fields afforded evidence of careful industry, rewarded with 
abundant crops of corn, beans, squashes, etc., in autumn frugally 
stored for winter's use. In respect to language, superstitions, and 
many other things, they were like most Indian tribes ; but in size of 
brain they far exceeded other Indians, equaling the famous Iroquois 
of New York, of whom they were a cognate tribe. Their large, com- 
pact villages, their domestic, agricultural, and trading habits, their 
brave warriors, and favorable situation, made them a powerful 
people, with great political influence over all other Canadian Indians. 

The sagacious mind of Champlain was not slow to perceive the 
advantages which would accrue to France and the papacy from the 
conversion of the Hurons to the Catholic faith. He therefore re- 
solved upon special efforts to evangelize this remarkable people, 
three hundred leagues away. 

In 1615, Le Caron, an unambitious Franciscan, through many 
privations and wild experiences, on foot or paddling a birch canoe, 
reached this far-off region. Other Franciscan priests followed, and, 
in 1625, three Jesuit priests, who remained until the capture of Can- 
ada by the English, in 1629. We have already seen one of these, the 
indomitable Father Brebeuf, after four years' absence, once more at 
Quebec, with co-laborers, preparing to renew the Huron mission. 

In the summer of 1634 a party of Hurons visited Quebec, and 
the Jesuit fathers, obedient to their vows, amid salvos of cannon 
from the fort set forth with them for their distant homes. They 
journeyed by way of the Ottawa and its interlocking streams for more 
than nine hundred miles, through a region horrible with forests, 
wild beasts, and wild men. All the day long, and day after day, the 
missionaries paddled the canoe, or waded in the shallow streams 
drawing it along against the swift current, with no food but a 
scanty measure of crushed corn mixed with water, and no couch at 
night but the bare earth and rocks. Five and thirty water-falls and 
fifty rapids and shallows were counted, where they lifted their canoes 
from the water and carried them upon their shoulders for leagues 
through thick and tangled woods. Thus these " consecrated envoys" 
pursued their way by rivers, lakes, and forests, making solemn vows 
to St. Joseph, and snatching intervals from their imperfect sleep to 
read their breviaries by moonlight or the camp fire. At the end of 
thirty days they descended the French River, passed along the lonely 
shores of the Georgian Bay, and reached the heart of the Huron 
wilderness, stretched in its unbroken savage slumbers. The mission- 



THE HURONS. &1 

aries were worn and exhausted. Even the iron frame and resolute 
spirit of Brebeuf, the Ajax of the mission, were severely taxed. 

Recovering from their fatigue, they commenced their mission ; 
first the language, then translations, then instruction, baptisms, etc. 
" All that the church offered to the princes and nobles of the Euro- 
pean world," says Bancroft, 4i was showed to the humblest of the 
savage neophytes. The hunter as he returned from his wild rovings 
was taught to hope for eternal rest ; the braves, as they returned 
from war, were warned of the wrath which kindles against sinners 
a never dying fire, fiercer far than the fires of the Mohawks; and 
the idlers of the Indian villages were told the exciting tale of the 
Saviour's death for their redemption." 

The mission was re-enforced in due time, and new missions 
were founded among neighboring tribes. In 1649 the mission force 
numbered more than fifty priests and assistants, laboring in eleven 
stations. The news from this Huron mission awakened in France 
the strongest sympathy. The king, the queen, the princesses, and 
the clergy sent presents and substantial aid. Even Italy listened 
with interest to the novel story, and the pope himself expressed his 
favor. But reverses severe and overwhelming, just at the time 
when the labors of the missionaries w r ere achieving their best suc- 
cess, came upon both priest and people. 

The Hurons were a doomed nation. Between them and the 
Iroquois, as the Five Nations in New York were called, an old feud 
existed. In the years 1648 and 1649 a succession of vengeances 
almost annihilated them. While the braves were absent at a great 
distance, on a hunting expedition, the Iroquois suddenly burst upon 
the Huron country, and their villages were destroyed with a destruc- 
tion almost as sudden as lightning from a cloud. A series of ter- 
rible scenes too fearful to relate transpired under the several inva- 
sions of their implacable foes. The missionaries had no thought of 
flight, but stood like steel in the teeth of danger. Hurrying from 
cabin to cabin, they prepared the sick and infirm for death, soothed 
the wounded, cheered the courage of the defenders, until they 
themselves became victims of the assailants. Their enemies seized 
them, fiercely tore off their finger-nails, compelled them to run the 
dreadful Indian gauntlet, and then bound them to stakes. Brebeuf s 
hands were cut off, but he gloried in his sufferings and exhorted his 
captive converts. Hatchets heated in the fire were forced under his 
armpits and between his thighs, and a collar of heated hatchets was 
placed round his neck. He exhorted his converts until a stone 
crushed his mouth. They cut off his nose and underlip and thrust 



52 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

a burning torch into his mouth. Irs derision, the priests were bap- 
tized with boiling water. Brebeuf s iron frame endured unaccount- 
ably. Seeing him nearly dead, they opened his breast, and crowded 
around to drink the heart-blood of so valiant a man, thinking thus 
to imbibe his courage. 

The death-knell of the Hurons had sounded. Left in scattered 
remnants, without a leader or an organization, crazed and paralyzed, 
their towns were deserted, and they wandered as fugitives. Some 
settled in small groups on the islands of Lake Huron. Pressed from 
point to point by the insatiable Iroquois, they passed into the far 
west. 

With the fall of the Hurons closed the brightest period of Jesuit 
propagandism in North America. Henceforth the Jesuits were 
more prominently identified with, schemes of discovery and conquest. 

Maine and New York invaded. 

On the 29th of August, 1646, twelve years after the commence- 
ment of the great Huron mission, and three years before its destruc- 
tion, twenty-three years after the erection of Fort Orange, at Albany, 
and sixteen years after the founding of Boston, two missions were 
simultaneously projected by the Canadian Jesuits within the north- 
ern limits of the United States — one among the Abenakis, in 
Maine, and the other among the Mohawks, in New York. The mis- 
sionaries were Fathers Gabriel Druellettes and Isaac Jogues. 

The Abenakis belonged to the great Algonquin race and resided 
in five communities; two in Canada, and the others upon the Saco, 
the Androscoggin and the Kennebec rivers. They have been char- 
acterized as very brave, tenacious, remarkably faithful to covenants, 
and possessing stronger family attachments than other Indians. 
The French very early and permanently attached this people to 
themselves, fostered their hostility to the English, and made them 
thorns in the sides of the New England colonists. It was this peo- 
ple, in alliance with the French and often under French leaders, 
that ravaged the northern settlements of New England in the 
colonial period. 

Upon the banks of the St. Lawrence, near Quebec, a Jesuit 
mission station was founded, in 1637, by Noel Brulart de Sillery, a 
Knight of Malta, who, after a brilliant career at the Court of Louis 
XII., became a model of sanctity and devoted himself to good 
works. From its founder it received its name, Sillery. Here were 
gathered a few scattered Algonquins and Montagnis, who, from their 



JESUITS IN NEW ENGLAND. 53 

love for the faith, gave up a life of wandering, and under the direc- 
tion of spiritual guides cultivated the soil. Among the noblest of 
the neophytes in this papal elysium was Charles Meiaskwat, who 
became noted for extraordinary purity and sanctity. Hearing of 
some Abenakis held as prisoners, and cruelly tortured by a party of 
pagan Algonquins, he hastened to their rescue, and returned with 
them in triumph to Sillery, where they were kindly received, care- 
fully nursed by the nuns of the hospital and instructed in the faith. 
When sufficiently recovered, one of them, accompanied by Meiask- 
wat, departed for his native village on the Kennebec. They visited 
extensively among their people, every-where extolling the Christian 
doctrine and awakening great desire to know it more fully. One 
of the chiefs accompanied Charles to Quebec, where he was instructed 
and baptized. Subsequently two other chiefs came to Quebec and 
asked for priests to instruct their people. 

"Apart from the saving of souls," says Parkman, "there were 
solid reasons for acceding to their request. The Abenakis were 
near the colonies of New England ; indeed, the Plymouth Colony, 
under its charter, claimed jurisdiction over them ; and, in case of 
rupture, they would prove serviceable friends or dangerous enemies 
to New France." Charlevoix (I, 280) also gives this as one motive 
for the mission. 

When the temporary peace was concluded with the Iroquois, in 
1646, Father Druellettes was sent to the Kennebec and Father Jogues 
to the Mohawks. Accompanied by Noel Nagobamat and a party of 
Indians, Druellettes pursued the route by which, one hundred and 
twenty-nine years later, Arnold led his soldiers to Quebec, reached 
the waters of the Kennebec and descended to the Abenakis villages. 
He devoted himself at once to the study of their dialect, visited the 
sick, baptized the dying, and imparted such instruction as he could, 
with his limited knowledge of their language. Descending the river 
from Norridgewock, he reconnoitered the country from the English 
trading-post at Augusta to the ocean, thence along the coast to 
the Penobscot, visiting all the English posts on the way. Being 
kindly received, he returned to his starting-point, above Augusta, 
where a chapel was erected and a central station established. 
He went to Quebec in May, according to previous agreement, 
much to the grief of the Indians. In the summer of 1650 Druel- 
lettes returned, and was joyfully received. Amid a volley of 
fire-arms the chief embraced the missionary, saying, " I see well 
that the Great Spirit who rules in the heavens deigns to look favor- 
ably on us, since he sends us back our patriarch." Universal joy 



54 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

prevailed, a banquet was spread in every cabin, and he was forced 
to visit all. 

A Jesuit Priest in Boston, 

After a brief period of labor in the mission, Druellettes set out 
for Boston on an embassy from the Governor of Canada to the 
New England colonies. 4i His journey," says Parkman, "is worthy 
of notice, since, with the unimportant exception of Jogues's em- 
bassy to the Mohawks, it is the first occasion on which the Canadian 
Jesuits appear in a character distinctly political. Afterward, when 
the fervor and freshness of the missions had passed away, they fre- 
quently did the work of political agents among the Indians, but 
the Jesuit of the earlier period was, with rare exceptions, a mis- 
sionary only ; and, though he was expected to exert a powerful 
influence in gaining subjects and allies for France, he was to do so 
by gathering them under the wings of the Church." 

The Iroquois had brought Canada to an extremity, and the gov- 
ernor desired military aid against them, proffering as a compensa- 
tion a reciprocity of trade, known to be much desired by the New 
England colonies. The time for Druellettes' visit seemed inauspi- 
cious ; for, only three years before, the Massachusetts Legislature 
had enacted that a Jesuit entering the colony should be expelled, 
and, if he returned, hanged. Nevertheless, November found him 
coasting along Cape Ann to Boston. " Amid the homes of the 
Puritans," says Shea, " the son of Loyola was well received, and 
at Roxbury, Eliot, devoted like himself to the conversion of the 
Indians, invited him to pass the winter under his hospitable roof; 
but rest was not a part of a Jesuit's life. His Abenakis called him, 
and by February he was back among them and engaged in his mis- 
sionary toils." Tarrying a few months, he instructed his catechu- 
mens until they were ready for baptism, and in June returned to 
Quebec. A second visit was made to Boston, but without success. 
The ambassador, however, on each journey, tarried awhile, minister- 
ing to the Abenakis as before. 

Thus was the Roman Catholic faith planted among the Indians 
in Maine. A few more brief visits by this ambassador-priest, and 
for thirty years they were left without the ministrations of the 
Church, except a portion of the neophytes wlio were drawn to the 
mission at Sillery, and subsequently, on its removal, to the Falls of 
St. Chaudiere, where they continued to receive instruction. The 
scattering of the fathers among the dispersed Hurons on the lakes 
of the far West, the death of some, and the recall of others to 



JESUIT INTRIGUES. 65 

France, had greatly reduced the supply of pastors. Druellettes 
himself, in company with Dablon, was sent upon an important expe- 
dition to Hudson's Bay, and subsequently with the celebrated Mar- 
quette, one of his pupils, to the West, where he labored at Sault St. 
Mary's. After forty years of toil and privation among the Indians 
of North America, he died at Quebec, in 1681, aged 88 years. 

In 1687, the missions among the Abenakis were re-established 
by Fathers James and Vincent Bigot, and from that time to the 
American Revolution, thirteen missionaries, chiefly Jesuits, labored 
among them ; but few details of their labors, however, are now 
available. 

We have now come to a new period in the history of these mis- 
sions, when we find them disturbed and perverted by the turmoils 
of war and political conquest. In this new phase, the neophytes 
bear a decidedly militant and savage part and the Jesuits lose their 
distinctively missionary character and become active intriguers for 
political ends, and even fomenters of bloody strifes. These hostilities 
cover three periods — the King William's war (1689-1697), the Queen 
Anne's war (1700-1713), and a local irritation, more or less inter- 
mittent, occasioned by the imperfectly defined north-eastern bound- 
ary, finally settled in 1727. In the national wars the colonists par- 
ticipated. The region of the Abenakis was a disputed territory 
between the French and English ; and the Indians being attached 
to the former by many favors, and particularly through the influence 
of the Jesuits, were kept in a state of continual hostility. 

Impartial justice concedes jealousies, irritations and encroach- 
ments on both sides, in these unfortunate and destructive contests; 
but the terrible massacres of the infant settlements of Casco Bay, 
Pemaquid, Wells and York, in Maine ; Oyster River, Salmon Falls 
and Dover, N. H., and Haverhill, Mass., by these Indians, under 
the inspiration of their Jesuit instructors, can never be expunged 
from the pages of New England history. The Roman Catholic 
version of the conduct of their missionaries by no means exonerates 
them. Mr. J. G. Shea, following the Jesuit Charlevoix, says : * 
11 The missionaries, often in jeopardy, remained manfully at their 
posts, inculcating mercy in war, as w r ell as every other Christian vir- 
tue. Sometimes they accompanied the war parties as chaplains, at 
others they remained with the women and children. We may judge 
of the fervor of the neophytes by the fact that when the braves of 
Panawaniske set out to attack Fort Pemaquid, in 1689, they ail 
approached the sacraments with their wives and children, that the 

* History of Catholic Missions Among the Indian Tribes, p. 143. 



56 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

latter might raise pure hands to heaven while they were in deadly 
combat with the enemies of their race and faith. During the whole 
period of the expedition a perpetual rosary was established, not 
even the time of meals interrupting so edifying an exercise." 

The Penobscot, 

Sober history records that the Jesuits actively participated 
in schemes for territorial conquest and occupation. Bancroft says 
that, to protect Acadia, " The Jesuits Vincent and James Bigot 
collected a village of Abenakis on the Penobscot." He also says, 
"The missionaries, swaying the minds of the Abenakis, gave the 
hope of savage allies " to France, in attempting to extend her 
territorial line to the Kennebec. Again he says, " For a season, 
hostilities in Maine were suspended, by a treaty of peace with the 
Abenakis ; but in less than a year, solely through the influence of 
the Jesuits, they were again in the field, led by Villieu, the Freneh 
commander on the Penobscot; and the village of Oyster River, in 
New Hampshire, was the victim of their fury. Ninety-four per- 
sons were killed or carried away," etc. And it may be added that 
when the powerful " Five Nations " of New York made a treaty of 
neutrality with the French and English, in 1701, in which the 
Abenakis of Maine joined with them, the Jesuits prevailed upon 
the latter to break their compact, and the first notice of treach- 
ery was a fearful massacre, the whole country from Wells to Casco 
Bay, in Maine, being devastated with burning and butchery. In 
Maine and New Hampshire the war was marked with great barbar- 
ities. Prowling bands of savages penetrated even into Massachu- 
setts, and the people were massacred or carried into captivity. 

" Nor did the thought occur," says Bancroft, "that such inroads 
were atrocious. The Jesuit historian of France relates, with pride, 
that they had their origin in the counsels and influence of the 
missionaries, Thury and Bigot ; and, extolling the hardihood and 
the success of the foray, he passes a eulogy on the daring of Taxus, 
the bravest of the Abenakis. Such is self-love : it has but one root, 
with a thousand branches. The despot believed his authority from 
God, and his own personality to constitute the State ; the mistresses 
of kings were, without scruple, made by patent the mothers of 
hereditary legislators ; the English monopolist had no self-reproach 
for prohibiting the industry of the colonists ; Louis XIV., James II. 
and his successors, Queen Anne, Bolingbroke and Lady Masham, 
thought it no harm to derive money from the slave-trade ; and, in 



FATHER RALE. 67 

the pages of Charlevoix, the unavailing cruelties of midnight incen- 
diaries, the murder and scalping of the inhabitants of peaceful vil- 
lages, and the captivity of helpless women and children, are diffusely 
narrated as actions that were brave and beautiful." 

Father Sebastian Rale. 

The case of Sebastian Rale, the Jesuit missionary at Norridge- 
wock, Me., from 1699 to 1724, has received extended notice from 
Roman Catholic writers, who have given him a high rank in their an- 
nals, characterizing him as " learned, zealous, laboring, careful of the 
religious progress of his flock, careless of his own comfort and life, 
and desirous even of martyrdom." 

Bancroft has represented this distinguished Jesuit in a very favor- 
able light : " Severely ascetic, using no wine, and little food except 
pounded maize; a vigorous observer of the days of Lent, he built 
his own cabin, tilled his own garden, drew for himself wood and 
water, prepared his own hominy, and,distributing all that he received, 
gave an example of religious poverty. Himself a painter, he adorned 
the humble walls of his church with pictures. There he gave instruc- 
tion almost daily. Following his pupils to their wigwams, he tem- 
pered the spirit of devotion with familiar conversation and innocent 
gayety, winning the mastery over their souls by his powers of per- 
suasion. . . . 

»' The Government of Massachusetts attempted, m turn, to estab- 
lish a mission, and its minister made a mocking of purgatory and the 
invocation of saints, of the cross, and of the rosary. ' My Chris- 
tians,' retorted Rale, ' believe the truths of the Catholic faith, but 
are not skillful disputants ; ' and he prepared a defense of the Roman 
Church. Thus Calvin and Loyola met in the woods of Maine. But 
the Protestant minister, unable to compete with the Jesuit for 
the affections of the Indians, returned to Boston, ' while the friar 
remained, the incendiary of mischief.' " * 

Some of Rale's papers fell into the hands of the Government of 
Massachusetts, from which it appears that he was in correspondence 
with the Governor of Canada, by whose aid he hoped to exclude the 
English settlers from the region where he resided, and that he accom- 
panied an expedition of the Indians against the colonies, and acted 
a conspicuous part in at least one attack upon their settlements. 
The evidence was so conclusive that the Massachusetts Government 
undertook to arrest him, and at last, August 23, 1724, the Indian 

* Bancroft's History 0/ the United States, Centennial Edition, Vol. II, pp. 354, 471. 



58 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

village at Norridgewock was attacked and destroyed, and Rale fell 
in the battle.* 

The cession of Canada to England, in 1763, militated against 
these missions, and for a few years before the American Revolution 
they were without a priest ; but they retained their attachment to 
the papal faith. In the Revolution they joined with the colonists, 
and took a noble part in that long struggle, Orono, the Penobscot 
chief, holding " a commission, which he ennobled by his virtues and 
bravery." On the restoration of peace, the Abenakis asked Ur. Car- 
roll, of Baltimore, for a missionary, when Father Ciquard, a Sulpitian, 
was sent to them ; and as a tribe, they have continued to this day, 
steadfast in their devotion to the papacy. * 

In New York. 

A specimen of profound strategy now uncovers. The Papists are 
already upon the Chesapeake. The movement in New York is the 
boldest part of the deep plan of the Quebec Jesuits, who seek to 
effectually separate the Protestant settlements — those in Nova Scotia 
from those in New England by a large belt of Catholic Indians in 
Maine ; and those in New England from those in the Middle Colo- 
nies by French Catholic occupancy, down through the great region 
by Lake Champlain and the Hudson to Manhattan Island. Having 
thus divided the Protestant colonies, they hoped to make them an 
easy prey. In seeking to accomplish this last part of the programme 
they desired the aid of the Iroquois Indians of New York, which 
they hoped to secure by converting them to the papal faith. Had 
they succeeded in gaining as complete control of them, as they did 
of the Maine Indians they would have been able to accomplish the 
destruction of all the Protestant colonies on this continent, and 
would have consigned the continent to the papacy. The numbers 
and power of the Iroquois would have been sufficient to enable the 
French to make a complete conquest. Besides, in that case, the 
Hurons would not have been slaughtered, but would have been 
powerful allies in the movement. 

The Iroquois. 

Under the Indian name, Hotinnousinoiini, the complete cabin, and 
the French name Iroquois, was comprised a confederacy of five 
distinct Indian nations — the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Cayugas, 
the Senecas, and the Onondagas — cantoned from the mouth of the 

* See Massachusetts Historical Collections. Second Series, Vol. VIII, pp. 250, 266. 



THE IROQUOIS. 59 

Mohawk, near Albany, along a series of beautiful lakes, bearing the 
names of the tribes, as far as the Genesee River. They were noted 
for large and vigorous physical development, extraordinary courage, 
and unequaled ferocity. They possessed a larger brain than any 
other tribe except the Hurons, a kindred body, and were in many 
respects more advanced and better organized than any other Indians. 
Under chiefs, half hereditary and half elective, and a government 
an oligarchy in form and a democracy in spirit, ensconced in pali- 
saded villages, surrounded by fertile and cultivated fields, faithfully 
maintaining a time-honored league of fraternity, and achieving a 
great reputation for war and savagery, before the close of the 
seventeenth century they had subjugated the vast region from 
Quebec to Lake Superior above the lakes, and from Albany to the 
Mississippi below, and had become the most conspicuous and 
dreaded of all the American Indians of their day. They have left 
behind no evidence of any tendency to emerge from their wild 
hunter life; bat they stand upon the pages of history as the stern 
conservators of barbarism, in the arts of torture and cruelty 
matching the worst of their kind. 

The hereditary enemies of the Hurons and Algonquins in Canada, 
by the early alliance of the great Champlain with those tribes and 
his hostile invasion of the Mohawk territory in 1609, the Iroquois 
became the deadly enemies of the French. At a restoration of 
some French captains unharmed, in 1640, a collision took place which 
gave new zest to their hatred ; and the Mohawks formally pro- 
claimed that henceforth French and Huron should be treated alike, 
and sent out their fierce war-bands to infest all the water communi- 
cations of the north. The subsequent history of Canada for thirty 
years, except in a few brief intervals, is full of the wars of the 
Iroquois, destroying the best missions and rendering the efforts for 
their establishment among the " Five Nations " themselves abortive. 

It is early in the morning of the 2d of August, 1642. Twelve 
Huron canoes are slowly moving up the St. Lawrence at a point 
two days distant from Quebec. The lading consists of supplies for 
the suffering Huron mission. The living freight is chiefly heathen 
Indians who are returning homeward. A few catechumens in course 
of instruction for baptism are in the party, and some Huron con- 
verts, among whom is the noted Christian chief, Eustache Ahatsistari. 
There are also two young Frenchmen, Rene Goupil and Guillaume 
Couture, donncs, or lay-brothers of the mission. Goupil, once a 
Jesuit novitiate in Paris, compelled by failing health to forego the 
rigorous discipline of the order, but skilled in surgery, has already 



eO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

identified himself with the service of the Church. Couture, his 
companion, a man of intelligence and rigor, is no less devoted to 
the missionary work 

Jogues. 

In the leading canoe sits a Jesuit father, in his black gown, whose 
oval face and delicate mold of features bespeak a modest, thought- 
ful, and refined nature. Physically slender, constitutionally timid, 
sensitively conscientious, and profoundly religious, in the fiery ordeal 
about to open before him he is to be tested to the utmost, and gain 
a crown of martyrdom. Born in 1607, of a highly respectable family 
in Orleans, France, in his childhood he became eminent for piety, 
and at the age of seventeen years was admitted to the celebrated 
Jesuit Novitiate at Rouen. His brilliant course of study made him 
a finished scholar and gave promise of a successful literary career. 
But he earnestly desired a foreign mission, and talked seriously of 
Ethiopia as his field of toil. At his graduation, however, in 1636, 
he was sent to the Canadian wilderness. Amid the rigors and priva- 
tions of the Huron peninsula, under the direction of the eminent 
Brebeuf, he spent five years of devoted service; and then, accom- 
panied by Raymbault and a few Huron converts, he went forth to 
plant the cross in fields still more remote. Passing the Manitoulins 
of the Georgian Bay, and the clustering archipelagoes of Lake Huron, 
they reached the confines of Lake Superior, and there, at the Falls 
of St. Mary, " five years," says Bancroft, " before the New England 
Eliot had addressed the tribe of Indians that dwelt within six miles 
of Boston Harbor," he preached the Gospel to two thousand Ojib- 
ways and Algonquins. Worn by his toils, Raymbault has been borne 
to Quebec to die of consumption, and his companion is now retrac- 
ing his course, reserved to encounter a far more dreaded foe. Isaac 
Jogues, the first to carry the cross into Michigan, is also to be the 
first to bear it, under the sorest tortures, through the villages of the 
Mohawks, for those savage red men are about to " gird him and lead 
him whither he would not." 

The twelve canoes have reached the western end of Lake St. 
Peters, where the St. Lawrence is filled with numerous islands. 
Suddenly from the rushes ring out wild war-whoops, sharp reports 
of guns and whistling bullets, and canoes filled with savage Mohawks 
push out from concealment and bear down upon them. A shameful 
panic seizes the Hurons; but, rallying a little, they make an in- 
effectual defense, and fall into the hands of their enemies. 

The seventy Iroquois, with twenty Hurons and three French- 



AMOSG THE MOHAWKS. 61 

men. speedily embark upon the Richelieu homeward ; and all the 
way from the St. Lawrence to the Mohawk horrible inflictions of 
savage cruelty are endured. Sore with wounds, and suffering from 
hunger and heat, they are hurried along. By day, with keenest 
relish, their savage captors re-open their wounds and pierce their 
flesh with awls, and clouds of mosquitoes torment them by night. 
Several times they meet war parties of Mohawks, and on each occa- 
sion they are compelled to run the fearful Indian gauntlet. Jogues 
sinks under one of these assaults. The chief man among the cap- 
tives, he fares the worst. He is dragged to a scaffold, and again 
bruised and burned. His closing wounds gape afresh, his remaining 
nails are torn out and his hands are mangled. 

The water-course finished, the mangled prisoners are loaded down 
and forced to stagger on, half-starved, subsisting chiefly upon wild ber- 
ries, until they reach the first palisaded town of the Mohawks on the 
14th of August. Another gauntlet ordeal through long lines of fierce 
dusky savages here awaits them. Couture leads and Father Jogues 
brings up the rear. A heavy stroke from the stoutest Indian knocks 
Jogues breathless upon the ground; but, recovering instantly, he stag- 
gers on " through the narrow path to Paradise," as he afterward called 
it. New tortures await them upon the much-dreaded Indian scaffold. 
Goupil streams with blood ; Jogues's left thumb is hacked off by an 
Algonquin slave ; Goupil's right thumb, with a clam-shell ; and none 
escape. Nor does night bring relief. Tied to the ground, with 
legs and arms extended, they writhe in vain to escape hot coals 
piaced upon them by Indian children. Through three Mohawk 
villages these tortures are endured, Jogues improving every oppor- 
tunity to confess the neophytes and baptize the catechumens. A 
difficulty embarrasses him — a prisoner, he cannot procure water. A 
passing Indian throws him a stalk of maize. It is morning and the 
broad leaves glisten with dew, with which he baptizes two ; and, 
while crossing a streamlet, he confers the sacrament upon the third. 
Thus begins the mission on the Mohawk, though years of darkness 
and savagery elapse before its establishment. 

In one of the villages Jogues is hung by the wrists to two upright 
posts, an outrage reminding us of some of the tortures inflicted 
upon Protestants by the Spanish Inquisition. In this excruciating 
position he remains until upon the point of swooning, when a pity- 
ing Indian cuts the cords and releases him. A council of sachems 
decree his death, but another sentiment soon prevails and he is 
spared. Devoted to servitude, Jogues performs the menial offices 
of a squaw, does their bidding without a murmur, patiently bears 
5 



02 CHRISTIANITY IN THI\ UNITED STATES. 

abuse, and never rebukes except when they laugh at his devotions 
or moek his God. A portion of his leisure is devoted to the spirit- 
ual comfort of the Huron neophytes, imparting; counsel, granting 
absolution, and baptizing the dying. He acquires the dialect of the 
tribe and gives instruction in astronomy and theology. 

Gradually his liberty is enlarged, and he quietly roams through 
the fields and lofty forests of the Mohawk Valley, telling his beads, 
repeating passages of Scripture and chanting psalms. On a stately 
tree, upon an elevated kno!l r he rudely carves a huge cross and pros- 
trates himself in prayer, or sits in deep meditation, assuaging his 
grief in loving contemplation of Him who was " made perfect 
through suffering J' In the hark of the trees all through the dense 
groves he carves the name of Jesus, thus consecrating that dark 
rand to him. A living martyr, maimed, mangled, half-clothed, and 
half-starved, crouching in the corners of rude cabins, or bowing in 
solitude before the emblems of his faith, this gentle, cultivated 
man, a scion of a noble stock, and a striking symbol of self-forgetful 
sacrifice, is the vanguard of his nation's banner and his nation's faith, 
upon the confines of a vast, revolting heathenism — a worthy theme 
for an eloquent pen. 

Hitherto Jogues has not thought of escape. Meeting the 
Dutch settlers on the Hudson, they advise him to flee, and offer aid. 
He thanks them warmly, but to their astonishment he asks for a 
night to consider and to counsel with God in prayer. It is a night 
■of deep agitation, fearful lest self-love shall beguile him from duty. 
Should he remain some timely drop of sacramental water applied 
by his hand may rescue souls from torturing devils and eternal 
flames. The indications, however, make it probable that his relent- 
less captors will not spare him much longer. He reaches his decis- 
ion, and, aided by his Dutch friends, escapes to Albany, to Manhat- 
tan and to France, after a captivity of fifteen months. 

In Paris this remarkable man became a center of curiosity. He 
Avas ushered into the presence of the queen, who kissed his mutilated 
hands, while the ladies of the court thronged around him in hom- 
age. Indifferent to their honors, Jogues thought only of returning 
to his work of converting the Indians. There was one impediment, 
however, for by a canon of the Church a priest with any deformity 
was debarred from celebrating mass; but the pope, by a special 
•dispensation, restored the privilege, saying, " It were unjust that a 
martyr of Christ should not drink the blood of Christ." The fol- 
lowing year Jogues was again in Canada. 

In the meantime the Iroquois have filled all Canada with alarm. 



ANOTHER JESUIT IX NEW YORK. 63 

The fire-arms with which the Dutch had supplied them, added to 
their numbers, their courage, and their united councils, gave them 
an advantage over all other tribes which they well understood, and 
inspired them with an unparalleled audacity. They boasted that 
they would wipe out the Hurons, the Algonquins and the French 
from the face of the earth. 

"At Quebec. Three Rivers, Montreal and in the little fort of Richelieu, that is 
to say, in all Canada," says Parkman, " no man could hunt, fish, till the fields, or 
cut a tree in the forest, without peril to his scalp. The Iroquois were every-where 
and nowhere. A yell, a volley of bullets, a rush of screeching savages, and all 
was over. . . . While the Indian allies of the French were wasting away beneath 
this atrocious warfare, the French themselves, and especially the traveling Jesuits, 
had their full share of the infliction. In truth, the puny and sickly colony seemed 
in the gasps of dissolution. The beginning of spring, particularly, was a season 
of terror and suspense; for, with the breaking up of the ice, sure as destiny came 
the Iroquois. As soon as a canoe could float they were on the war-path, and 
with the cry of the returning wild fowl mingled the yell of these human tigers. 
They did not always wait for the breaking ice, but set forth on foot, and when they 
came to open water made canoes and embarked. Well might Father Vimont call 
the Iroquois 'the scourge of this infant Church.' They burned, hacked, and 
devoured the neophytes ; exterminated whole villages at once, destroyed the nations 
whom the fathers hoped to convert, and ruined that sure ally of the missions, the 
far trade. Not the most hideous nightmare of a fevered brain could transcend in 
horror the real and waking perils with which they beset the paths of these intrepid 
priests." 

About five months have elapsed since Father Jogues escaped 
from the Mohawks. It is early in April, and the needs of*the Huron 
mission are very pressing, for no succor had reached them for three 
years. Starting early with supplies, a Huron flotilla is pushing its 
way westward through the perils of floating ice, hoping to pass from 
the St. Lawrence into the safer waters of the more distant Ottawa 
before the Iroquois shall have struck the northern war-paths. Father 
Joseph Bressani, six young Huron converts and a French boy con- 
stitute the party. Reaching the fatal spot where Father Jogues was 
seized, twenty-seven Iroquois suddenly issue from a covert, attack 
and seize them. Thanking the sun for their victory they plunder 
the canoes, cut up, roast and devour a slain Huron, and start for the 
Mohawk region. Passing over Lake Champlain, Bressani is driven 
barefoot over the rough and rocky road that Jogues traveled before 
him. He is beaten, mangled, mutilated, scourged by whole villages, 
runs fearful guantlets, has his hands split open and his fingers hacked 
off; is hung by his feet with a chain ; is burned, pricked, gashed, and 
endures the most excruciating torments — only a little less refined, 
however, than those of the papal inquisitions. " Yet some mysterious 



64 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES. 

awe/* says Bancroft, " protected his life, and he, too, was at last 
humanely rescued by the Dutch." 

A year after the capture of Father Bressani, the French, still 
anxious to secure possession of the Iroquois country, seek a treaty 
of peace with the Five Nations. A meeting is held at Three Rivers, 
in 1645, at which Couture, the lay- Jesuit captured with Father 
Jogues, in the dress of an Iroquois, is present, exerting great influ- 
ence with his adopted Indian friends. Jogues and Bressani, who 
remained only a short time in Europe, are also in the council. All 
agree to smooth the forest path and hide the tomahawk. The Iro- 
quois say, " Let the sun shine on all the land between us." The 
Algonquins join in the agreement. " There is peace " says Park- 
man, " in the dark and blood-stained wilderness. The lynx, the 
panther and the wolf, have made a covenant of love ; but who will 
be their surety ? " 

The Iroquois ambassadors acted, without doubt, in sincerity, 
but the wayward, capricious, and ungoverned nature of the Indian 
parties to the treaty, and the fact that the Mohawks alone had 
represented the Confederacy, made it desirable that further steps 
should be taken to ratify the covenant. Couture had returned to 
winter among the Mohawks, that he might exert his influence to 
hold them to their pledges ; but an agent of more acknowledged 
weight, one, too, who knows their language and character well, must 
be sent. AH things pointed to Father Jogues as the man, and it 
was proposed that the errand should be " half political and half 
religious ; for not only was he to be a bearer of gifts, wampum 
belts and messages from the governor, but he was also to found a 
new mission, christened in advance with a prophetic name, The 
Mission of tlie Martyr sT * 

"For two years past Jogues has been at Montreal, and it is here 
that he receives the order of his superior to proceed to the Mohawk 
towns. At first nature asserts itself, and he recoils involuntarily at 
the thought of the horrors of which his scarred body and mutilated 
hands are a living memento. It is a transient weakness, and he 
prepares to depart with more than willingness, giving thanks to 
Heaven that he has been found worthy to suffer and die for the 
saving of souls and the greater glory of God." * 

In company with Sieur Bourdon, the governor's engineer, Jogues 
departs. They are hospitably received ; the peace is ratified, and 
they return to Quebec through a tranquil wilderness. 

But the Mohawks have requested a missionary, asking particularly 

* Parkman's History 0/ the Jesuits i?i North America, p. 298. 



THE IROQUOIS MISSION FRUSTRA TED. 63 

for Jogues himself. In anticipation of that result, on his visit he 
left behind his trunk containing the sacred vessels. But indications 
of the bad faith of the Iroquois already appear, making the question 
of his return a very serious one. His superior holds a council. 
Political as well as religious considerations enter into the question, 
for France looks to the conquest of the territory of New York, and 
the Church must prepare the way. After full deliberation Jogues 
receives orders to repair to that dangerous post. " I shall go, but 
shall never return," are his prophetic farewell words. On the 24th 
of August, 1646, five days before Druellett's departure for the 
Abenakis mission, with dark forebodings, Jogues sets out for the 
dreaded Mohawk country, accompanied by a young lay-brother, 
Lalande, and several Huron converts. On their way they meet 
Indians who warn them of a change of feeling in the Mohawk towns, 
and the Hurons, alarmed, refused to advance further; but Jogues, 
naturally the most timid man in the company, and the devoted 
Lalande, proceed on their way. Arriving among the Mohawks they 
find the rumors true. They are immediately seized, stripped, and 
treated as prisoners. A pestilence had ravaged the cabins, and 
caterpillars had devoured the crops of the canton, which, in their 
superstition, the Indians attribute to the mysterious trunk Jogues 
left behind, and no protestations or explanations will avail. He is 
condemned as an enchanter, notwithstanding some remonstrated 
and stood firm for the Frenchmen. A savage crowd assembles, 
beating them with sticks and fists. '• You shall die to-morrow, but 
you shall not be burned," they cry ; " you shall die by our hatchets." 
In vain does Father Jogues plead that he is not an enemy. Deaf 
to all reason, they commence the work of butchery. Cutting thin 
strips of flesh from his arms and back, they say, " Let us see if this 
white flesh is that of an Otki." " I am but a man like yourselves," 
replies the fearless confessor, "though I fear not death nor your 
tortures." Tranquil in spirit he approaches the cabin where the 
death festival is held, and in passing through the door, receives the 
death-blow. 

Thus died Isaac Jogues. Among the sons of Loyola no purer 
or more illustrious example of virtue and sublime devotion has been 
seen. The founder of the Mohawk mission, his sufferings, rather 
than his labors, give him the most prominent place in its annals. 

Such were the New York Indians whom the Jesuits at Quebec 
sought to convert to the papacy and make subservient to the ac- 
complishment of their schemes ; but these powerful tribes proved 
to be the bulwarks raised up by Providence, and stationed all along 



ee CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

that long line of the State of New York, for the protection of Prot- 
estant colonies against the machinations of the papacy. It would 
be interesting to sketch the attempts of the Jesuits in the seven- 
teenth century to found missions among this people. It would fur- 
nish many thrilling pages, examples of heroic adventure, sublime 
endurance, and lofty devotion, but all in vain. The failure frustrated 
a gigantic political scheme of territorial extension^ and saved the 
continent to Protestantism. 



Section #.— The English In Maryland. 

As early as 1570, the attention of the Jesuits in Florida was 
called to the region of the Chesapeake, and eight priests were sent to 
found a mission there ; but they encountered the implacable hatred 
of the natives, and all soon perished by violence. More than sixty 
years passed before the attempt was renewed. In the meantime, 
Roman Catholic missions and settlements had been founded in the 
south, from Florida to the Pacific, and in the north, from the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence to Lake Huron. Hitherto no colony of English 
Roman Catholics hod been undertaken ; but the way was pre- 
paring. 

The Jesuits, intent upon securing the continent to the papacy, 
seem to have determined to insert a wedge between the Protestant 
colonies in Virginia and those of New York and New England. 
If successful it would ultimately secure to them the great Atlantic 
coast region, which had fallen out of the hands of the papal nations. 
With a Catholic colony in the center, and the steadily encroach- 
ing lines of the Spanish Jesuits in the south and the French 
Jesuits in the north, and the cherished antagonism of the Indians 
against the English, they shrewdly calculated to gain the desired 
end. But if such a colony were planted it is evident that it must 
be composed of English papists, for England was in possession of 
the coast from Nova Scotia to Florida. What subtle hand shall 
direct the scheme ? Let us see. 

Father Andrew White was born in London in 1579, and edu- 
cated at Douai, in a college instituted to train priests for England. 
On receiving orders he was sent to London to exercise his ministry 
in secrecy, as the penal laws then made necessary. This he was not 
long allowed to do, but with forty-six others was sentenced to 
perpetual banishment. Forced to retire to the continent, he 
resolved to enter the Society of Jesus, and, at the close of his 



JESUITS IN MARYLAND. 67 

novitiate, returned to England. After ten years in London he was 
called to a professor's chair in the Jesuit college near Seville. But 
in a few years this eminent Jesuit returned again to England, and 
became an intimate acquaintance and adviser of Lord Baltimore. 

Sir George Calvert, a member of the Privy Council of James I., 
abjured Anglicanism and relinquished his positions at court. His 
sovereign, intent upon retaining his services, made him a peer of 
Ireland, under the title of Lord Baltimore. He solicited and 
obtained a grant of territory on the coast of America, with a 
charter allowing freedom of worship to Roman Catholics. On the 
death of Lord Baltimore, his oldest son Cecil proving incompetent 
to execute his plan, it was committed to another son, Leonard. 

Accompanied by Father Andrew White, Father John Altham, 
and two lay brothers, the expedition sailed from England Nov. 
22d, 1633, with St. Ignatius as their chosen patron. On the 
3d of March, the day of the Feast of the Annunciation, they 
reached the mouth of the Chesapeake. Landing on Blackstone 
Island, they offered the sacrifice of the mass, raised the cross as a 
trophy to Christ, and chanted on bended knees the litany of the 
cross. 

From the friendly Yoacomico and his tribe, a site was purchased 
for the city of St. Mary's, and a wigwam for a chapel. Missions 
were established among the Indians, the Conestogues being the 
dominant tribe. Father White prepared a grammar, dictionary, and 
catechism in the Indian dialect. Many difficulties were encountered ; 
some priests died; but others arrived in 1635 and 1636. Missions 
were established at Mettapany, on Kent Island and Kittamaquindi. 
Chilomacon, the chief, received Father White cordially, and 
installed him in his own lodge, where the missionary taught the 
dogmas of the Church. The chief and his braves were deeply 
impressed, and renounced polygamy. 

In a general council, the chief and his family abandoned their 
ancient superstitions, accepted Christ, and received baptism. Indian 
wars sometimes interrupted, but the mission went on, and new 
missionaries came from England. Under a wise administration 
the dreary wilderness was converted into a prosperous colony. 

It was not long, however, before they suffered from the opposition 
of the Virginia planters, which cast a gloom over their history. 
The civil war in England, the defeat of the papal party, and the 
enactment of severe laws against them, produced not a little disquie- 
tude and commotion in the Maryland Colony. 

In 1644, Ciayborne, the evil genius, raised a rebellion, expelled 



6& CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the governor, and the next year sent off the priests prisoners to 
England. After an absence of three years they returned. But a 
new storm soon arose ; the priests were under the ban of condem- 
nation, and could officiate only in secret. The Indian missions in 
Maryland were then closed forever. 

Freedom df Religion. 

From the beginning, the Maryland Colony was characterized by a 
broader and more liberal religious policy than any other, until the 
settlement of Pennsylvania, about fifty years later. Lord Balti- 
more and his associates have been highly praised for the constitu- 
tional guarantees in form of religious liberty. It is probable, how- 
ever, that the conditions of the grant to the original proprietors re- 
quired the toleration of all those religious bodies which were allowed 
by the crown at home. An eminent Roman Catholic writer, De 
Courcey,"* has taken this view. But, to whatever the toleration of 
the Protestants by the Catholic colony of Maryland is due, it is, 
nevertheless, the just verdict of impartial history, that, " under the 
enlightened policy of Lord Baltimore, the colony steadily advanced 
in prosperity, increasing both in comfort and in numbers. Roman 
Catholics and Protestants alike found protection and security, and 
lived in harmony." f 

Toward the close of that century, the Catholics fell into a 
minority, and, in 1704, bishops and priests were prohibited by law 
from saying mass and exercising other spiritual functions, except in 
private houses. They also suffered from other oppressive enact- 
ments. No churches were allowed to be built, and, at the time of 
the Revolution their priests numbered only twenty. $ 



Section 5.— The French on the Great Lakes and in 
the Mississippi Yalley. 

Upon the rugged picturesque peninsula interlocked by Lake 
Superior and Lake Michigan, a region varied by undulations, table- 
lands, and mountains, rigorous in climate, rich in minerals and furs, 
and abounding in streams, rapids and water-falls, two great aboriginal 
races met. The fierce Dahcotas or Sioux, called by the Jesuits 



* History of the Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. New York. 
Edward Duni^an & Bro., 1857, P- 3°- 

■f History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Ma?yland. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks, 
D.D., New York. 1839. By John S. Taylor, p 30. 

X See a fuller statement in the chapter on the Church and State in the Colonies — Intolerance 
in Maryland. 



BE YOND MA CKINA W. 69 

" the Iroquois of the West," traversing the vast wilds from the 
Rocky Mountains, had pushed forward their Winnebago tribe and 
established their eastern outpost on the Green Bay of Lake Michi- 
gan ; and the Algonquins, roaming through all the region above 
Lake Erie and Lake Ontario as far east as Nova Scotia, were repre- 
sented in their western outpost by the Ottawas and the Chippeways, 
on the southern shore of Lake Superior. In this wild paradise of 
hunter*, dwelt the Ojibways, the Menominees, the Foxes, and the 
Kikapoos. The Ottawas, or traders, the most numerous and enter- 
prising of all, became known to the French by their fur-trading 
with the Hurons. At this point also the Illinois and other prairie 
tribes met in their annual fishing excursions. Such was the com- 
mercial importance of this locality, and its value also for political 
and missionary purposes. 

Jean Nichollet. 

Almost a century after De Soto's famous ill-fated expedition 
into the lower valley of the Mississippi, a French explorer, sent out 
.is an ambassador to the western tribes, reached the banks of the 
Wisconsin. Jean Nichollet, a Roman Catholic layman, had been 
twenty years in Canada, was familiar with all the Algonquin tribes, 
and had spent eight years among the Nipissings, north-east of the land 
of the Hurons. Here he became an Indian in his habits, and heard 
wonderful stories of a remarkable people in the far West, whom he 
conjectured might be the Chinese, said to come to trade with tribes 
beyond the great lakes. The curiosity of this hardy pioneer was 
excited, and he longed to penetrate that fabulous region. 

He first returned to civilization, took the sacraments of the 
Church, and was commissioned to negotiate a peace between the 
Winnebagos and the Hurons. Years spent in Algonquin cabins 
had fitted him to travel in safety those wild regions, and in 1639, 
having reached the land of the Hurons, he started upon a voyage of 
three hundred leagues into the still more distant wilderness. Filled 
with visions of Mandarin grandeur, he had provided himself with 
" a robe of Chinese damask, embroidered with birds and flowers." 
Approaching the Winnebago town, he sent an Indian messenger 
" to announce his coming, put on his robe of damask, and advanced 
to meet the expectant crowd with a pistol in each hand. The 
squaws and children fled, screaming that it is a manito or spirit 
armed with thunder and lightning ; but the chiefs and warriors 
regaled him with so bountiful a hospitality that a hundred and 
twenty beavers were devoured at a single feast." Passing westward, 



70 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

he ascended the Fox River, crossed to the Wisconsin, and floated 
for some distance toward the Mississippi, without, however, fully 
understanding the character of that river. He returned to Quebec. 
This was the boldest exploit of the hardiest pioneer in the annals 
of New France. 

In 1641, at the request of the Chippeways visiting the Hurons, 
Fathers Jogues and Raymbault, eager to extend the conquests of 
their faith, launched their canoes and started for the home of this tribe 
at the outlet of Lake Superior. For seventeen days, over the crystal 
waters of those great inland seas, fringed with picturesque scenery 
and gemmed with beautiful islands, those zealous envoys of France 
and the cross pursued their toilsome way. At the Falls of St. Mary, 
a point nearly equidistant by traveled route from Quebec, on the 
east, and Santa Fe, the nearest Catholic mission, on the west ; amid 
joyful greetings, they proclaimed the faith to two thousand Ottawas 
and Chippeways ; and, from this remote outlook of the Church, gazed 
with awe upon the magnificent savage solitudes stretching in un- 
measured distances around them. They were urged to remain, but, 
obedient to the instructions of their superior, they returned, Raym- 
bault, worn and emaciated by disease, to die at Quebec, and Jogues 
to suffer horrid tortures and martyrdom in the dark land of the 
treacherous Mohawks. 

Some years passed. The importance of the Lake Superior re- 
gion for both commercial and missionary purposes was fully esti- 
mated. Missionaries were sent forth, but they were destroyed by 
the savage Iroquois. For several years these powerful, bloodthirsty 
warriors were every-where above the lakes, from Quebec to Michi- 
gan, and travel was dangerous. The Jesuits waited for two things 
— tranquillity in the wilderness and a fitting man. 

Claudius Allouez. 

In 1665, Claudius Allouez embarked for the upper lakes, and 
spent twenty-five years among the Indians in Michigan, Wisconsin, 
and Illinois. Rowing along the southern shores of Lake Superior, 
with its alternating scenery of forests, fertile plains, reed-covered 
marshes, stupendous piles of drifting sands, towering cliffs of " pict- 
ured sandstone," and "erect columns, covered with fantastic entab- 
latures," he celebrated the mass and consecrated those rugged wilds 
to Christ and his king. 

He erected an Indian Church, amid many struggles with super- 
stitition and vice. The natives revered the lakes, the rapids, the 
beetling cliffs, and even the metals, as gods, and talked indefinitely 







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ALASKA. 



FKEXCH POWER EXTENDING. 71 

of i4 the great Messipi," as a wild chimera, but an object of adora- 
tion. Some faithful ones consoled him with their constancy and 
fervor. A choir of Chippeways chanted the Pater and the Ave ; 
and from many a tribe the wandering hunters came to listen and to 
wonder. For more than twenty different tribes — the Hurons, scat- 
tered and disconsolate ; the Ottawas and Chippeways, from the 
fishing regions ; the Sacs and Foxes, from the country of the beaver 
and deer; the Sioux, from the great buffalo plains beyond the Missis- 
sippi ; the Pottawattomies, from the deep unexplored recesses of 
lower Michigan ; and the Illinois, from the broad fertile prairies by 
M the Great River "—he lighted the torch of faith. From them he 
learned the story of the " Messipi," and longed to gaze upon the 
great father of waters and traverse its immense tributary valley. 

Allouez was deeply impressed with his surroundings. The well- 
authenticated narratives of the mammoth rivers, the broad alluvial 
prairies, the gigantic forests, the rich mineral deposits, the countless 
herds of wild animals, the innumerable bands of pagan Indians, the 
entrancing beauty of the scenery, and the magnificent vastness of 
the new mission region excited in his mind the most romantic con- 
ceptions of the grand, the sublime, and the infinite, aroused his 
deepest sympathies for humanity, and stimulated to the formation of 
political, social and religious schemes, commensurate with the vast 
possibilities of this great continental center, the key of the richest 
heritage of North America. Filled with such enthusiastic concep- 
tions, he returned to Quebec, reporting the facts of the situation. 
Re-enforcements were sent to this region — Fathers Nicholas, Mar- 
quette, Dablon, and later, Druellettes and Andre. 

France in the Heart of the Continent. 

In 1670, Talon, the governor of the Canadas, determined to 
formally extend the power of France into the depths of the western 
wilderness, and sent Daumont de St. Lusson and fifteen men to 
take possession of it for his king. Messages were sent to all the 
great western tribes to meet at the Falls of St. Mary. In the spring 
of 1671 representatives of fourteen tribes arrived, and on the morn- 
ing of the 14th of June, on the top of a hill designated, a crowd of 
Indians stood or crouched or reclined at length, with eyes and ears 
intent, as a large cross was erected, and the Frenchmen sang the 
"Vexilla Regis. St. Lusson, with a loud voice, u In the name of the 
most high, mighty, and redoubted monarch, Louis XIV., king of 
France and Navarre," took possession of the place, and all the 
" rivers, lakes, and streams contiguous and adjacent thereto, both 



72 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

those which have been discovered and those which may be discovered 
hereafter, in all their length and breadth, bounded on the one side 
by the seas of the North and of the West, and on the other by the 
South Sea," etc. 

Thus was the standard of France planted in the heart of the 
American Continent, in the midst of its ancient races. " Yet," says 
Bancroft, "this daring ambition of the servants of a military mon- 
arch was destined to leave no abiding monument ; this echo of the 
Middle Ages, to pass away." 

In this field the Jesuits began to appear in a character some- 
what different. " The epoch of saints and martyrs," says Parkman, 
<; was passing away ; and henceforth we find the Canadian Jesuit 
less and less an apostle, and more and more an explorer, a man of 
science, and a politician." 

The Mississippi Valley. 

The next move was the boldest of all. The Jesuits seized the 
great arteries of the North American Continent. 

The hardy Nichollet, adventurer and ambassador, and the 
sagacious Allouez, pioneer and priest, had opened the pathway of 
France and the papacy as far as Lake Winnebago, and even to the 
banks of the Wisconsin ; and the Congress of the great western 
valley tribes at the Falls of St. Mary had prepared the way for more 
extensive exploration, commerce, and civilization. In the vast and 
vague domain on that important occasion by solemn announcement 
claimed for France, the grandest object was the Mississippi, 
indefinitely shadowed forth in the weird stories of the red men as a 
mysterious stream,, rising far in the north, and flowing southward, 
they knew not whither. To explore it, and establish a post on the 
southern waters, hemming in the English on the Atlantic coast, was 
the bold policy of France. This great region was an unknown 
world. Roving tribes had vaguely described it ; but who shall 
penetrate its wild solitudes? 

Father Marquette. 

James Marquette, at the age of seventeen, entered the Order of 
the. Jesuits, and, after twelve years of study and teaching, came to 
Canada, and labored in the missions at the Falls of St. Mary and at 
Mackinaw. He was described as gentle and self-forgetful, of 
superior linguistic abilities, and of no mean tact in diplomacy. His 
name stands high on the entablature of Jesuit missions as a pioneer 
and explorer. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception commanded 



THE BOLDEST ADVENTURE. 70 

his absorbing devotion. It was mentioned in all his letters; and, 
like a subtle element of romance, it imaged to his mind the Virgin 
in forms of transcendent loveliness, inspiring him in the harsh 
realities of his daily life, and stimulating him to chivalrous achieve- 
ments. From this sublime passion was born an ardent desire for 
discovery, that he might consecrate new domains to his celestial 
mistress. Early visiting the lands of the treacherous Foxes, success- 
fully conducting valuable negotiations with the implacable Sioux, 
and studying the mixed dialects of the Illinois more fully than any 
other Jesuit father, he had learned the story of the Mississippi, 
and prepared himself to communicate with the numerous tribes 
upon its banks. 

Louis Joliet. 

Louis Joliet, son of a wagon-maker in Quebec, educated by the 
Jesuits for the priesthood but, declining the clerical vocation, 
became a fur-trader, explored the copper mines of Lake Superior, 
and was commissioned with Marquette to discover the Mississippi. 

Passing up the lakes to Mackinaw, Joliet found Marquette 
eagerly anticipating the journey. With five companions, and a 
a simple outfit of two birch canoes, smoked meat, and Indian corn, 
on the 17th of May they began their voyage u under the protection 
of the Holy Virgin Immaculate," to whom, in advance, they con- 
secrated their discoveries. Paddling along the west shores of Lake 
Michigan they reached the Menominee, and ascended the stream to 
an Indian village, where they announced their intentions. The 
boldness of the project astonished even the wild men, who 
endeavored to restrain the adventurers by stories of ferocious 
tribes along the great river, of frightful monsters in the stream, and 
a fierce demon in its far-off waters, whose terrific roar could be 
heard at a great distance. Disregarding these appeals to their fears, 
they pushed on. Green Bay, Lake Winnebago, and Fox River, 
with its rapids, quiet meanderings, and wild rice marshes, were 
successively passed, until they reached the celebrated portage. 

The Mystic Center of the Continent. 

Here in this mystic centre of the great continent, where the 
flowing waters divide — to the St. Lawrence, on the one hand, and 
to the Gulf of Mexico, on the other — they carried their canoes upon 
their shoulders for a mile and a half, and launched them upon the 
Wisconsin. Dismissing their guides, the adventurers were solely in 
the hands of Providence. Down the tranquil stream, by islands, 
bluffs, forests, marshes, and prairies — <( the parks and pleasure- 



74 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

grounds of a prodigal nature" — -they glided, b/vouacing at night on 
the shores under their inverted canoes. 

The 17th of June was a memorable day In their career. Looking 
expectantly ahead, what is it that greets their gaze? At the foot 
of lofty heights thickly wrapped in forest's a wide and rapid current 
courses athwart their way. 

The Mississippi River Discovered. 

What can be the name of this great stream ? Is it indeed the 
Mississippi, the object of their search? It is. We see them, for a 
few moments, gazing at the mysterious river, their souls filling with 
delight, and then, under an impulse of inexpressible joy, urging 
their light barks into its calm, strong waters. In fulfillment of an 
oft-repeated vow to the Virgin Mary, Marquette gives to the stream 
the name of " Conception River." But no papal saint was destined 
to be the patroness of the Father of Waters ; and the Indian name 
has ever prevailed. 

Down this magnificent stream Marquette and Joliet floated, 
rapturously contemplating its mysterious possibilities; passing 
broad sand-bars, enlivened by sporting waterfowl, islands tufted with 
massive thickets, natural parks and fertile prairies clothed With rich 
summer verdure, and deep solitudes locked in the embrace of 
primeval slumbers. They passed the mouth of the Illinois, the 
fantastic rocks of " The Ruined Castles," the boiling, surging, muddy 
torrent of the Missouri, and the beautiful Ohio, until they reached 
the Arkansas. Convinced by conversations with the natives that 
the Mississippi emptied not, as they had supposed, into the Gulf of 
California, but into the Gulf of Mexico, and fearing that some 
fatality might befall , them, and the results of their discoveries be 
lost, they resolved to return to Canada and report what they had 
seen. They began their homeward voyage, on the 17th of July, 
taking a shorter route, by the Illinois River to Lake Michigan. 

La Salle's Explorations. 

In prodigious contrast with the gentle, single-hearted, unpre- 
tending Marquette, stands the bold, self-reliant, invincible La Salle — 
the one a beautiful example of mediaeval saintship, and an unques- 
tioning imitator of Loyola and Xavier, and the other, a man oi 
ideas and progress, with "the energies of modern practical enter- 
prise." Educated by the Jesuits, and a candidate for their Society, 
he* soon withdrew from them, his strong personality, that could 



U IBERVILLE. 73 

obey no initiative but its own, revolting from their relentless iron 
system, which made every member the passive instrument of 
another's will. Parting on friendly terms, he sailed for Montreal 
and devoted himself to a life of adventure. After some years of 
wild vicissitudes, we find him projecting a voyage to the mouth of 
the Mississippi, that he may claim and colonize those marvelous 
regions for his king, He was formally commissioned for the 
enterprise. 

Four years of reverses and struggles followed, taxing to the 
utmost his adamantine fortitude. At last, he embarked upon the 
great river, followed its winding channel, descended its turbid eddies, 
received the welcome of wandering tribes along its banks, until its 
waters grew bitter, the roar of the sea-surf was heard, and the broad 
Gulf of Mexico opened upon his vision. The goal of his eagle 
imagination was reached, and on the 9th of April, 1682, the Valley 
of the Mississippi, by solemn proclamation, was formally added to 
the domains of Louis XIV., King of France and Navarre. 

La Salle returned by the river, reached Quebec, and hastened to 
France to report his discovery. With a fleet of four vessels and 
two hundred and eighty persons he sailed for the mouth of the 
Mississippi. The ill-fated expedition was overwhelmed with 
disasters on the coast of Texas, and the iron-hearted discoverer, 
while trying to make his way across the country to Quebec, was 
fatally shot by a traitorous comrade. For force of will, vast con- 
ceptions, and quick adaptation to untried circumstances, this daring 
adventurer had no superior among Frenchmen. He was the father 
of colonization in the great valley of the West. 

Louisiana Founded. 

A new era in the history of these missions was ushered in by 
the establishment of a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. The 
honor of the achievements belongs to an illustrious Canadian. 

Born in the midst of the papal fervors at Montreal, Lemoine 
DTberville, early in life, became a zealous champion of the old 
Regime in Canada, and an active promoter of the vast schemes for 
the extension of French dominion in America. A volunteer in the 
midnight attack on Schenectady, the captor of Pemmaquid, the 
commander of an expedition which wrested Fort Nelson and the 
Indian trade of those regions from the English, the successful 
invader of the English possessions in Newfoundland, and a second 
time, in spite of icebergs and shipwreck, a victor in naval contests, 



76 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

on the gloomy waters of the Hudson Bay, he was esteemed the 
most skillful naval officer in the service of France, and the most 
suitable person to undertake the colonizing of the lower Mississippi. 
On the 17th of October, 1698, he sailed from France with four 
vessels and 200 colonists, and, after various delays, on the 2d of 
March, guided by floating trees and turbid waters, he entered the 
mouth of the great river. At the head of Biloxi Bay he erected a 
fort, as a testimony of French jurisdiction from Pensacola to the 
Rio Del Norte, and left his two brothers in command. He returned 
to France for re-enforcements, and in the year 1700 established a 
colony about thirty-eight miles below the present city of New 
Orleans. 

In the year 1700 Tonti came down from Arkansas, under whose 
guidance the D' Iberville brothers ascended the river, made peace 
with the tribes on its banks, and established a post at Natchez. 
Montigny, a man of vast designs and boundless zeal, newly 
invested as vicar-general of the missions in the Mississippi Valley 
under the direction of the Bishop of Quebec, came from the St. 
Lawrence with greetings for their brethren on the Gulf. Western 
Louisiana was explored, and the valley of the Red River far 
toward the confines of New Mexico. Jesuit fathers accompanied 
Louisiana colonists,.and their missions among the Taenas, the Ton- 
icas, the Natchez, the Arkansas, and the Oumas were coeval with the 
settlement. Zeal, however, did not command success. Like other 
missions, some of these were baptized with blood, and, in the first 
thirty years, five missionaries fell by violence. 



Jesuit Missions. 

Jesuit missions followed closely in the path of exploration, in 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The germ 
of the Louisiana Colony, securely planted in the year 1700, gradually 
rose in importance. Illinois became subject to it, and its missions 
were subject to the Superior of the Jesuits at New Orleans, and 
those north-east of Illinois to the Superior at Quebec. Thus 
established at the mouth of the Mississippi and on the St. Lawrence, 
the two extremities of this French-American domain, the next part 
of the scheme was to fill the intervening solitudes with missions, 
forts, and settlements. They were distributed with admirable skill, 
guarding the lakes, streams, and thoroughfares of the wilderness. 
But they lacked elements of permanence. " Agriculture was 
neglected for the more congenial pursuit of the fur trade, and the 



FREA'CIf TERRITORY CEDED TO ENGLAND. 11 

restless, roving Canadians, scattered abroad on their wild vocation, 
.allied themselves to Indian women, and filled the woods with a 
mongrel race of bush-rangers." * The Jesuits were every-where 
present ; many Indian tribes were converted to the papal faith, and, 
in process of time, their dusky neophytes descended the river to 
New Orleans, reciting beads, and chanting prayers and hymns. 
Two Illinois chiefs, Chicago and Mamantouensa, went to France. 

As the people multiplied the soil received more attention, 
and, about 1746, six hundred barrels of flour, besides hides, tallow, 
wax, and honey, were shipped from the Wabash country alone to 
New Orleans annually. The condition of morals was low, as 
might be expected from the strange mixture of the population : 
fur-traders, a hare-brained, reckless class ; vagabond Indians and 
easy-tempered Creoles, a debauched and drunken rabble. Such 
was the condition of these early communities, after many years of 
Jesuit influence. The intrepidity and enterprise of the Jesuits have 
drawn forth our encomiums, but the moral results were meager and full 
of blemishes. Copious lists of conversions were reported, but they 
were reckoned by the number of baptisms, and La Clercq observes, 
"an Indian would be baptized ten times a day for a pint of brandy 
or a pound of tobacco." Crucifixes and medals were beautiful 
trinkets which pleased his fancy, but his heart was as thoroughly 
unchanged as when he wore a " necklace of the dried fingers of his 
enemies." 

But "the lilies of France " grew where the cross declined. The 
Jesuits reported the movements of Indian tribes, won them to 
French allegiance, and fostered their hatred of the English. A 
single Jesuit missionary was sometimes counted by the government 
as " equal to ten regiments." 

Notwithstanding the unparalleled facilities and resources of the 
Mississippi Valley, these settlements possessed in themselves no 
impulse of growth, so thriftless were the populations. In the 
middle of the last century the missions were stagnant, if not de- 
clining. The inconstancy of the French Government at home, and 
the mismanagement in Louisiana affected the whole valley. With 
these things came the French and Indian wars, from 1755 to 1763, the 
defeat of France, and the surrender of all her territory east of the 
Mississippi, including all the Canadas, to England, and west of the 
river, to Spain. The wars of the Revolution and of Pontiac followed. 
Thus in rapid succession the flags of France, England and the 
United States floated over the Valley of the West. 

* Park man. 



78 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNltEB STATES. 

SerUon 4-Resume of Papal Mo^erastits. 

In Florida. — We have, before noticed * that, early in the seven- 
teenths century, 'villages of converts directed by Franci'scansr existed 
along the Apalachicola, Flint and other risers. But the English; 
Colonies planted m the Carolinas rapidly extended their bounds. 
Conflict arosewftlttheir Spanish neighbors and also with tfie Indians, 
resulting disastrously to=- the missions^ Indian wars followed, and 
when Churl evoix^visited this region, m 1722; malty of the missions- 
had been abandoned^ and the influence o£ the others had seriously 
wanedr 

" From this period, few detaik of the missions have reached us, 
down toe the timer When Spain ceded Florida^ to England by the" 
treaty of Farts (f^jjv This was the death-blow of the missions. 
The Franciscans^ with most of the Spanish settlers, left the colony: 
the Indians, who- occupied two towns under the walls of St. Augus- 
tine, were expelled from the grounds cultivated by their toil for 
years, and deprived of the church which they had themselves 
erected. Alt was given by the governor to the newty-esf ablished 
English Church. In ten years no native was left near the city. The 
Indians thus driven out became wanderers r and received the name 
Seminoles, which has that meaning. By degrees all traced of their 
former civilization and Christianity disappeared, and they have since 
been known Only by their bitter hatred of the successors of the 
Spaniards." f 

When the Spaniards left Florida, the English found little to pos- 
sess but the country. " The whole number of its mhaoitants," says 
Bancroft, i " men, women, children and servants, was fhree thousand ; 
and of these the men were nearly all m the pay of the Catholic 
king^ The possession of it had cost him nearly two hundred and 
thirty thousand dollars annually ; and now, as a compensation for 
Havana, h& made over to England the territory which occasioned 
this fruitless expense. Most of the people, receiving from the 
Spanish treasury indemnity for their losses, migrated to Cuba, taking 
with them the bones of their saints and the ashes 6f their dis- 
tinguished dead, leaving at St. Augustine their houses of stone, 
and even the graves without occupants." 

Texas. — The missions in Texas during the earlier period were 
not successful. In 1688, fourteen Franciscan priests and seven Iay- 



* See Chapter I of Colonial Bra. 

f Shea's History of Roman Catholic Missions Among the Indians, p. 75. 

X Bancroft's History of the United States, Centennial Edition. Vol. Ill, p. 403. 



THE PACIFIC COAST. 79 

brother?, with fifty soldiers under Don Domingo Teran, entered -this 
region and founded eight missions. Two fathers, a lay-brother, 
several families of civilized Indians from Mexico, a supply of stock 
and agricultural implements, and a small guard of soldiers as a pro- 
tection, were assigned to each mission. One father attended exclu- 
sively to spiritual affairs, and the other taught agriculture and the 
various arts of life. Indians joining the colony were instructed, 
and their labor went to the common stock, from which they drew 
food, clothing, etc. When capable of self-direction, fields were allot- 
ted to them and houses erected. If single, they were urged to select 
wives from the Christian women. Each mission thus grew to a vil- 
lage, Spaniards and Indians intermarrying. Reverses soon came — 
crops failed, cattle died, the soldiers became offensive, and the field 
was abandoned. The missions were re-established in \Jij, but 
abandoned again in two years. Between 172 1 and 1746, missions 
were established in the center of Texas and extended northward to 
the borders of New Mexico, These mis-ions -continued until within 
the present century, when the country was unsettled by the Anglo- 
American colonization, the revolt of Texas, etc. 

New Mexico. — We have previously noticed that, \\\ 1608, eight 
thousand Indians in New Mexico had received the papal faith, and 
in 1626 the twenty-seventh Roman Catholic mission was founded in 
that country. Villasenor, \\\ 1748, gave a flattering picture of the 
state of this country. The Indians were clothed with materials 
woven by women, and industry was the prevailing habit, rewarded 
with peace and plenty. Religious edifices of a high order, ** even 
rivaling those of Europe," had been erected, and the people were 
not much inferior to their Spanish neighbors. Twenty-two mis- 
sions averaged one hundred families each. The political changes 
which more recently occurred have uot seriously affected the 
condition of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the cession of 
the country to the United States, New Mexico has been made a 
vicarate apostolic, and finally a bishopric, by the erection of the see 
of Santa Fe. 

The first California missions were founded on the peninsula, from 
which point, at a later period, they were extended into the more 
northern portion. The Jesuits and the Franciscans shared in the 
former, but the Franciscans alone achieved the latter. Father 
Juniper Serra, an Italian Franciscan, the apostle of the missions 
in Upper California, was early trained in the missions of Mexico. 
With the assistance of eleven brothers of his order, on the 16th of 
July, 1769, he founded the mission of San Diego, In a long, narrow 



80 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

valley, formed by chains of parallel hills embosoming a delightful prai- 
rie. Favorable omens encouraged the missionaries, and buildings 
were erected ; but just as they were congratulating themselves upon 
the prospects they were attacked by the Indians and six persons 
were killed, among whom was Father Viscaino. Amicable relations 
were soon restored and the mission continued. The establishment 
of another mission at San Carlos, in 1770, occasioned great joy and 
the ringing of bells in the City of Mexico. Thirty new auxiliaries 
were immediately sent to the missions, the Dominicans also asking 
permission to enter the promising field. Proceeding to a beautiful 
site on the River San Antonio, in the bosom of Sierra Santa Lucia, 
where a towering Canada encircles the stream, on the 14th of July, 
1771, Father Serra founded the mission of St. Anthony of Padua, 
in the wide territory of the Telames. The missions of San Gabriel 
and San Luis Obispo were soon after planted. 

A bloody Indian massacre occurred in 1775, and the mission of 
San Diego was the scene. A thousand Indians attacked and pil- 
laged the mission, and many fell, among whom was Father Louis 
Jayme, whose body was terribly hacked and mangled. " Thank 
God I the field is w r atered ! " exclaimed the intrepid Serra, as he 
proceeded, though broken in health, to inspire his co-laborers. 
After a short delay San Diego rose from its ruins. The mission 
of San Francisco was founded June 27, 1776, at the time when the 
Continental Congress w T as discussing the great question of American 
Independence. Other missions were commenced at Santa Barbara, 
Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Miguel, etc., etc., and the Indian con- 
verts were soon numbered by thousands. 

The Indian missions of the Roman Catholics in the North were 
numerous. Missions among the Hurons began in 161 5, among the 
Iroquois and Ottaways in 1642 ; the Winnebagos, at Green Bay, 
in 1660; the Chippeways in 1661 ; the Sioux, west of Lake Superior, 
in 1 66 1 ; the Miami's in 1680. Sault St. Mary, Mackinaw and Green 
Bay were mission centers for many years. Father Gravier, a dis- 
tinguished Jesuit, was superior of the missions in Illinois from 1687 

to 1706. 

Early Papal Missionaries to the Indians.* 

Number of Number of 

Indian Tribes. Missionaries. Period of Service. Indian Tribes. Missionaries. Period of Service. 

Abenakis 22 1613 to 1796 Ottaway 30 1642 to 1781 

Hurons, 30 1615 to 1650 Illinois .. 33 1673 t0 1757 

Iroquois 40 1642 to 1832 Louisiana 16 1699 to 1748 

t For a full list of these missionaries, with names, dates, etc., see History of Catholic Mis- 
sions Among the Indians of North America, by J. Gilmary Shea. 1S57. New York : Edward 
Dunigan & Bro., pp. 499-502. 



HOSTILITY AGAIXST THE JESUITS. 81 

Results. 

Of the thirty-three missionaries who had entered the Illinois coun- 
try from the visit of Marquette, in 1673, to 1750, only three er four 
remained at the latter date. 

At this time, also, a deep hostility was rising in Europe against 
the Jesuits, and the order was formally expelled from France, Naples 
and Spain in 1763. The French Court confiscated all their property, 
and the royal officers in New Orleans, without waiting for the king's 
decree, dispersed the Jesuits at the point of the bayonet, and con- 
fiscated their property, appraised at $186,000, prior to February, 1764. 
Nine years later, this celebrated order was formally suppressed by 
the pope. 

At the close of the French war, more than eighty years had 
elapsed, of exclusive French and papal sway, since La Salle estab- 
lished his first military post on the Mississippi; but the population 
of this new and attractive region was' very inconsiderable. Accord- 
ing to Fraser, as quoted by Bancroft,* there were in Illinois, in 1765, 
of white men able to bear arms, 700 ; of white women, 500; of their 
children, 850; of negroes of both sexes, 900. One hundred and 
ten French families were at Vincennes and along the banks of the 
Wabash. At St. Genevieve there were "at least five and twenty 
families," and at St. Louis "about twice that number." New 
Orleans, according to the census of 1769, had a population of nearly 
thirty-two hundred, and Detroit was a village of little more than 
one hundred houses. 

Prior to 1771, Irish Catholics had not settled much in America, 
only in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Those settling elsewhere gen- 
erally gave up their religion. A considerable number of German 
Catholics settled in Pennsylvania, but their priests were few in num- 
ber. " It is asserted that more than half of the regular troops 
furnished by Pennsylvania during the war of the Revolution, or, as 
they are now called, ' the Pennsylvania lines,' were Irish Catholics; 
from which it may be inferred that, though the Church had suffered 
enormous losses, ... it still presented, at the time of the Revolution, 
an imposing mass, composed in a great measure of Irish, of whom, 
perhaps, a third were born in Ireland." f The number of Catholic 
priests in the United States when the Revolution commenced Was 
twenty-six. 

- History of the United States, Centennial Edition. Vol. Ill, p. 511. 

t Letter to the Lyons Propaganda, by Dr. England, Catholic Bishop of Charleston, S. C. 
See Am. Quart. Reg., 1841, p. 141. 



82 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNI TED STATES. 

CHAPTER IV. 



CHURCH AND STATE 



Sec. i. Diverse Co: - - Religious LegislatieR. 

" 2. Points of Agre . ' :• Religious Intolerance. 

" 3. ReKgious as. ■ j leral - itiops. 

IX the 1 t and the State were in- 

timately blended, the latter subject to the former. Ancient 
paganism was - at upon it. In both 

religion had no separate e \ But Christ proclaimed his 

[rch a spirit- il 1 this world," nor dependent 

the civil power, that 1, might be kept iree from worldly limita- 
tions and coi the decline of spiritual Christian! 
after the apostolic age became corrupted with paganism 
an<£ sought alliance with the State. When the empire decayed, the 
Church advanced her influence by new assumptions of power, or- 
gamzed herself with hiei iers and prerogatives, and seized 
the scepter of supreme dominion. For a thousand years she wielded 
a more titan, imperial power. 

The great European monarchies which sprang up in the fifteenth 
century were allies and vassals of the papal Church. The Reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century became- an established fact over nearly 
of Europe, but it brought no deliverance to the Church from 
its unnatural alliance with the - lower. The reformers, not- 

withstanding ail their sufferings from papal persecution, had no such 
conception of religious freedom as liixi since been entertained. 
Hence, when they separated ; /es from Rome, they allied 

themselves with the civil powers, and availed themselves of the civil 
arm for th< ment of . I the prevention of dissent. 

The same tendency was eve .able, an e Lutherans 

in Germany, the Episcopalian* in England, and the Presbyterians 
in Scotland and Geneva. The ea ^ious emigrants to this 

country came with these idea.--, a pa the common heritage of 

the times. The mutual recognition and support of the Church and 
State were supposed to be a necessity, and it is doubtful whether 



THE VOL VXTARY SYSTEM. S3 

the English Government would have granted colonial charters on 
any other conditions. 

Among the English colonists there were two classes — high 
churchmen, who were admirers of prelacy, and Puritans, who fled 
from its oppressions — both members of the Established Church of 
England : the former settling in the Middle and Southern States 
and the latter in New England.* Both of these classes agreed in 
seeking for the Church the aid of the State, but with marked dif- 
ferences in their methods ; the one monarchical, perpetuating the 
English Church in connection with the English Government, and 
the other democratic, organizing independent churches on the prin- 
ciple of the equality of the individual members, and in vital union 

i the local civil power, but disowning ecclesiastical responsibility 
to English ; --rand patroriag •■ oae form, 

every-where fel ty. 

In the present century the question of ""Establishment " or 

u Disestablfshme best thought of Christendom, 

prompted careful, anxid proTound inquiries. European 

>smen and divii lering the problem whether 

_:ion is dependent for its : - . and permanency upon 

the civil power; or whether, if left to itself and to purely voluntary 
agencies, it will be able to make its influence felt in purifying and 
elevating society, producing peaceable and orderly citizens, and 
maintain itself against elements of weakness from within and oppo- 
sition from without. 

In the history of the American churches this problem seems 
-destined to find a solution ; for here Christianity has existed under 
the necessary conditions, and in forms somewhat experimental.'!- It 
has already been subjected to a twofold test under diverse condi- 
tions — in the colonial and in the national eras. In the latter the 
churches have sustained only voluntary relations, amid which their 
progress will be unfolded in the principal part of this volume. In 
the former they were united with the civil authority in all the older 
and larger colonies.- This will first receive attention. 

What was the ecclesiastico-civil situation in the early colonies of 
the United States ? 

The civil condition must first he understood. The peculiarities 
of the colonial governments, their points of difference and agree- 
ment, the religious limitations of their constitutions, and the legis- 
lation upon religious matters must be earefuily considered. It will 

* The Pilgrims, or Separatists, were another class. See pp. 28. 29. 

+ Se& Ias.t chapter m this volume. 



84 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

then be possible to appreciate the religious progress of the earlier 
times, the changes which took place after the Revolution, when the 
relations of the churches to the States were dissolved, and the new 
conditions of purely voluntary support amid which Christianity has 
since existed. 

Section 1.— The Early Colonial Constitutions. 

The thirteen English colonies in North America by whose in- 
habitants the American Revolution was achieved existed prior to 
that time as separate communities^ with domestic governments, pe- 
culiar ta themselves, derived from the crown, of England. In re- 
spect to their civil polity the colonial organizations have been 
classed as Provincial, Proprietary, and Charter governments. 

Provincial or Royal Governments. To this class belonged Vir- 
ginia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. 
In these the organic constitutions were simply " the respective com- 
missions issued by the crown ta the governors," and the instruc- 
tions which accompanied them. By his commission the governor 
was the appointee and representative of the crown, to which he was 
responsible. The crown also appointed a council, which to some 
extent shared in the executive duties with the governor, and also 
constituted the upper house of the provincial legislature. The 
lower house consisted of representatives of the freeholders of the 
province. These bodies had power to make local laws not repug- 
nant to the laws of England. 

Proprietary Governments. To this class the provinces of Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania and Delaware belonged, in which " the subordi- 
nate powers of legislature and government were granted to certain 
individuals called the proprietaries, who appointed the governor and 
authorized him to summon legislative assemblies." * These pro- 
prietary governments exercised all the prerogatives which in the 
provincial governments belonged to the crown. Only one limita- 
tion was stipulated — that the ends for which the grant was made 
by the crown should be observed in the local legislation, and that 
" nothing should be done or attempted which might derogate from 
the sovereignty of the mother country." In Maryland the laws en- 
acted were not subjected to the supervision of the crown, but in 
Pennsylvania and Delaware they were.f 



* History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States^ 
By George Ticknor Curtis. New York : Harper & Brothers. 1854. Vol. I, p. 5. 

t Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, with a Preliminary Review. By 
Joseph Story, LL.D. Abridged edition. Boston : Milliard, Gray & Co. 1833. Pp. 68, 69. 



EARLY DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. S3 

Charter Governments. Plymouth, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 
and Connecticut were the only colonies of this class, and each had 
some peculiarities of its own. 

The Plymouth Colony landed without any charter. " A large 
patent " had been granted by the London "Company;" but, "be- 
ing taken in the name of one who failed to accompany the expedi- 
tion, the patent was never of the least service." * The Pilgrims, 
therefore, prior to their landing, drew up and signed " an original 
compact," in which they acknowledged themselves subjects of the 
crown of England, and combined themselves into " a civil body 
politic," ,k to frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, con- 
stitutions, and offices from time to time as shall be thought most 
meet and convenient for the general good of the colony," to which 
all promised " due submission and obedience." It was the essence 
of a pure democracy. After several ineffectual attempts, in 1629 a 
patent was obtained under the original charter of 1620. This charter 
furnished them " with the color of a delegated sovereignty." f 

The first charter of the Massachusetts Colony " provided only for 
a civil corporation within the realm, and did not justify the assump- 
tion of the extensive, exclusive legislative and judicial powers which 
were afterward exercised upon the removal of the charter to Amer- 
ica." % The same thing was true of the Plymouth Colony. These 
charters were both lost in the Revolution of 1688. The new charter 
of William and Mary, in 1691, combined these two colonies and also 
the province of Maine under one jurisdiction. It was upon a broad 
foundation, and not a mere corporation " empowered to appoint by- 
laws," but "in the strictest sense a charter for general political gov- 
ernment; a constitution for a State with sovereign powers and pre- 
rogatives." It was " dependent, indeed, and subject to, the realm of 
England;" but still it possessed within its own territorial limits 
"the general powers of legislation and taxation." The governor 
was appointed by the crown, but the council was annually chosen by 
the assembly, and the assembly by the people. 

"In Connecticut and Rhode Island the charter governments 
were organized altogether upon popular and democratic principles, 
the governor, council and assembly being annually chosen by the 
freemen of the colony." § 



* Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 305. 

+ Story on the Constitution. Edition of Hilliard & Gray. Boston 1833. P. 17. 
% Ibid, pp. 69, 70. 

§ For a fuller statement of the character of the early colonial governments see Commentaries 
on the Constitution of the United States. By Hon. Joseph Story, LL. D. 



86 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATUES. 

Section £.— Points of Agreement. 

Notwithstanding the diversities of the colonial constitutions, they 
all agreed in several particulars. 

1. All the colonists enjoyed the rights and privileges of Britjsh 
born subjects and the- benefits of the common laws of England. 
All the early colonial legislatures passed declaratory acts acknowledg- 
ing and confirming these immunities, thus securing a real and effective 
magna charta of their liberties, and firmly establishing the trial by 
jury, in all civil and criminal cases. 

2. Practically, however, it seems to have been left to the colonial 
judicatures to determine what portions of the common law were 
applicable to the colonies, and hence a considerable difference of 
interpretation and administration prevailed in- the different sections. 

3. Appeals from the highest colonial courts were adjudicated by 
"the king in council." In most of the colonial constitutions this 
right was secured by express reservation. 

4. There was one fundamental limitation upon all the legislation 
of the colonies, stipulating that no laws should be enacted repug- 
nant to those of England. A considerable latitude, however, was 
sometimes allowed in the exposition of this clause. 

5. Though the colonies had a common origin, owed a common 
allegiance, and the inhabitants of each were British subjects, yet 
they had " no direct political connection with each other; each was 
independent of all the others ; each, in a limited sense, was sovereign 
within its own territory. There was neither alliance nor con- 
federacy between them." 

6. And yet they were not wholly alien from each other, for they 
were all subjects of a common sovereignty, and, for many purposes, 
one people. Every colonist had a right, as a British subject, to 
inhabit any other colony, and to inherit or hold property In 
them all. 

7. But, as colonists, they were excluded from all connection with 
foreign powers. They were known only as dependencies; and they 
followed the fate of the parent country, both in peaee and war, 
with no power of diplomacy. No treaty or league between them- 
selves could possess any obligatory force without the assent of the 
crown, and whenever their mutual wants led them to associate for 
the purposes of common defense these confederacies were of a 
temporary character, and were allowed as an indulgence rather than 
as a right. • 

8. , Every- where in the colonies the attributes of sovereignty; 



VARIOUS RESTRICTIONS. 87 

perpetuity, and responsibility were recognized as inhering in the 
political capacity of the king. He was the head of the Church, 
the fountain of authority and justice, the generalissimo of the 
forces, entitled to share in the legislation, to enter a nolle prosequi 
in civil prosecutions, to pardon crimes, to release forfeitures, to pre- 
sent benefices, to appoint governors, to grant commissions, and 
perform any other acts not expressly yielded or renounced in the 
colonial constitutions. 



Section .7.— The Religious Limitations. 
Under the Provincial Governments. 

Virginia. The original charter was vested in a commercial 

corporation, located in London, which, with the aid of a subordinate 

mcil, in the colony, governed the emigrants by royal authority. 

" Religion was specially enjoined to be established according to the 

rines and rites of the Church ol England; and no emigrant 
might withdraw his allegiance from King James or avow dissent 
from the royal creed."* After the fall of the London Company, 
under the new charter, granted in 1624, the governors were required 
to uphold public worship according to the form and discipline of 
the Church of England, and to "avoid all factions and needless 
novelties." 

In New Hampshire liberty of conscience was allowed to all 
Protestants, but "those of the Church of England were to be 
specially encouraged." 

New York. The Dutch, who first settled this State, set up 
the Reformed religion, according to the acts of the Synod of Dort, 
and the colonial clergy were commissioned by the Classis of Am- 
• dam : but no formal constitutional restriction was enacted until 
1640. when the West India Company, which then controlled the 
colony, decreed that "no other religion shall be publicly admitted," 
" except the Reformed Church." f 

In New Jersey liberty of conscience was allowed to all persons 
except papists. 

In the Carolinas an express clause in the charter opened the 
way for religious freedom. 

Georgia was an asylum for the persecuted Protestants of Europe 
of every name. 

* Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 123. 

t Documents of Colonial History of New York. iL Holland," I, p. 123. 



83 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Under the Proprietary Governments. 

In Maryland no religion tolerated by the crown at home could 
be excluded. 

In Pennsylvania and Delaware liberty of conscience and of 
worship, and eligibility to public office were granted to all persons 
professing to believe in Jesus Christ. 

Under the Chartered Constitutions. 

The case of the Plymouth Colony was peculiar. The Pilgrims 
were Independents, and previous to their departure from England 
they petitioned the king for liberty of religion, to be confirmed 
under the king's broad seal. " ' Who shall make your ministers ? ' 
was asked of them ; and they answered, * The power of making them 
is in the Church; ordination requires no bishops;' and their 
avowal of their principles threatened to spoil all. . . . While the 
negotiations were pending, a royal declaration constrained the 
Puritans of Lancaster to conform or leave the kingdom ; and 
nothing mo^re could be obtained for the wilds of America than 
an informal promise of neglect. On this the community relied, being 
advised not to entangle themselves with bishops." * With this 
implied guaranty they founded the colony at Plymouth, in 1620, 
without a formal charter, as has been previously mentioned. They 
had security for their own religious freedom, but were not bound by 
any chartered stipulations to others. The charter which was 
formally granted in 1629 made no change in their religious status. 

The charter of the Massachusetts Colony simply conferred the 
rights of English subjects, without any enlargement of religious 
liberty. The patentees being Churchmen at the time of their de- 
parture from England, this fact was supposed to be, in itself, a 
sufficient guaranty; and they were left unrestricted. 

In Maine the early charter expressed " the will and pleasure of 
the crown that the religion of the Church of England should be pro- 
fessed, and its ecclesiastical government be established, in the 
province." In 1691 a new charter was granted, by which the 
three colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Maine 
were united under one colonial government, and "liberty of 
conscience in the worship of God to all Christians except papists" 
was decreed. 

In Connecticut the original charter was silent in regard to 
religious rights and liberty. 



- Bancroft's History of the United Stales. Vol. I, p. 305. 



RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION. 89 

The charter of Rhode Island, which was not obtained until 1663, 
decreed that " no person, within the said colony, should be in any 
wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for 
any difference of opinion in matters of religion, which did not 
actually disturb the civil peace of said colony ; but that all and 
every person and persons might, from time to time, and at all times 
thereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judg- 
ments and consciences in matters of religious concernments." 



Section 4.— Early Religious Legislation. 

This phase of the subject opens a broad field from which ex- 
amples will be given. The religious legislation of Virginia, Mas- 
sachusetts, New York, and Maryland, will be the most fully 
sketched, and only brief references will be made to the other 
colonies. 

Virginia. 

This State was colonized by the admirers of English prelacy, 
and it has been already noticed that its charter established the 
religion of the Church of England. "Thus the two bulwarks of 
English loyalty — an aristocracy and a hierarchy — were set up on 
the soil of Virginia."" From the arrival of Lord Delaware, in 1610, 
a new administration was introduced, under a new charter granted 
the previous year, according to which officers were selected and 
sent out by the London Company. Such was the dread of popery 
that it was stipulated that no person should enter the province of 
Virginia * but such as had first taken the oath of supremacy. 
Henceforth specific instructions were sent to the colony from the 
mother country, often extending to religious matters. On the 
failure of his health, Lord Delaware returned to England, and Sir 
Thomas Dale was sent to Virginia. 

The arrival of Sir Thomas Dale, as governor, in 161 1, " marks 
the period at which penal laws were first introduced to aid the 
colonists in keeping a good conscience." The governor was furnished 
with a bodyf of " Lawes, diuine, morall, and martiall," for the 
colony.* 

* Bancroft. 

tStith's Virginia, p. 122. Burk's Virginia, Vol. I, p. 165. 
% Two specimens of these laws are here given : 

VI. " Euerie man and woman duly twice a day, vpon the* first towling of the bell, shall vpon 
the working daies repaire vnto the Church to heare diuine service, vpon paine of losing his or her 



9p CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES. 

They were chiefly translated from the martial laws of the V Low 
Countries, and were entirely at variance with the spirit of English 
liberty. In this singular code of bloody enactments, the Church was 
provided for; but it is due both to the governors and the governed 
to state, that on the one hand there Avas as little disposition to en- 
force as on the other to submit to, the penalties of the code.'* * 

In 1618, Captain Argall, the deputy governor, in revising the code 
provided that " every person should go to church, Sundays and 
holy days, or lie neck and heels that night, and be a slave to the 
colony the following week ; for the second offense, he should be a 
slave for a month ; and, for the third, a year and a day."+ The 
tyranny of Argall led to a remonstrance to the London Company, 
and the following year a new governor appeared, bringing a new 
charter. It provided that the clergy should have in each borough a 
glebe, to consist of one hundred acres, and should receive from the 
profits of each parish a standing revenue, to be worth at least two 
hundred pounds. Thenceforth also, a colonial legislature assembled, 
consisting of " two burgesses chosen for every town, hundred, and 
plantation." Among the first laws of this body was one for the 

daye's allowance for the first omission ; for the seeond, to be whipt : and for the third, to be con- 
demned to the galtles for six months. Likewise, no man or woman shall dare to violate or 
breake the Sabbath by any gaming, publique or private, abroad or at home, but duly sanctify and 
observe the same, both himselfe and his familie, by preparing themselves at home by private 
praise, that they may be the better fitted for the publique, according to the commandments of 
God and the orders or our Church ; as also, euerie man and woman shall repaire in the morning 
to the diuine service, and sermones preached vpon the Sabbath dale, and in the afternoon to 
diuine service and catechising, vpon paine for the first fault to lose their provision and allowance 
for the whole weeke following; for the second, to lose the said allowance, and also to be whipt ; 
and for the third, to suffer death.*' 

XXX1I1. "There is not one man nor woman in this colonie now present, or hereafter to 
arrive, but shall give up an account of his and their faith and religion, and repaire vnto the 
minister that by his conference with them he may vnderstand and gather whether heretofore 
they have been sufficiently instructed and catechised in the principles and grounds of religion: 
whose weakness and ignorance herein, the nnnister finding and advising them in all love and 
charitie to repaire often vnto him to receive therein a greater measure of knowledge; if they 
shall refuse so to repaire vnto him, and he the minister give notice thereof vnto the governor, or 
that chiefe officer of that towne or fort wherein he or she, the parties so offending shall remaine, 
the governor shall cause the offender, for the first time of refusal, to be whipt ; for the second 
time he shall be whipt twice, and to acknowledge his fault vpon the Sabbath daie in the assembly 
of the congregation ; and for the third time, to be whipt every day vntil he hath made the same 
acknowledgement, and ask forgiveness of the same, and shall repaire vnto the minister to be 
further instructed as aforesaid ; and vpon the Sabbath, when the minister shall catechise and of 
him demand any question concerning his faith and knowledge, he shall not refuse to make 
answer vpon the same perill." 

" Fof the colony in Virgineia Brittannia : Lawes, Diuine, morall. and martiall, etc." Lon- 
don, 1612. Collected and published by Wm. Strachey. 

See also Haivks^s History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 25, 27. 

* History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia. By Rev. F. L. Hawks, D.D. Harper 
& Brothers, New York, 1836, p. 2+. Also, I. Buck's Appendip, 304. 

iStith's Virginia, 145; Burk's Virginia, 195. 



COXFORMITY IX VIRGIXIA. 91 

church. In 162 1-22 it was enacted that each clergyman should receive 
from his parishioners fifteen hundred pounds of tobacco and sixteen 
barrels of corn, no person paying more than ten pounds of tobacco 
and one bushel of corn. Even- male who had reached the age of 
sixteen years was liable to this tax. :f 

Again, in 1624, there was special legislation with reference to the 
Church, by the colonial assembly convened by Sir Francis YVyatt. 
Of the thirty-five laws passed, the first seven laws were for the 
benefit of the Church and the clergy. They provided that, in every 
plantation, " a house or room" should, be set apart for the worship 
of God, and also a place for burial ; that absence from church for 
one Sabbath, without a good excuse, should be punished by a 
fine of a pound of tobacco, and, i'o\- a month, fifty pounds ; that 
all persons should yield conformity to the canons of the Church 
of England, upon pain of censure : that the 22d of March (the 
day of the great Indian massacre in 1622). should be solemnized 
and kept holy, and that all other holy days should be observed : 
that no minister should be absent from his cure above two months 
in the whole year, upon penalty of forfeiting half his salary, and, if 
absent four months, his whole salary and cure; that whoever 
should disparage a minister, without sufficient proof to justify his 
reports, should pay five hundred pounds of tobacco, and ask the 
minister's forgiveness publicly in the congregation ; that no man 
should dispose of any of his tobacco before paying the minister, 
upon forfeiture of double his part toward the salary, and that one 
man in every plantation should be appointed to collect the minister's 
salary out of the first and best tobacco and corn.f This was the 
last legislation that affected the Church, under the jurisdiction of 
the London Company. The same year the king arbitrarily re- 
sumed the charter, and henceforth, for the next one hundred and 
fifty years, the government was provincial in its character. 

In 1629 an act was passed, enjoining, under severe penalties, a 
strict conformity to the canons of the Established Church; and, in. 
1642, another, declaring that " no minister should be permitted to 
officiate in the country but such as should produce to the governor 
a testimonial that he had received his ordination from some bishop 
in England," and should pledge t; conformity to the Church of 
England,." and that any other person pretending to minister should 
be compelled to depart from the country. The civil code of this 
period was very severe in its penalties. A woman convicted of 

* Hawks' s History of the Episcopal- Church in Virginia, p. 35. 
t Hening 7 s Virginia- Statutes at Large, 122; Stith, 319. 



92 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

scolding was ordered to be ducked three times from a vessel lying 
in James River; a man guilty of slandering a minister was required 
to pay a fine of five hundred pounds of tobacco, and to ask the 
pardon of the minister before the congregation. In the year 1633 
a citizen of Hungar parish, for the offense of slandering Rev. Mr. 
Cotton, was ordered by the Court to make a pair of stocks, and 
sit in them several Sabbath days, during divine service, and then 
ask Mr. Cotton's forgiveness. In the year 1643 the Court ordered 
that Richard Buckland, who had written a slanderous song on 
Ann Smith, should stand, during the "Lessons" at the church 
door with a paper on his hat, on which should be written " Inimicus 
Libelhts" and that he should ask forgiveness of God, and also of 
Ann Smith. In 1664 Mary Powell was ordered to receive twenty 
lashes on her bare shoulders, and be banished from the country, 
.on account of slander. Quakers quietly worshiping God, but not 
according to the methods of the Established Church, were convicted 
of blasphemy and banished from the country. * 

In 1664 the condition of the Church in Virginia was very unfavora- 
ble, and an extended representation of its affairs was made to the 
Bishop of London and the king by the governor, SirWm. Berkeley, 
in his visit to England that year. In reply he received "a body of 
instructions," which formed the basis of the colonial legislation for 
the Church, after his return, in 1662. These acts provided for 
the erection of church edifices, the arrangement of parishes, the 
supply of Bibles, prayer-books, and other church requisites, 
regulated the compensation of the clergy, the frequency of public 
services and the sacraments, the appointments of vestrymen, and 
the observance of the Sabbath. 

In 1689, Rev. James Blair, D.D., was appointed by the king and 
his council, and duly commissioned by the Bishop of London, as a 
commissary "to supply the office and jurisdiction of the bishop in 
the outlying places of the diocese." Virginia was his special field 
of labor, and his functions were restricted to the inspection of 
churches, the delivering of charges, and, in some instances, the 
administration of discipline. 

In the year 1705, additional statutes were enacted for the sup- 
pression of vice and the punishment of blasphemy. They provided 
that the denial of God, or the Trinity, or the truth of the Christian 
religion, or the authority of the Scriptures, for the first offense, should 
be punished by the forfeiture of all official positions within the 

* Old Churches, Ministers, and Families 0/ Virginia. By Rev. Bishop \Vm. Meade, 
Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott 6c Co., 1857, vol. I, pp. 254, 5. 



DISSENT INCREASING. 93 

province ; for the second, disqualification from being guardian, 
administrator, grantee, legatee, devisee, etc.; and that the offender 
should also suffer three years' imprisonment. Stringent statutes 
were also enacted to promote the observance of the Lord's day. Any 
person who should be absent from the parish church for one month, 
or be present at any disorderly meeting, gaming, or tippling, or 
make any journey, or travel on the road, except to and from church 
(cases of necessity and mercy excepted), should be fined, and, on 
failure to pay the fine, should be whipped. * 

The legislature of the colony, in 1727, fixed the annual salary of 
the clergy at sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco, and ordered that 
not less than two hundred acres of land should be purchased and 
appropriated, as a glebe, in each parish, with comfortable buildings. 
Passing by other similar legislation, in which the mutual relations 
of the civil and ecclesiastical bodies are exhibited, the close of the 
colonial period is reached, when a great revolution took place. Dur- 
ing several years a spirit of opposition to the Established Church 
had been augmenting, and finally it fully engaged the attention of 
the legislature of 1776, in which, after a desperate contest, an act 
was passed repealing all laws implying criminality for differences of 
opinion in matters of religion, neglect of attendance upon church 
services and laws restricting the mode of worship. Dissenters were 
also, by law, exempted from paying taxes for the support of the 
Episcopal Church. Arrears of salaries due the clergy, and glebes 
already purchased, with church edifices, books, etc., were secured 
to them. This was the second statute enacted by the first repub- 
lican legislature of Virginia, f At this time, about two thirds;): of 
the people of the State had become dissenters, or at least were not 
connected with the Established Church. 

Maryland, The Carolinas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc. 

The early history of this celebrated colony was characterized by 
great liberality, which made it a marked exception in those days. 
The Legislative Assembly, in 1645, adopted a strong statutory 
declaration in favor of religious liberty, for which that colony has 
received many high encomiums. § Its language is strikingly in co'n- 

* Trott's Laws of Virginia No. 46 ; 3. Herring's Statutes at Large, p. 358. 

t Hawks's History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, p. 143. 

X Benedict's History of the Baptists. New York, Lewis Colby, etc., 1848, p. 653. 

I It should not, however, be overlooked that this virtue was not a purely voluntary thing. The 
home government, to which all the colonies were amenable, was intensely Protestant, and it was 
a condition of the grant that all religions must be allowed which were tolerated by the crown at 
7 



94 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

trast with the spirit of the early colonies of Virginia, New England 
and New York, and especially with that shown in the history of the 
Papal Church. It declared that " the enforcement of the conscience 
has been an unlawful and dangerous prerogative ; " that no person 
professing to believe in Jesus Christ should be molested in respect 
to his religion, or in the free exercise thereof; that persons molest- 
ing any others in respect to their religious tenets should be heavily 
fined, but that persons speaking reproachfully of the Virgin Mary, 
or guilty of blasphemy, should be punished, the latter with death. 
Such a statute is the more remarkable because a great variety of 
religious classes, although, probably, not formed into churches, were 
already in the colony, at this early period, as may be inferred from 
the terms used in this celebrated document ; namely, " Heretic, 
Schismatic, Idolater, Puritan, Independent, Presbyterian, Popish 
priest, Jesuit, Jesuited Papist, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist, 
Brownist, Antinomian, Barronist, Roundhead and Separatist." 

To whatever the toleration of the Protestants by the Catholics 
of Maryland may be attributed, it is, nevertheless, the just verdict 
of impartial history that, " under the enlightened policy of Lord 
Baltimore the colony steadily advanced in prosperity, increasing 
both in comfort and in numbers. Roman Catholics and Protestants 
alike found protection and security, and lived in harmony." * 

Under the administration of Governor Fendall, in 1658, the Quak- 
ers were persecuted, and four years before, when Cromwell's commis- 
sioners took possession of the colony, attempts to worship, by Cath- 
olics and Episcopalians, were suppressed. Before the close of the 
century there were repeated changes f in the civil condition of 

home. In fact, the Maryland Colony was a Protestant measure affording an asylum for Roman 
Catholics at a time when they were suffering severe persecution. 

De Courcey, an eminent Roman Catholic writer, has frankly dissented from the encomiums 
which have been pronounced upon this papal colony on account of toleration. He says, " When 
a State has the happiness of possessing unity of religion, and that religion the truth, we ca7inot 
conceive how the government ca?t facilitate the division of creeds. Lord Baltimore had seen 
too well how the English Catholics, were crushed by the Protestants, as soon as they were the 
strongest and most numerous ; he should then have foreseen that it would have been so in Mary- 
land, so that the English Catholics, instead of finding liberty in America, only changed their 
bondage. Instead, then, of admiring the liberality of Lord Baltimore, we prefer to believe 
that he obtained his charter from Charles I. only on the formal condition of admitting 
Protestants 07t an equal footing ivith Catholics. .." 

See The Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. Translated and 
enlarged by John Gilmary Shea. New York. Edward Duni^an & Bro., 1857, p. 30. 

* History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks, 
D.D. New York. John S. Tyler, 1839, p. 30. 

+ There were several embarrassments. During the middle of the first century a civil war was 
in progress in England, and the supreme power was first in the king, then in Cromwell and Par- 
liament, then in the king again, which changes affected the civil condition of the colony. Con- 



CATHOLIC TRAINING PROHIBITED. 95 

England, which often proved unfavorable to the Maryland Catholics. 
As one of the effects of the English Revolution in 1688 a wide- 
spread abhorrence of popery prevailed, extending to all the colonics. 
In the meantime other sects were increasing in numbers more rap- 
idly, especially the Episcopalians. When the proprietary govern- 
ment was closed up, in that province, in 1692, and the colony was 
brought directly under the officers of the crown, the Church of 
England was established by the colonial legislature, and a tax was 
imposed by law for its support." The law of 1692 provided that the 
Church of England should enjoy all her rights, liberties and fran- 
chises wholly inviolable, that the several counties should be laid out 
into parishes, that taxes for the support of the clergy should be 
levied, and that the vestries should be bodies corporate. + The ten 
counties were divided into thirty-six parishes. The number of the 
clergy at that time was sixteen, and the population twenty-five 
thousand. ;J; The Episcopal Church remained under this regimen 
until the American Revolution, favored with the patronage of the 
civil power. Other sects were tolerated, except the papists, who 
were absolutely forbidden to assemble for worship. 

Catholic school-masters were followed up by the officers of the 
law, and Catholic parents were prohibited from educating their chil- 
dren in the faith of their ancestors. But the learned and zealous 
Jesuit missionaries in the province had established at Bohemia, a 
remote and secluded spot on the Eastern Shore, a grammar school, 
where, without observation or molestation, the Catholic youth of 
the province received a preparatory training for the European col- 
leges. Here the youthful Carroll, with his illustrious cousin, Charles 
Carroll, of Carrollton, and his relative, Robert Brent, entered on 
their preparatory studies. § 

In South Carolina, the first proprietaries protected all the sects. 
In 1704, the colonial oligarchy, who were churchmen, by political 
chicanery obtained a majority of one in the Legislature — not wit h- 

tentions arose, and the Catholics and proprietors at one time arrayed themselves against the rul- 
ing- powers in England. Civil war was thus transferred to the colony, in which the governor 
and the Catholics were defeated. Hence, in 1654, when Cromwell assumed the protectorate, the 
Catholics having arrayed themselves against the <rovernment, a new assembly was convened, and 
an act was passed by which persons who held to popery or prelacy were restrained from the free 
exercise of their religion. Other changes followed under subsequent sovereigns. 

* History of the Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. Enlarged by 
John Giimary Shea. New York, 1857. Edward Dunigan & Bro.. p. 33. 

+ Bacon's Laivs of Jfaryland, 1692, Ch. II. Also Hawks'* History of the Episcopal Church 
in Maryland, pp. 71, 72. 

% Griffith's Sketches of Maryland, p. 36. 

§ Lives of the Deceased CatJwlic Bishops, vol. I, p. 34, 



96 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

standing two thirds of the inhabitants were not Episcopalians — dis- 
franchised all but themselves, and gave the Church of England the 
exclusive monopoly of political power. The dissenters appealed to 
the House of Lords, in England ; the acts complained of were 
annulled by the crown, and were repealed by the Colonial Assembly 
two years afterward. From that time until the American Revolu- 
tion dissenters were tolerated, and allowed a share in civil matters, 
but the Church of England remained the established Church of the 
province. * 

At the commencement of the last century almost all denomina- 
tions existed in North Carolina, Quakers, Lutherans, Presbyterians, 
I-n-dependents, etc., constituting the majority of the people. But 
the proprietaries forced a church establishment upon this province 
in 1704, claiming that the majority were only " Quakers, Atheists, 
Deists and other evil-disposed persons." From that time, churches 
were erected at public expense, and other provisions for an Estab- 
lishment, such as parishes and clergy, were made. But the Episcopal 
Church never became very strong in that province. 

East and West New Jersey united into one province, and placed 
under the administration of the crown in 1702, had its future gov- 
ernment laid down in the commission and instructions to Lord 
Cornbury ; toleration being allowed to all but papists, and special 
" favor" invoked for the Church of England — that Church being so 
far established there seventy-three years before the American Rev- 
olution. In Pennsylvania there never was any union of Church and 
State, nor any attempt to bring it about. Delaware was separated 
from Pennsylvania in 1691, and, from that time, had its own gov- 
ernors under the immediate control of the crown. But in Dela- 
ware, as well as in New Jersey and in Georgia, the colony of the 
good Cavalier, James Oglethorpe, who loved "the king and the 
Church," there can hardly be said to have been an Establishment. 
The "favor" shown to the Episcopal Church secured a mainten- 
ance for a small number of ministers only, and that more for the 
benefit and gratification of the officers connected with the govern- 
ment, and their families, than with the view of reaching the people, 
who preferred other modes of worship. 

New York. 

It has been mentioned that the Reformed Dutch Church was 
Lblished in this colony by the first settlers, and that in 1640 it 

* Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. Ill, pp. 18, 19. 






FREEDOM OF WORSHIP IN XEIV YORK. 97 

was confirmed by the decree of the West India Company. In 1664. 
the City of New York was taken by the English, who stipulated 
that the Dutch should enjoy entire liberty of conscience and wor- 
ship, while, at the same time, the new government established the 
Church of England in every parish of the colon}-. But a public 
pledge was given that " no person should be molested, fined or 
imprisoned, for differing in judgment in matters of religion, who 
professed Christianity." * 

At the Quarter Millennial Anniversary of the Reformed Prot- 
estant Dutch Church of New York City Rev. Dr. Dix said: 

New Amsterdam was taken; it became New York, and the Church of England 
was planted where the Classis of Amsterdam had been the supreme and only 
ecclesiastical authority. But observe how scrupulously the rights of your fore- 
fathers were respected. There is nothing like it in history ; never did conquerors 
treat the conquered with such deference and consideration. As far as possible, the 
old customs were preserved ; private rights, contracts, inheritances, were scru- 
pulously regarded ; and, as for the Reformed Dutch Church, it seems to have been 
treated as a sacred thing. It was more than protected ; it was actually established 
by law, by an English governor, under English auspices. This was, perhaps, no 
more than a fair return for the good deeds done by your people. When your turn 
came to be under the yoke, it was said to you in substance: "You shall still be 
free; not one of your old customs shall be changed, until you change them your- 
selves; by us you shall not be meddled with ; keep your places of worship, your 
docks, and all you have, in peace." And so, to their old church of St. Nicholas. 
inside the fort, did your people continue to wend their way in absolute security, 
though English sentries were at the gates ; and within the walls over which the 
standard of England waved did the good Dutch dominie speak his mind as freely 
as ever to his spiritual children ; nor was it until they had finished their devotions 
and withdrawn, that the English chaplain ventured within the same house of wor- 
ship to read his office from the Book of Common Prayer. 

Subsequently (1686) f an effort was made to put the province 
under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury; and, three years after, it was embraced within the diocese of 
the Bishop of London, without whose approval no clergyman could 
be inducted into any parish. About this time, taxes were levied 
upon all the inhabitants for the support of the Episcopal clergy, 
although liberty of conscience was granted to all persons except 

* N. Y. Historical Society's Collections, I, p. 332. 

+ In 1686, Governor Dougan, of the Colony of New York, was instructed as follows: "You 
are to take especial care that God Almighty be devoutly served throughout the government, the 
Book of Common Prayer, as it is now established, read every Sunday and Holy Day, and the 
blessed sacraments administered according to the rites of the Church of England. . . . Our will 
and pleasure is, that no minister be preferred by you to anj^ ecclesiastical benefice in our province 
without a certificate from the Archbishop of Canterbury, of his being conformable to the doc- 
trine and discipline of the Church of England, and of a good life and conversation.'' 



98 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES. 

papists. Under the governorship of Col. Benjamin Fletcher (1693 
the Church of Englar.d :::uee considerable pro-gress toward eccle- 
siastical distinction. I: was recognized and sustained by the gov- 
ernment, while the Reformed Church was still alk wed. Dissent 
was not, however, encouraged. In i~z6. a petition was presented 
to the government " t: exempt Protestants from any taxation foi 
the support of ministers c f churches to which they did not belong :" 
but it was rejected, and down to about the time of the Revolution 
Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc.. were compelled to support the Epis- 
: : pal Church. * 

New England, 

It has been safd that the Plym ./. th Colony, at the time of their 
landing, were hout a formal charter : but in the cabin of the 
Mayflower they drew up a form of civil government which was "the 
germ of the republican institutions of the United States." " Standing 
around the table in the ship's cabin, they organized themselves into 
a Commonwealth, end pledged: themselves to make just and equal 

~ The following additional items will be of inrerrs: : ' l The letter of trie Bisn : f : : 1 :ndon to 
the k og in council, in Feb] nary 1759, as found in the Colonial Documer::: Vol VII, page 360. 
is full of valuable facte in 1696. the king directed that the president, council and mnusters, 
should provide that the live word arm service of God should be preached., planted and used 
according to the rites and doctrines 01 the Church of England. . . .. The Church of England 
being established in America, the Independents and other Dissenters who went to settle in New 
England could only have toleration, and. in fact, flrey had no more, as appears by their 9eve al 
ricularly by :hr Rhode Island charter, granted in the fourteenth year of 
Charles II. Thus stands the right of the Church of England in America. And, in fact at 
least one half of the plantations are ■::" the Established Church, and have built churches and 
ministers' houses,, and have by-laws of their respective assemblies, confirmed by the crown, pro- 
viding maintenance for the Church of England clergy.' In September,. 1693, the Colonial Assem- 
bly passed an act for settling a mirisrry and raising a maintenance for them, and for enforcing 
collections by taxation for this purpose. This act received the king's assent in council on May 11. 
evident that many of the colonists were dissatisfied with the operations of this 
law, for in 1695 the Colonial Assembly of Xew York resolved that the wardens and vesb 
had power to call a dissenting minister under the act of 1693. 

anding Governor Fletcher rebuked the assembly for st*ch an assumption, a bill 
ministry of Dissenters. The Earl ©f Bellomont maintained 
uch a measure was in conflict with his instructions and he rejected it. As freeholders elected 
: chose the ministers, it is evident that those ia sympathy with Dissenters 
largely chosen. At Jamaica,. in 17&2, a dissenting minister. Mr. Hubbard, was called by the 
dens and vestryme: [n 1704, Lord Cornbury put into possession of this church a minister ot 
the Church of England, by his warrant alone. After his death his widow put into possession a 
j had marriedher daughter- Litigation followed, but the Presbyterians 
t dispossessed of the church or property. As illustrations of the sentiments which pre- 
vailed at that day even in New Y : rk. the foil ire pertinent : * In 1706, a bill was intro- 
duced to exempt the Protestants of the counties 0:" Sew York, Westchester, Queens and Rich- 
mond, from any taxation for the support of ministers of churches to which they did not belong. 
:!1 was rejected. In 1769. attempts were made by the assembly to secure an act for allowing 
les of Reformed Protestants to the northward of the counties of Dutchess and Ulster, to 
md hold real est: : je of j£"ioo per annum, given to them, for the support of the 
-nd the uses of schools. The council refused its assent."* 






THE PL Y MOUTH COLONISTS. 99 

laws for the general good, and promised to obey the laws of the 
majority, and the officers whom they should elect. There were 
forty-one men in all, representing different conditions of life. 
Every one of these signed this compact, and they elected one of 
their number to be their governor. This is believed to have been 
the first example of a written constitution based upon the equal 
rights of men as members of the State. These men recognized one 
another as equals before the law ; and, as the foundation of govern- 
ment, they laid down the broad principle that laws should be framed 
for " the general good," and should be just and equal toward 
all alike." 

11 As the Plymouth colonists were all of one faith, and were, in 
fact, members of one church, they naturally made provision for the 
support of religion from the public treasury; and, as the colony 
extended, they ordered that churches should be built and main- 
tained in every town at the public cost. At a later period, when 
the peace and safety of so small a Commonwealth were threatened 
by innovations, they passed laws compelling attendance upon public 
worship, and forbidding churches to separate from those already set 
up and approved, unless the consent and approbation of the 
government should first be obtained. Theirs was not strictly an 
established church, but the pretext for such restrictions upon the 
very liberty which they came to establish was the preservation of a 
homogeneous colony, and of a pure and independent church. They 
required also that a " freeman," or voter in the town meetings, 
should be of good personal character and ' orthodox in the funda- 
mentals of religion.' Such regulations show that these colonists 
were not wholly emancipated from the notions and customs of their 
times, nor quite equal to the occasion of proclaiming religious 
liberty to all men. Nevertheless, the Plymouth colonists made a 
great step forward, and were never betrayed into gross intolerance. 
Though even this most notable colony — the mother of civil and 
religious liberty — was still hampered by the notion that the State 
should provide for the maintenance of religion, and should punish 
blasphemy, profaneness, Sabbath-breaking, and heresy as crimes, 
yet it did not, like later Puritan colonies of New England, go to 
the oppressive extreme of restricting civil offices and privileges to 
members of the church." * 

" The original Pilgrims were more just and liberal than their 
immediate successors. In the second generation, the prosperity of 
the colony tempted mere commercial adventurers to join it, and 
these brought with them elements of discord, disorder, vice, and 



lOO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

irreligion, that seemed to call for severe measures of proscription. 
Yet harsh laws, passed in an emergency of public danger, 
were repealed as soon as the excitement had subsided, and Ply- 
mouth was, in the main, a model of a well-regulated colony." * 

" For -eighteen years all laws were enacted in a general assembly 
of all the colonists. The governor, chosen annually, was but 
president of a council in which he had a double vote. It consisted, 
first of one, then of five, and finally of seven counsellors, called 
assistants. So little were political honors coveted at New Plymouth 
that it became necessary to inflict a fine upon such as, being chosen, 
declined to serve as governor or assistant. None, however, were 
obliged to serve for two years in succession. 

" The constitution of the Church was equally democratic. For 
the first eight years there was no pastor, unless Robinson, still 
in Holland, might be considered in that light. Lyford, sent out by 
the London partners, was refused and expelled. Brewster, the 
ruling elder, and such private members as had the gift of prophecy, 
officiated as exhorters. On Sunday afternoons, a question was pro- 
pounded, upon which all spoke who had any thing to say. Even 
after they adopted the plan of a pastor, no minister stayed long at 
Plymouth." f 

It has been noticed that the colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts 
Bay, and Connecticut, were left almost entirely without consti- 
tutional restrictions in regard to religious matters, and hence were 
at liberty to frame their own ecclesiastical institutions and politico- 
religious regulations. 

It is a remarkable fact that, with the exception of the Plymouth 
settlers, all the first New England colonists, up to their leaving 
England, were Puritan members of the Church of England ; X but 
when they settled in their new homes they all proceeded to found 
their churches on the " Independent " plan, confining every church 
within the limits of a single congregation, and making its govern- 

* Church and State. By Rev. J. P. Thompson, D.D. Boston. James R. Osgood & Co., 
1873, pp. 54-57- 

t Hildreth's History of the United States. New York : Harper & Bros., 1849, vol. I, p. 175. 

X The emigrants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay belonged to the Low Church party, and 
their ministers, Higginson, Hooker, and Cotton, although regularly ordained clergymen of the 
Established Church, shared so largely in the growing revolt against prelacy that they were ready 
to improve the earliest opportunity to cast off their bonds. Bancroft says : " Considering the 
subject from the historical point of view, it must be observed that the establishment of Episcopacy 
in New England, as the religion of the State, was impossible, since the character of the times 
was a guaranty that the immense majority of emigrants would prove its uncompromising 
opponents. Episcopacy had no motive to emigrate ; it was Puritanism almost alone that came 
over, and freedom of Puritan worship was necessarily the purpose and the result of the colony." 
Vol. I., p. 344. 






THE BALLOT FOR CHURCH MEMBERS ONLY. 101 

ment a pure democracy. The membership of the Church was made 
up of persons who sought admission, made a confession of their 
faith and experience, and signed a " covenant." The entire power 
of admitting and excluding members, and the decision of all con- 
troversies, was with the brotherhood, by whom the officers were 
elected. Such, in brief, was the idea of the Church in the colonies of 
Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut. How was the 
State constituted ? 

It must be premised that, with these colonists, religion was the 
stock upon which every thing must be ingrafted. They emigrated 
for religious ends. Every thing, therefore, must be shaped by 
religion and subordinate to it. The State became an outgrowth 
from the Church, its offspring and handmaid. In all affairs, civil 
and ecclesiastical, the Church took the precedence, and gave 
character to the civil administration ; the State was only the Church 
acting in secular and civil affairs. 

Predicating their action upon this principle, the ballot was 
limited to members of the Church. This law, adopted in 163 1, 
discloses their strong religious feelings — " To the end that the body 
of the commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it is 
ordered and agreed that, for the time to come, no man shall be 
admitted to the freedom of this body politic but such as are mem- 
bers of some of the churches within the limits of the same." * This 
principle was incorporated into the colonial laws of Massachusetts, 
Maine, and Connecticut. A desire to promote the welfare of the State 
led to the adoption of this restriction upon the character of the 
men who should choose their rulers, make their laws, and manage 
the affairs of the colony. It was not to benefit or aggrandize 
the little organizations which constituted these churches, but to 
secure good and honest citizens to administer the civil government. 
Nor was this practice of the Puritan Commonwealth altogether 
strange and exceptional in that age. Throughout Christendom, 
neither Jews, Turks, pagans, infidels, nor excommunicated persons 
could enjoy the full privileges of citizenship. They must be in 
communion with the churches established by law. It was the 
universal prerogative of the Church to confer the civil franchise. 
Until recently this test has existed in England. But in New 
England the principle worked differently from anywhere else, for 
the churches admitted to their fellowship only those who, according 
to their spiritual standard, were regenerated persons, the evidence 

* Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 360. Also Massachusetts Colonial 
Records, 1631. Vol. I, p. 87. See also pp. 137, 150, 198, and 200 of this book. 



102 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of which was required to be recited before the church, including an 
internal assurance of a change of heart and a lively sense of justi- 
fication, as one of God's elect. Such was the basis on which the 
civil constitution was established. It became the primary object of 
civil legislation to provide for the support of public worship. 
Towns of convenient size were laid out as " parishes," and the 
people were ordered by law, through the proper authorities of their 
respective towns, to levy taxes for the erection and suitable repair 
of " meeting-houses," for the maintenance of a minister, and all 
other necessary expenses connected \vith public worship. The town 
voted with the Church in the call of the minister. The town and the 
parish in New England were united by a vital ligament which 
closely blended the civil and the religious life. The key principle 
was that government, civil and ecclesiastical, is constituted and 
administered upon the Bible as the source of knowledge and 
authority, with no kingly nor episcopal supremacy. The discipline 
of the Church in the early days was prompt, vigilant, judicial, and 
carried out with a strong public authority. And it took cognizance, 
too, of offenses which since then have been more wisely referred to 
other tribunals. 

In the early period there were usually two ministers to each 
church, one denominated a " teacher," or "elder," and a "pastor;" 
but this distinction did not long continue, for by degrees they soon 
came to support one minister. There were " ruling elders " selected 
from among the laymen, who were active promoters of good order 
and doctrine, and deacons, who managed the finances. These two 
offices were subsequently blended in one under the latter title. 

" According to the system established in Massachusetts, the 
Church and State were most intimately blended. The magistrates 
and general court, aided by the advice of the elders, claimed and 
exercised a supreme control in spiritual as well as temporal matters ; 
while, even in matters purely temporal, the elders were consulted 
on all important questions. The support of the elders, the first 
thing considered in the first court of assistants held in Massa- 
chusetts, had been secured by a vote to build houses for them, and 
to provide them a maintenance at the public expense. This 
burden was indeed spontaneously assumed by such of the planta- 
tions as had ministers." * 

The northern colony in Connecticut, consisting of three towns, 
held a convention of all the freemen and adopted a written con- 
stitution, based on that of Massachusetts, but different in one 

* Hildreth's Histoi-y of the United States. Vol. I, p. tgi. 



NOT A "THEOCRACY." 103 

important particular. As at Plymouth, residents of an acceptable 
character might be admitted freemen, though not church members, 
but the governor must belong to the Church. The first general 
court (1638) enacted a body of laws, deficiencies in which were 
to be supplied by the "Word of God." The New Haven Colony 
effected an organization in 1639. They limited the right of par- 
ticipation in the government to church members, and adopted the 
Scriptures as the law of the land. The Church was organized with 
great care. After prayers and a sermon, twelve persons were 
elected by the body of the colonists, with power, after the trial of 
each other, to designate seven of their own number as pillars. These 
seven were to admit such additional church members as they saw 
fit. The Church being organized, and a body of freemen provided, 
the governor was chosen. In 1667, these two Connecticut colonies 
were consolidated, but they retained essentially the same character. 

The government of the early Puritan colonies has been repeat- 
edly characterized as a " Theocracy." Bancroft, Hildreth, a large 
number of other writers, and more recently Rev. Dr. J. P. Thomp- 
son,* have thus denominated it, but exceptions have been taken to 
this view by some of the ablest New England divines, although they 
say that " it is difficult to combat a theory so deeply rooted." A 
writer f in the Congregational Quarterly says: u This state of affairs 
did not make a 1 theocracy,' as is sometimes inconsiderately, nay, fool- 
ishly supposed. If Massachusetts was then a ' theocracy,' every Chris- 
tian church and every Christian family, and every mercantile establish- 
ment conducted on Christian principles, is now a theocracy ; for in 
neither case was anything done beyond this: to live according to the 
mind and will of God, as signified to us in the Holy Scriptures. In 
neither case is any direct or immediate revelation from God enjoyed 
or expected, as in the theocracy of old." 

The founders of these colonies were devout and religious men, 
intent upon escaping persecution for non-conformity ; they also 
desired to establish a body politic in which the habit of thought 
and course of legislation should favor that sobriety and good order 
in the community which grow out of a prevalence of religious 

* Church and State. Published by James R. Osgood & Co., Boston, 1873, pp. 46, 57, etc. 
See critical review of this book by the editors of the Congregational Quarterly, Oct., 1873, pp. 
588, 590. 

t Rev. John A. Vinton. See July number, 1873, p. 408. In a foot-note, Mr. Vinton adds — 
" the word 'Theocracy' is defined by Webster : 'Government of a State by the immediate 
direction of God ; or, the State thus governed. Of this species the Israelites furnish an illustrious 
example. The theocracy lasted till the time of Saul.' Worcester's definition is ' A government 
directed by God.' The etymology of the word should be sufficient." 



104 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

culture; and they sought to accomplish their ends through the 
instrumentality of civil government. Hence they organized the civil 
body as they did. 

In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1638, a law was enacted 
subjecting to assessment and distress all who did not voluntarily 
contribute according to their ability to all town charges, " as well 
for upholding the ordinances of the churches as otherwise," and 
another, exposing excommunicated persons to fine, imprisonment, 
and banishment. The revised code of 1641 conferred upon the 
magistrates and general court — themselves the representatives of a 
constituency of church members — the right of superintending the 
churches, and to deal with church members " in a civil way " without 
waiting for the action of their particular churches. It provided 
that no church censure should degrade or depose any civil officer, 
and that no proscription or custom may prevail to establish any 
thing " morally sinful by the law of God." It limited the hospital- 
ities of the colony to people of other nations professing " the true 
Christian religion." The punishment of death was inflicted for 
idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, and nine other offenses. The 
code concludes with a declaration of " the liberties which the 
Lord Jesus has given to the churches." But the strict union 
between Church and State, and the despotic authority assumed by 
the aggregate c*f the church members, as represented by the 
magistrates and deputies, reduced the liberties of the individual 
churches within very narrow limits. Almost every clause in this 
section is burdened with a qualification which destroys its force. 
" Every church has free liberty of election and ordination of all 
their officers, provided they be able, pious, and orthodox." " We 
allow private meetings for edification in religion among Christians 
of all sorts of people, so it be without just offense for number, 
time, place, and other circumstances." " The polity of Massa- 
chusetts conferred, in fact, unlimited powers in matters of religion, 
as in every thing else, upon the majority of church members, as 
represented by the magistrates and General Court. Those in the 
minority, whether churches or individuals, had no rights, and no 
alternative but silence and submission or withdrawal from the 
colony."* 

In 1644, a law was enacted inflicting banishment upon all such 
as, after "due time and means of conviction, continue obstinate" 
in opposing infant baptism. The following year a petition was 
presented to the general court asking for a reconsideration of the 

* Hildreth's History of the United States. Vol. I, p. 279. 



THE CA MB RIDGE PL A TFORM. 1 OS 

law against the Baptists. "A portion of the court were inclined to 
listen to this petition, but the elders went first to the deputies and 
then to the magistrates, and, representing what advantage it would 
give the Baptists, whose notions were fast spreading, they succeeded 
in obtaining a peremptory note that the laws complained of should 
neither be altered nor explained. The Commissioners for the 
United Colonies aided their support, advising at the next meeting 
the suppression of the influx of error, ' under a deceitful color of 
liberty of conscience.' " * 

In 1646, a petition was presented by Messrs. Maverick, Dr. 
Child, and five others, praying for the rights of English subjects, 
and complaining of the exclusion of all but church members from 
civil and ecclesiastical privileges. Those who signed it were accused 
of a very " linsie-wolsie disposition, some for prelacy, some for 
presbytery, and some for plebsbytery." Dr. Child was summoned 
before the court ; he and his associates were fined from %^o to $250 
each, and were exhorted to be quiet, to study to mind their own 
business, and to " recollect the sin of Korah, in resisting Moses 
and Aaron." 

A similar effort in behalf of religious liberty had been made in 
the Plymouth Colony, about the same time, by Vassall and others. 
One of the magistrates had made a proposal for general toleration, 
and two others had supported him. "You would* have admired," 
wrote Winslow to Winthrop, " to see how sweet this carrion relisheth 
in the palate of most of the deputies." " But Governor Prince, 
sustained by a majority of the magistrates, refused to put it to the 
vote, as being that, indeed, which would eat out the power of 
godliness." \ 

The intimate relations of the Church and State in New England 
will be still further seen from the action of the Commissioners of the 
United Colonies, who recommended the drawing up of a common 
confession of faith and a common scheme of discipline for the New 
England churches. The general court subsequently proposed a 
synod for that purpose. After some delays, the synod assembled in 
Cambridge, in 1648, and framed a confession of faith almost 
identical, except in the matter of church government, with that of 
the famous Westminster Assembly. The latter declared for 
Presbyterianism, claiming for the Church, under the Scriptures 
divine authority independent of the State. But the Cambridge 
platform of New England Churches recognized the intimate union 

- Hildreth's History of the United States. Vol. I, pp. 310, 311. 
t Hildreth's History 0/ the United States. Vol. I, p. 319. 



106 ' CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of Church and State, as they had been organized in the Massa- 
chusetts Colony, limiting political power to church members. 

Two early governors of the Massachusetts Colony, Winthrop 
and Dudley, who had been deeply devoted to the peculiar politico- 
ecclesiastical policy* which had been adopted, survived the synod 
but a short time. Winthrop died in 1649, and Dudley in 1652. 

In 1649, the code of laws of the Massachusetts Colony was com- 
piled and published under the direction of a commission consisting 
of two magistrates, two ministers, and two able persons from 
among the people in each county. In this code were several 
enactments, borrowed from the Jewish code and others, sustaining 
the fundamental doctrines upon which the policy of the colony 
was founded. The following language appears in the code : 
"Although no human power be lord over the faith and 
consciences of men, yet because such as bring in damnable 
heresies, tending to the subversion of the Christian faith and 
destruction of the souls of men, ought duly to be restrained 
from such notorious impieties," therefore, " any Christian within 
this jurisdiction, who shall go about to subvert or destroy the 
Christian faith and religion by broaching and maintaining any 
damnable heresies, as denying the immortality of the soul or 
resurrection of the body, or any sin to be repented of in the 
regenerate, or any evil done by the outward man to be accounted 
sin, or denying that Christ gave himself a ransom for our sins, . . . 
or shall openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of infants, "etc., etc., 
were liable to banishment. Jesuits were forbidden to enter the 
colony, and their second coming was punishable with death. 

A code for Connecticut, adopted the following year, followed 
closely that of Massachusetts. In 165 1, the town of Maiden, having 
settled a minister without consultation with neighboring churches, 
was subjected to a fine. «• The offense thus punished without any 
law for it — a practice in those times too common in Massachusetts — 
a law was afterward enacted making it essential to the settling of 
a minister to have the consent both of a council of the neighboring: 
churches and of ' some of the magistrates ' also.f ' " 

*The following lines, found in the pocket of Dudley after his death, express the sentiment 
of these men : — 

" Let men of God, in courts and churches watch 
O'er such as do a toleration hatch, 
Lest that ill egg bring forth a cocatrice, 
To poison all with heresy and vice. 
If men be left, and otherwise combine, 
My epitaph's — ' I died no libertine ! ' " 
fHildreth. Vol. I, p. 381. 



LA IV S A GAIXS T Q UAKERS. 1 07 

In 1654, it was enacted that every town should support a 
minister, the burden to be laid " upon the whole society jointly, 
whether in church order or not." It was also enacted that none 
should be allowed to sit as deputies in the general court who did 
not hold to the creed of the established churches of the colony. 
In 1656, a special law was enacted against Quakers, which denounced 
them as " a cursed sect of heretics lately risen in the world." To 
bring a "known Quaker" into the colony was made punishable 
with a fine of ;£ico, besides bonds to carry him back again, or, in 
default thereof, imprisonment. The Quaker himself was to be 
whipped twenty stripes, sent to the house of correction, and kept 
at hard labor until transported. The importation or possession of 
Quaker books was strictly prohibited, and all such books w r ere to 
be burned by the nearest magistrate. Any one who should dare 
to defend Quaker opinions was subjected to a fine, and for the 
third offense was liable to be banished. The following year the 
fines were increased : for an hour's entertainment of a " known 
Quaker " a fine of forty shillings was specified ; male Quakers were 
compelled to lose one ear on the first conviction, and on the 
second the other, and on the third both males and females were 
to have their tongues bored through with a hot iron. Similar 
laws were adopted in the Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven 
colonies, by the recommendation of the Commissioners of the 
United Colonies. In 1658, the Massachusetts Colony made the 
second visit of a Quaker punishable with death. 

Charles II. was restored to his father's throne in 1660. Ne- 
gotiations soon took place in reference to points at issue between 
the king and the colony, in which the king demanded the repeal 
of all laws inconsistent with his due authority, a complete toler- 
ation for the Church of England, the repeal of the law which 
restricted the tenure of office and the privilege of voting to members 
of the churches, and the admission of all persons of honest lives to 
the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

The advocates of toleration, heretofore suppressed with great 
severity, were encouraged by these demands of the king, and raised 
their heads again. During the next thirty years, the State was 
divided into three parties, which arose upon the issues springing out 
of the question of toleration. One party represented and defended 
the old system ; another advocated a limited toleration ; and 
another still wholly rejected all the so-called " theocratic ideas," 
as untenable and even undesirable. Internal causes, too, had 
somewhat relaxed the existing system. Among the baptized 



108 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

children of the members of the churches were many men of 
property, of estimable character, reputable lives, and social 
influence, who conformed to all the outward observances of the 
established religion, but who made no profession of regeneration, 
and consequently were not members of the churches, nor entitled 
to exercise the elective franchise. Taught from earliest childhood 
to reverence the institutions of religion, they insisted upon the 
benefits of baptism for their offspring and the civil privileges of 
church membership for themselves. In Connecticut, churches had 
been rent in pieces by this demand, and the Massachusetts Council 
was called to promote a reconciliation. About the time that the letter 
containing the king's demands was received, a synod had met to 
consider the question. After extended deliberation, the majority 
of the ministers and members voted to enlarge the basis of their 
polity by adopting the famous " half-way covenant." The children 
of reputable parents, who were orthodox in principle, and had 
themselves been baptized in infancy, although not members of the 
church were admitted to baptism, and became members of the 
Church so far as to become voters, although not allowed to par- 
take of the Lord's Supper. They became half-way members, This 
measure was adopted in 1662. 

From this period a gradual modification took place in the 
extreme politico-religious policy of the New England colonies, 
but the parish system, the levying of taxes for the support of the 
churches and other kindred provisions remained until some time 
after the American Revolution. 



Section 5.— Religions Intolerance. 

In New England. 

It has been before noticed that the charter of the Massachusetts 
colony simply conferred the rights of English subjects. The first 
colonists being Churchmen at the time of their departure from 
England, this fact was supposed to be in itself a sufficient guaranty, 
and the colonists were left unrestricted in respect to religious liberty. 
The colony being settled and organized under the auspices of the 
English Government, there was no thought that the Church of 
England could be excluded or its introduction attended with dififi- 
culty. But we have seen that, almost from the first, these colonists 
broke away from the Church of England, and proceeded to consti- 



FIRST EPISCOPAL SERVICE IN BOSTON. 109 

tute independent churches and a civil polity based on the Church. 
Having thus sundered their former ecclesiastical relations, they hence- 
forth regarded themselves as owing no obligations of allegiance or 
courtesy to the English Church, and were imbued with such preju- 
dice and antagonism toward it that only with great difficulty could 
it be introduced into New England. 

The Episcopalians. 

" The people of the sturdy Puritan stock are not blameworthy 
for desiring to keep the country of their own way of belief, if they 
could. For nearly half a century they had had the opportunity to 
grow far toward an independent nation, on that ecclesiastical basis, 
and the presence of the Church of England would be a perpetual 
sign that this state of things was ended. Nor is it strange that 
they feared many evils from the admission of the Book of Common 
Prayer which never came to pass. But they resolutely shut their 
eyes to the fact that there were those among them who had an 
equal right with themselves to such religious institutions as they 
might choose. The Church of England had the misfortune to be ? 
in the estimation of the mass of New Englanders, a part of the 
tyranny of the Stuarts. If it had been more free from such associa- 
tions, perhaps they would have feared and hated it less." * 

It is a fact to be noted that for over sixty years after the Pilgrims 
landed there was not a single Episcopal church in New England. 
On the arrival of the royal commissioners in Boston, in 1686, they 
caused the English Church service to be celebrated in that city — the 
first ever observed in the town. The local authorities remonstrated, 
but in vain, and the Old South Church was jointly occupied by its 
owners and by an Episcopal congregation. For a long time no one 
could be found willing to sell land on which to erect an Episcopal 
church ; but finally Governor Andros and his council used their 
authority as the supreme governing body, appropriated a corner of 
the old burying ground for that purpose, and King's Chapel, the 
first Episcopal church in New England, was erected in 1688. 

After the organization of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, in 1701, something more was accomplished, 
despite bitter hatred and penal enactments. Missionaries were sent 
into various portions of New England and into other colonies. So 
much progress was made that the Church of England was petitioned 

*The Memorial History of Boston. J.R.Osgood. 1880. Edited by Justin Winsor, LL.D. 
Vol. I, p. 196. Article by Rev. H. W. Foote. 



110 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

to appoint Bishops for America : but the application was opposed by 
dissenters in England, and by Puritans and others in America. Two 
non-juring Bishops, however, were appointed (1722) for America — 

Rev. Drs. R. Welton and T. Talbot, the former in Philadelphia, and 
the latter in Burlington. X. J. " But they were not allowed to ex- 
ercise their episcopal functions, except by stealth, and the govern- 
ment soon interfered, and put an entire stop to all action on their 
part." 

When, about 1720. several persons prominently connected with 
Yale College were discovered leaning toward episcopacy, grave fears 
were entertained "lest the introduction of Episcopal worship into 
the colony should have a tendency to gradually undermine the 
foundations of civil and religious liberty." When, a little later. 
Episcopal churches were organized in Connecticut, their members 
were imprisoned, their property was taxed for the support of the 
" Standing Order:'" and when appeal was made to the Governor for 
relief, he showed them no favor, but ordered a rigid enforcement of 
the obligations, even to the imprisonment of those refusing to pay. 
These are a few specimens of the difficulties, the seventies, vigorous 
persecutions, and civil disabilities amid which the Episcopal Church 
was introduced into some of the colonies. 

The Baptists. 

The Congregational were the only churches organized in Massa- 
chusetts, until the founding o{ the first Baptist church in 1663. 
Numerous attempts to establish Baptist churches in that State 
had been previously made, in which the names of Messrs. John 
Clarke and Obadiah Holmes figure largely. In 1659. the same year 
in which the first Baptist church was founded in Providence, an at- 
tempt was made in Weymouth, near Boston : but the promoters of 
the design were arraigned before the general court and subiected to 
fines, disfranchisement, imprisonment, etc. In 1644. a poor man by 
the name of Painter, for expressing an opinion against infant bap- 
tism, was tied up and whipped.* In 1644. a law was passed provid- 
ing for the banishment of Baptists from the colony. In 165 1. Messrs. 
Clarke, Holmes and Crandall. representatives of the Baptist church 
at Newport, R. I., visiting one of their aged and infirm brethren at 
Lynn, Mass., and holding religious services in his house, were ar- 
rested, put in prison, and sentenced to pay fines of ^30. £20. and 
£l each, or to be publicly whipped. The case of Mr. Holmes was 

* Backus's History. Vol. I. pp. 151, etc. 



LA J J r S A G. I IX S T BAP TIS TS. 1 1 1 

pushed to the extreme, and after being confined in prison he was 
publicly whipped with a three-corded lash upon his bare back, re- 
ceiving thirty strokes administered with the utmost strength of the 
administrator. Warrants were issued against thirteen persons 
whose only crime was showing some sympathy with Mr. Holmes. 
In 1663, the first Baptist church in Massachusetts was formed in 
Swansea, near the line of Rhode Island, and, two years after, the first 
in Boston. " In a few months after the organization of this feeble 
church their trouble commenced, and continued with much severity 
for a number of years, and some of the members spent most of their 
time in courts and prisons ; they were often fined, and finally the sen- 
tence of banishment was pronounced against them, which, however, 
they did not see fit to obey." ..." The burden of all the com- 
plaints was that they formed a church without the approbation of the 
ruling powers*'* In Maine there were similar experiences. The 
first Baptists suffered slanders, abuse and legalized tyranny ; and 
persons who met with them for worship were repeatedly summoned 
before a magistrate and threatened with fines in case of future of- 
fenses. Fines as high as £\o were inflicted upon some. The first 
Baptist church in Maine, organized at Kittery in 1682, encountered 
storms, violence, obloquy, fines and imprisonment, and, in less than 
one year from its formation, the church was dissolved, and its mem- 
bers scattered like sheep upon the mountains. Xo other Baptist 
church was organized in Maine until 1764. 

The Baptists were numerically few in all the colonies, especially 
in New England. They were Congregational in polity, but did not 
submit the control of their churches to outside parishes, not even in 
part. In their estimation, the existence of parish societies, com- 
posed in part or altogether of persons who are not members of the 
Church, and allowed directly or indirectly to control the action of 
the Church, was to be avoided. All such extraneous organizations 
they believed to be contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the 
Bible, erroneous in principle and pernicious in results. Until with- 
in comparatively a brief period, the laws of Massachusetts did not 
recognize a Baptist church as entitled to any rights of property, or 
as having any corporate existence. It was necessary, therefore, 
for individual members to organize as " private societies," asso- 
ciated for the secular business of the Church In New York and 
Virginia, the Baptists suffered from similar privations and intoler- 
ance. 

* History of the Baptists. By David Benedict. 1848, p. 383. 



I 12 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Cases of Roger Williams, the Quakers, etc. 

Numerous instances of alleged religious intolerance have been 
popularly cited, in both the historical and the more transient 
literature of the last two centuries, until they have become as 
familiar as household words. The cases in the sub-heading above 
are the more notable ones. A different view from that pop- 
ularly entertained has been taken by some of the most intelligent 
and discriminating persons; and a just exhibit of the cases requires 
that the considerations by which they have been led to dissent from 
the popular verdict should be briefly given. It is claimed that in 
the cases of Roger Williams, Ann Hutchinson, the Quakers, and 
some others, there was no persecution for merely holding religious 
opinions different from those of the established church of the 
colony ; that there was no attempt at enforcement of the conscience ; 
and that therefore these persons cannot be regarded as martyrs for the 
faith, inasmuch as they had liberty to entertain whatever religious 
opinions they chose, and their relations to their Maker were never 
matters of civil inquiry. 

In the case of Roger Williams, it is claimed that he was banished 
because he disturbed the civil order of the colony, stirring up strife 
and revolt, so that he could no longer remain consistently with the 
public safety; that he made himself justly obnoxious to the magis- 
trates by denying their power to punish perjury, blasphemy, and 
Sabbath-breaking, crimes still punishable under civil statutes; 
that he caused great alarm by publicly proclaiming that 
the patent under which the colony was settled was invalid, 
and the titles to the land under it worthless, thus exposing 
the colony to the displeasure of the English Court at a time 
when the relations to the crown were very critical ; that when, 
for the greater security of the colony, the colonial legislature 
enacted that all males over sixteen years should take an oath of 
fidelity, Mr. Williams not only refused to take it, but also strenuously 
maintained that it was wrong for a magistrate to administer an oath 
to an unregenerate man, thus striking a blow at the root of civil 
society and embarrassing the ordinary administration of justice; 
and that Mr. Williams induced the church at Salem to write to the 
churches of which the magistrates were members, complaining of 
their official acts, and urging that they should be disciplined — an 
act so seditious in its character that, according to the custom of 
those times, it would have resulted in their disfranchisement and 
removal from office. 



BANISHMENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 113 

The act of the general court (Sept. 3, 1635), expelling Mr. 
Williams from the colony, was in these words : " Whereas. Mr. 
Roger Williams, one of the elders of the church in Salem, hath 
broached and divulged new and dangerous opinions against the 
authority of the magistrates, and also writ letters of defamation, 
both of the magistrates and churches here, and yet maintaineth the 
same without retraction, it is therefore ordered," etc. Mr. Williams 
himself, in a book published by him in London, in 1643,"" states 
the grounds of his banishment to have been the following opinions : — 

1. That we have not our land by patent from the king-, but that the natives 
are the true owners of it, f and that we ought to repent of such a receiving of it by 
patent. 

2. That it is not lawful to call a wicked person to swear or to pray, as being 
actions of God's worship. 

3. That it is not lawful to hear any of the ministers of the parish assemblies 
in England. 

4. That the civil magistrate's power extends only to the bodies and goods and 
outward state of men. 

To this publication Mr. Cotton replied that it was not for the 
mere holding of opinions, but for the turbulent assertion of t 'lie in, that 
Mr. Williams was banished. He dwelt at length upon two reasons 
which caused his banishment : — 

1. His violent and tumultuous carriage against the patent. 

2. His vehement opposition to the Oath of Fidelity. \ 

Hon. John Quincy Adams (Address before the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, 1843), sa ^ — " Can we blame the founders of the 
Massachusetts Colony for banishing him (Williams) from within 
their jurisdiction ? In the annals of religious persecution is there 
to be found a martyr more gently dealt with by those against whom 
he began the war of intolerance? " § 

As to the Quakers, the number who suffered fine, imprisonment, 
or whipping in Massachusetts was about thirty ; twenty-two were 
banished on pain of death, if they returned ; three had their right 
ear cut off, and four suffered death by hanging. No sufficient 
excuse can be offered for these severities, and yet some alleviating 
considerations demand attention. 

* Entitled " Mr. Cotton's Letter, lately printed, examined, and answered." 

t Excepting- the lands of the Pequots and Narragansetts, which were gained by conquest, our 
fathers bought the soil from the Indians, paying them a fair value for it for the mere purpose of 
hunting — for which it was chiefly held — and the Indians made no complaint of dissatisfaction 
with the price. The patent protected them only against European adventurers. See Palfrey's 
History of New England. Vol. I, p. 387. 

X Cotton's Reply to Williams, pp. 27, 30. 

§ For a fuller discussion see Congregational Quarterly, July 1873, pp. 395, 402. 



114 CHRIST I AX I TY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

It is claimed that the Quakers of that time were not the quiet, 
peace-loving, amiable, benevolent Friends of the more recent times, 
but " rioting, turbulent, and provoking ;" * that they were "guilty 
of blasphemy, sedition, and general disorder ; " and that " they 
continually disturbed congregations assembled for worship.'* It is 
related that " Margaret Brewster went into a meeting-house with 
her face smeared over as with black paint;" that " Deborah Wilson 
went through the town of Salem naked, as a sign to the people ; " 
that " Lydia Wardwell went into the meeting-house in Newberry, 
Massachusetts, as naked as she was born ; " that they initiated strife, 
trampled on the laws, set at naught the constituted civil authority, 
and with a stiff audacity courted the extreme penalties of the law; 
and that the general court of Massachusetts at first only threatened, 
then sent them away, and finally banished them.f 

The treatment of Ann Hutchinson and the Antinomians has 
also been vindicated on considerations of public order. \ One of 
the editors of the Congregational Quarterly, % who discusses these 
questions in a very able manner, deserves attention here : 

"We can only judge correctly of their motives by placing ourselves in the 
situation in which they found themselves. A feeble and struggling colony, they 
had no means of self-preservation but by guarding against the intrusion of men 
from abroad, either disorderly in conduct, unruly and insubordinate in spirit, or 
hostile or unsympathetic in their views, who might come in, under their popular 
form of government, and defeat the very purposes for which they had exiled them- 
selves from the mother country. For half a century or more they had been 
smarting under the rod of persecution inflicted by the Episcopal Church, and they 
might, moreover, have seen the effects of its policy upon the Virginia Colony. Did 
it partake of theocracy that they sent home the half dozen, more or less, who 
had undertaken without being invited to settle among them, and that they were 
not willing that others of the same class should come into their communion? 
Worthy as the Baptists ft have proved themselves to be of the confidence and 
respect of good men in our time, the time was, and that as late as the settlement 



* Bishop Burnett speaks of them as the most dangerous sect known in England in his time. 

t Congregational Quarterly, April, 1S73, PP- 2 §i, 283. 

% Congregational Quarterly. Articles by Rev. John A. Vinton, April, July, and Octo- 
ber, 1873. 

§ Congregational Quarterly, October, 1883, pp. 590, 592. 

11 The law against the Baptists was enacted in 1644. On Nov. 4, 1646, the general court 
put forth the following explanation : "The truth is, the great trouble we have been putt unto and 
hazard also by Familisticall and Anabaptisticall spirits, whose conscience and religion hath been 
only to sett forth themselves and raise contentions in the country, did provoke us to provide for 
our safety by a lawe that all such should take notice how unwelcome they should be to us either 
coming or staying. But for such as differ from us only in judgment in point of baptism or some 
other points of lesse consequence, and live peaceably among us without occasioning disturbance, 
. . . such have no cause to complaine, for it hath never beene as yet putt in execution against any 
of them, although such are knowne to live amongst us." See Hutchinson Papers. 



THE CONNECTICUT -BLUE LAWS." 115 

of New England, when the wild and lawless extravagance of the Anabaptists in 
Minister was still fresh in the public memory ; * and an outbreak of men of the 
same denomination in London, under one of their preachers, as late as 1661, and 
which was only suppressed after a bloody conflict with the troops, shows with 
what dread the men of New England must have regarded an influx of religious 
zealots whose antecedents, as to a quiet and orderly life, must have been so 
alarming. So with the Quakers. Aside from the estimate in which they were 
held in England, the people of Massachusetts had seen enough in their own streets 
and houses of worship to feel that the public order would never be safe if such 
open disturbers of the peace went unpunished ; and though we might not, by any 
means, be ready to commend the wisdom or humanity of the treatment extended 
to these sects, there is no occasion to ascribe this to any other motive than a wish 
to maintain civil government and preserve peace and good order in the com- 
munity. Nor is it necessary to infer that those who made and administered laws 
to this effect were actuated by a desire to interfere with the consciences or religious 
opinions of any class of the people, independent of their conduct as citizens, any- 
more than it is that, in making war upon the indecencies or polygamy of the 
Mormons, the government is hostile to the freedom of religious opinion." 



"The Blue Laws of Connecticut" 

have been popularly referred to as specimens of the narrowness 
and intolerance of the colonial fathers. It is due to their memory 
to state that these legendary laws never existed except in the 
imagination of their originator, as is well known to persons of 
historical information. They originally appeared in a burlesque 
history of Connecticut, written some one hundred years ago by r 
Rev. Samuel A. Peters, born in Hebron, Connecticut, in 1735. He 
preached for several years in Hartford and also in his native 
town. When the Revolution broke out he made himself obnoxious 
by his intemperate advocacy of Tory principles, denouncing the 
American cause, from the pulpit and in private, in such terms 
that his parishioners turned against him. The storm rose f so 
high that he fled to England in 1774, and in 1781 % ne published 
the work alluded to, in London, in revenge for his treatment by 
his countrymen. It was never regarded in any other light than 
as a burlesque, until about forty years ago, in the heat of the 
anti-slavery excitement, a Southern orator in Congress, by way 
of retaliation, in an extremity of debate quoted from Peters's book 

*John Bockholdt, an Anabaptist of Leyden, with a body of followers, seized the city of 
Munster, usurped the government, and committed crimes and outrages against decency. He 
and his followers, men and women, after praying and preaching four hours, stripped themselves 
naked and ran through th2 streets of the city. Mosheim, Cent, xvi., sec. ii, Robertson's 
Charles V., Book V. 

t We cannot here relate the whole story. See p. 265. 

% Republished in the United States in 1829 as a curiosity. 



J 16 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the laws referred to as an illustration of Yankee bigotry. It soon 
became a popular stock argument against New Englanders. 

A gentleman who has closely investigated the matter says — " On 
examining the more prominent statements of Peters, not one has 
been found which is not either false or so deformed by exaggerations 
and perversions as to be essentially erroneous." Rev. Leonard 
Bacon, D.D., called Peters's book " that most unscrupulous and 
malicious of lying narratives." * 

Hon. John S. Peters, M.D., LL.D., ex-governor of Connecticut, re- 
ferring to the book in question, said — " It contains many statements 
which are alike apochryphal and ludicrous, and I am not aware that 
it is ever quoted as historical authority." + 

Doubtless in all the New England colonies, and in the New 
York, Virginia and other colonies, it is easy to find laws and usages 
which we should now call wrong and severe, not to say bigoted and 
cruel, but they were universally characteristic of those times, in 
Europe as well as in America. By the law of Massachusetts, 1692, 
a man absenting himself from public worship on Sunday for a month 
was punished by a fine to be imposed by a civil court. By the law 
of Elizabeth (see " 1st Elizabeth,") he was liable to be punished by 
the censures of the Church and also to forfeit a sum of money. 

Intolerance in Virginia. 

Instances of religious intolerance occurred in the Virginia Colony, 
extending through a period of about one hundred and thirty years. 
A few Puritans settled in the colony as early as 161 94 but the 
number was too small to make much change in the religious opinions 
of the people. In 1642, certain citizens who deplored the low state 
of religion made application for religious teachers from Massa- 
chusetts, and Rev. Messrs. Thompson, of Braintree, Knolls, of 
Watertown, and James, of New Haven, went as Congregational 
missionaries to labor in Virginia. Their stay, however, was short, 
for the legislature immediately enacted that no minister should be 
allowed to officiate in the colony but such as had been ordained by 
some English Bishop, and pledged conformity to the form and 
usages of the Church of England. They were soon banished from the 
colony, and after a few years their followers were wholly dispersed. § 

The law of 1661 enforced, with great stringency, conformity to 

* History of Discipline at New Haven. By Mr. Kingsley, 1838, pp. 83, 90. 
t Sprague's Annals 0/ the American Pulpit. Volume on the Episcopal Church, p. 194. 
X Graham's History of (lie United States, p. 219, and Hawks's History of the Episcopal 
Church in Virginia, p. 35. 

§ Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 36, 53, 57. 



PA TRICK HENR Y. 117 

the Established Church against Quakers and other non-conformists. 
It provided that each Quaker attending "an unlawful assembly 
or conventicle," if taken there, should pay a fine of two hundred 
pounds of tobacco for each offense, and that " schismatical persons, 
either out of averseness to the orthodox, established religion, or 
out of the new-fangled conceits of their own heretical inventions,'' 
who should " refuse to have their children baptized, in contempt 
of the divine sacrament of baptism," should be fined two thousand 
pounds of tobacco ; half to the parish and half to the informer.* 

French colonists, fleeing after the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes, were allowed to settle and establish their worship (Presby- 
terian) under the provisions of the special act of the Assembly in 
1700. In 1713, a similar favor was granted to a colony of German 
emigrants. Both of these classes were exempted from taxes for 
the support of the Established Church. In 1746, the governor 
issued a proclamation forbidding, under the severest penalties, 
44 the meeting of Moravians, New Lights, and Methodists." f 

Early in the last century the Baptists began to appear in 
Virginia. At first they excited no alarm, being very poor, their 
ministers generally illiterate, and their efforts being directed to 
places remote and obscure. It was not until they began to in- 
crease rapidly that they were assailed and persecuted. They 
were constantly kept in view in the legislation of the colony, and 
persecuting laws were framed with the special design of hindering 
the spread of their opinions or driving them from the colony. 
In some parts of the colony the Baptists were not disturbed ; 
but in others, alarmed by their increase, the men in power 
strained every penal law in the Virginia code to suppress them. 
" About thirty ministers were imprisoned, and some as many as 
four times each, for different periods of time, besides a number of 
exhorters and their companions, whose only fault was their being in 
company with their clerical brethren. . . . In some cases drums were 
beaten in the time of service ; high inclosures were erected before 
the prison windows by malicious opponents ; matches and other 
suffocating materials were burnt outside the prison doors. . . . 
In the midst of their struggles this oppressed people were so fortu- 
nate as to secure the interest of the famous Patrick Henry, who 
espoused their cause." % 

* See Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 66, 68 ; also, Trott's laws of 
British Plantations in America. 
1 13th, B. Burke. Pp. 124, 5, 6. 
X History of the Baptists. By David Benedict, 1848, p. 655. 



118 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The Presbyterians entered Virginia almost simultaneously with 
the Baptists, and were subjected to many annoyances and persecutions. 
After 1745 they were allowed to settle in the more remote portions of 
the State, to the westward, where their first churches were established. 
They sent a deputation to the Synod of New York, which met that 
year, asking aid in their troubles. The Synod prepared an address 
to the governor, and commissioned Rev. Messrs. Tennent and 
Finley as bearers of the message. The governor received them 
respectfully and gave them liberty to preach. But, soon after they 
left, fines were again inflicted upon Presbyterians for not attending 
upon the services of the Established Church. 

In 1747, the Synod sent the Rev. Samuel Davies to labor in 
Virginia. This gentleman became more influential than any other 
Presbyterian divine in placing the denomination on a secure founda- 
tion. "At the time of his settlement in the county of Hanover, 
according to his own testimony, there were not ten avowed dissent- 
ers within one hundred miles of him. On his arrival, his first care 
was to secure himself and his followers from molestation by a com- 
pliance with the laws of the colony. The terms on which 
dissenters were tolerated were, obtaining a license from some 
judicial body for each meeting-house, causing such license to be 
put upon record, taking the usual oaths of fidelity to the govern- 
ment, and subscribing to the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of 
England, with certain enumerated exceptions. These exceptions 
embraced the thirty-fourth, concerning ' traditions in the Church/ 
the thirty-fifth. ' of the homilies,' the thirty-sixth, ' of the conse- 
cration of bishops and ministers,' and so much of the twentieth as 
declares that the ' Church has power to decree rites and ceremonies, 
and authority in controversies of faith.' " * Mr. Davies complied with 
these terms and obtained licenses for four " meeting-houses." and. 
soon after, for three more. Among these he divided his labors, 
although some of them were forty miles distant from the others. 
They were in the counties of Hanover, Henrico, Caroline, Louisa, 
and Goochland. In this region Presbvterianism in Virginia had its 
origin, under the ministrations of this eminent servant of God. Mr. 
Davies possessed talents of a high order ; was gifted with remarkable 
eloquence, readily attracting hearers. In three years his congregation 
became large, and three hundred communicants were gathered into 
his churches. He was subsequently removed to the presidency of 
Princeton College, but not until he had distinguished himself in 
contesting the provisions of the English " act of toleration " before 

* Hawks's History 0/ the Episcopal Church in Virginia, p. 10S. 



RELIGIOUS OPPRESSIOX IX NEW YORK. 119 

the colonial courts, and sustained his cause against the legal acumen 
and eloquence of Hon. Peyton Randolph. 

Intolerance in Maryland. 

In 1704 4 ' An Act to prevent the increase of popery in the prov- 
ince" was passed, prohibiting bishops and priests from saying mass 
and exercising other spiritual functions except in private houses. 
Subsequently Catholics were deprived of the elective franchise, unless 
they took a test oath and renounced their faith. Other oppressive 
enactments followed, so that, in 1752, Mr. Daniel Carroll, father of 
the subsequent Bishop Carroll, went to France to negotiate with the 
French government for the emigration of the Maryland Catholics to 
Louisiana.* The project, however, failed. For seventy years no 
mass was said anywhere in the State, except in private chapels and 
families. During this time no Catholic churches were erected, and 
only a few chapels on plantations owned by the Jesuits ; to whom 
large tracts of land had been conveyed by the Indian kings, 
thus eluding the reach of the law. In 1774, there was no Catholic 
chapel even in Baltimore ; that city was then only a " station," vis- 
ited once a month by a " father " from a farm at Whitemarsh, car- 
rying his vestments and plate with him, and mass was said in a 
private room. At last, on the eve of the Revolution, early in 1776, 
a " Declaration of Rights " was voted by the assembly, granting full 
religious toleration. But, in the whole extent of Maryland, there 
were then only twenty priests, Jesuits, and they were under ecclesi- 
astical condemnation, the order having been suppressed as a society 
only three years before by the famous bull of the pope. 

In New York. 

Instances of religious oppression occurred in this colony. The 
ties of relationship, a common faith, and the persecutions endured 
by Protestants before coming to America, were not sufficient to 
teach them the lessons of charity and toleration, and the Lutherans 
of New Amsterdam were doomed to experience from their fellow 
Protestants some of the rigor and unkind treatment both had suf- 
fered at home. Among the earliest colonists there was no formal 
union of the Church and State, and yet they were very unwilling to 
allow any but the Reformed Dutch Church to exist in the province. 
A little band of Lutherans, who joined the colony almost at its com- 

* History of the Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. Enlarged 
by John Gilmary Shea. New York. 1S57. Published by Edward Dunigan & Bro. P. 33. 



120 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

mencement, were not allowed to hold their worship publicly until 
after the English rule was established, in 1664. In 1656, George 
Stuyvesant forbade ministers from holding religious gatherings not 
in harmony with the Reformed Church. Under his administration 
Quakers were fined, imprisoned, and banished ; but he was not fully 
sustained in all these proceedings by the magistrates of Amsterdam. 
They formally reproved him, and declared that " The consciences of 
men ought to be free and unshackled so long as they continue mod- 
erate, peaceable, inoffensive, and not hostile to the government." 
When the New Netherlands were surrendered to the English crown 
(1664) the Lutherans received the privilege of worshiping God ac- 
cording to their own convictions.* The Church of England took 
the place of the Classis of Amsterdam, hitherto the supreme and 
only ecclesiastical authority. Under the English, attendance upon 
the Episcopal Church was not made compulsory. But the first 
Baptist minister f who preached in New York City, about 1665, was 
imprisoned four months, and no further efforts were made to estab- 
lish that denomination in that province until about 1712, when they 
were not molested. The first Presbyterians J also were persecuted, 
and their first ministers, Revs. Francis Makemie and John Hamp- 
ton, were imprisoned and heavily fined, in 1707, for preaching in a 
private house. 

Treatment of the Roman Catholics by the Protestant Colonists. 

From nearly all the Protestant English settlements the Roman 
Catholics were excluded. The colonists, recently escaped from the 
intolerance of Rome, were slow to forget what they had suffered, and 
were jealous of her approach. Only in Rhode Island and Pennsylva- 
nia was there more liberty ; hence from the settlement of Maryland 
down to the war of the Revolution there was little opportunity § 
for the Roman Catholics to settle in the other colonies. 

* Professor Schmucker's Retrospect of ' Lutheranism in the United States. P. 6. 

t Rev. Wm. Wickenden, of Providence, R. I. See Benedict's History of the Baptists. New 
York. Louis Colby & Co. 1848, p. 541. 

% History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 
Presbyterian Publication Society, Philadelphia. Vol. I, pp. 11-16. 

$ Catholics have complained of the intolerance of the early colonial governments against 
them, particularly in New York and New England. It should be mentioned that the inti- 
mate and friendly relations of the Jesuit missionaries with the Indians brought the former under 
the imputation of complicity with them, in the frequent bloody massacres which were occurring in 
the settlements. The colonists thought they had good evidence of such co-operation in many 
cases. The preamble of " An Act against Jesuits and popish priests," which passed in the New 
York Assembly in the year 1700, shows that they acted under this conviction. It charged that 
"divers Jesuits, priests, and popish missionaries have of late industriously labored to debauch, 
seduce, and withdraw the Indians from their obedience, and to excite and stir them up to sedition, 



STANDARD OF JUDGMEXT. 121 

At this early period there were no Roman Catholic churches in 
Rhode Island. In Pennsylvania, while religious liberty was indeed 
under no legal restraint, and the State was an asylum for Roman 
Catholics excluded elsewhere, yet the papists complained that it 
was difficult for the Quakers to see that Romanists ought to enjoy 
as much liberty as the Friends. Romanists confessed that they 
were neither " hanged, banished, pillaged nor taxed by the Quakers," 
but they felt there was " something cold and repulsive in the coun- 
tenances of their hosts which expressed plainly enough what no one 
was willing to say." * 



Section 6\— General Considerations. 

In considering the severity of the civil penalties and the acts 
of intolerance in any of the early American colonies, it would be 
unjust to judge our fathers by any other standard than that of their 
own times. It should not be forgotten that in the two centuries 
which have since intervened great progress has been made in re- 
gard to the rights of conscience and the nature of religious liberty. 
The right of individual belief was then admitted only in a very nar- 
row circle. On the continent of Europe, and in Great Britain, cruel 
persecutions and severities were every-where inflicted upon dissenters. 
According to Neale,f 1662, by the "Act of Uniformity" two thou- 
sand English ministers, called by Locke " worthy, learned, pious, 
orthodox divines," were deprived of their " livings " because they 
could not conscientiously submit to re- ordination, and assent to 
every word and sentence of the Book of Common Prayer. Under the 
"Conventicle Act" (1664), it became a crime to attend religious 

rebellion, and open hostility." They were therefore ordered to d part from the province, and 
threatened with death if they did not obey. The terrible scenes of Schenectady were fresh in 
their minds. This law was clearly an act of state policy, for the promotion of the public safety. 
The Massachusetts Legislature acted on the same policy in the much-complained-of treatment of 
Father Sebastian Rasles, the French Jesuit missionary at Xorridgewock, Me. Some of his own 
papers fell into the hands of the government of Massachusetts, from which it appeared that he 
was in correspondence with the French governor in Canada, by whose aid he hoped to exclude 
the English settlers from the region where he resided, and that he accompanied an expedition of 
the Indians against the colonies, and acted a conspicuous part in at least one attack upon their 
settlements. The evidence was so conclusive that the Massachusetts Government undertook to 
arrest him, and at last, August 23, 1724, the Indian village at Norridgewock was attacked and 
destroyed, and Rasles fell in the battle. See Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
Second Series. Vol. VIII., pp. 250, 266. Also, Atnertcan Quarterly Register. i84i. P. 23. 

* Letter on Roman Catholic missions in the United States to the Lyons Propaganda, by Rev. 
Bishop England, Catholic Bishop of Charleston, S. C. Published in the Annates of the Propa- 
ganda for May 1838. See American Quarterly Register. November, 1841. P. 142. 

t History 0/ the Puritans. Vol. IV., pp. 306-406. 



122 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

services, conducted otherwise than according to the liturgy of the 
Church of England ; punishable by heavy fines, imprisonment, trans- 
portation, and, in case of return, death. Without the verdict of a 
jury, on the oath of a single informer, and without appeal, in the 
course of two reigns about eight thousand dissenters perished in 
prison, and sixty thousand suffered in various other ways, the loss 
of property alone amounting, it is supposed, to twelve millions ster- 
ling.* Such were the prevailing customs of the times and the cur- 
rent of public sentiment. Under such an ecclesiastico- civil polity 
as then every-where prevailed, the relations of man with his Maker 
were presumed to come within the province of human law. Re- 
ligious intolerance was therefore the natural fruitage of such a sys- 
tem, and only under the more favorable circumstances of an 
enlightened Christian civilization and culture will it be restrained. 
It must be admitted that among the American colonists, even in 
those rude times, examples of religious oppression were far less 
numerous and severe than in the countries from which they emi- 
grated. In respect to toleration they were far in advance of the 
rest of the world. 

The penal inflictions of the colonial era are often referred to as 
severe and barbarous ; especially have those among the Puritans of 
New England been denounced in terms of intense detestation, as 
though they were exceptionally brutal. A review of the times, how- 
ever, will afford evidence that those of the New Englanders were sim- 
ilar to the penalties inflicted in other colonies, and also in England 
and Continental Europe, only very much more humane. It would be 
unreasonable to expect the men of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
century to be abreast with those of the nineteenth century in philan- 
thropy and the gentle amenities of life. We are to compare them 
with the customs of the country from which they came, in order to 
judge of their status. When the Mayflower left England thirty-one 
offenses were punishable with death in the mother country. By the 
middle of that century the black list had enlarged to 223, of which 
176 were without the benefit of the clergy. How far in advance 
the New England colonies were is evident from the fact that not a 
single colony code recognized more than fifteen capital crimes. 

So enormous an English list argues an excessive brutality of public sentiment. 
And we shall find this confirmed from many sources. For example: In 1604 a 
man named Ford petitioned the king to the effect that the Lord Chancellor had 
clone him great injustice. For the offense of this petition, " traducing and scandal- 
izing" that high functionary — the said Lord Chancellor — the said Ford was sen- 

' * Neale's History of the Puritans. Vol. IV, p. 4S0, etc., Vol. V, p. 161, etc. 



PUNISHMENTS INFLICTED IN ENGLAND. 123 

tenced to ride with his face to the tail of the beast from the Fleet prison to West- 
minster, with his crime placarded on his head ; to acknowledge that crime in all 
the courts of Westminster ; to stand " a reasonable time " in the pillory ; to have 
one of his ears cut off; to be remanded to jail for a few days and then have the 
other ear cut off at Cheapside ; to pay a fine of £1,000 ; and to be imprisoned for 
lite. Two years before the Mayflower sailed a man named Wrennum was con- 
victed of a like offense and condemned to the same penalties. Two years before 
Boston was settled a Scotch divine of eminence named Alexander Leighton, Pro- 
fessor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, published a book 
called an Appeal to the Parliament, in which he used strong enough language to call 
the prelates " men of blood," the bishops "ravens and magpies," the canons of 
1603 " nonsense canons," and so on. We have two editions of the book, and while 
there are several such earnest expressions which the best taste must condemn, we 
find nothing in either which in our day would subject an author to any further 
penalty than the criticism, that his blows would have hurt more if he had not 
struck quite so hard. Leighton was put on trial before the Star Chamber and 
confessed the writing, but pleaded good intent. The court made short work of 
him, declaring that he had committed "a most odious and heinous offense, deserv- 
ing the severest punishment the court could inflict, for framing and publishing a 
Book so full of most pestilent, devilish and dangerous Assertions, to the scandal of 
the King, Queen and Peers, especially the Bishops." 

It was accordingly unanimously ordered that he be degraded from his ministry 
into a lay condition, in which he could be legally whipped ; that he be whipped and 
set in the pillory at Westminster ; that one of his ears be cut off, one side of his 
nose be slit, and he be branded on one cheek by a red hot iron, with the letters 
S. S. [stirrer of sedition] ; that, fourteen days thereafter, he be whipped again at 
Cheapside, the other ear cut off, the other side of his nose slit, and the other cheek 
branded as the first ; that he pay the (then) enormous fine of ^10,000 ; that he be 
imprisoned for life. 

In 1633 William Prynne, one of the most learned and industrious barristers of 
his time, having written a book called Histriomastix, whereby — as also aforetime 
in other ways — he had especially angered Archbishop Laud, was put through the 
same sort of discipline which poor Leighton had suffered. Three years later he 
in some way found means to publish a few more plain words distasteful to the 
archbishop, when he was hauled out of prison, the stumps of his ears cut down 
clean, ^5,000 added to his fine, and his cheeks branded S. L. [seditious libeler] all 
of which was, with full barbarity, executed. * 

What was done in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, for an offense 
much more henious, transpiring at the very same time? Roger 
Williams, for " trying to knock the bottom out of all their civil and 
social fabric by publicly teaching that the colony had no valid title 
to its land," ranting against official oaths, and inciting the people 
against the magistrates, instead of being fined, pilloried, cropped, 
imprisoned, branded, flayed alive, was simply sent out of the colony. 

Dr. H. M. Dexter cites a few 7 more cases which will help the 
reader to appreciate the situation : 

* Editorial in the Congregationalist ', November 20, 1884. 



124 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The English law down to 1772 condemned the prisoner who refused to plead 
to his offense to be pressed to death \fteine fort ct dure], and so late as 1 741 this 
horrible punishmennt was inflicted there. Until 1790 (and that lacks yet three years 
of being a century) any woman convicted of counterfeiting English gold or silver coin 
was burned to death, although after 1700 it became humanely usual to strangle 
the victim quietly before kindling the fire. Twenty thousand people collected in 
1773 to see Elizabeth Herring burned, and as late as 1786 a woman was burned in 
England for having made counterfeit shillings. Plymouth Colony must have been 
fifty years old before the burning of heretics became unlawful in England. 

In the good old days of Henry VIII., it was legal to boil to death prisoners, and 
it was several times done. Long after that form of death was repealed in England 
it remained in force on the Continent for coiners and counterfeiters, and, by a re- 
finement, of cruelty, the boiling was made gradual, the victim being suspended by 
a rope over the bubbling oil and lowered by degrees into it. 

An intelligent writer tells us how, in 161 7, the body of the assassinated 
Ancre, Marechal of France, was treated. They " broke up his Grave, tore his 
Coffin to pieces, rip'd the Winding-sheet, and tied his Body to an Asses Tail, and 
so dragg'd him up and down the Gutters of Paris, which are none of the sweetest ; 
they then sliced off his ears, and nail'd them upon the Gates of the City, they . . . 
[too indecent to be cited] . . . the rest of his Body they carried to the New-Bridg, 
and hung him with his Heels upward, and Head downwards upon a new Gibbet." 

It was a mob which did thus, but forty-three years later we find the English 
Parliament 'deliberately passing a law whose results Evelyn describes under date 
of 30 Jan-9 Feb., 1660-1 : 

" This day . . . were the carcasses of those arch-rebels, Cromwell, Bradshawe 
(the judge who condemned his majesty), and Ireton (son-in-law to the usurper) 
dragged out of their superb Tombs in Westminster, among the kings, to Tyburn, 
and hanged on the gallows there from nine in the morning till six at night, and 
then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument in a deep pit ; thousands 
of people who had seen them in ail their pride being Spectators. [N. B. Cromwell 
had been dead nearly 2 yrs. 5 mos. ; Bradshawe, 1 yr. 2 mos. ; Ireton, more than 
9 yrs. 2 mos.] " 

Moreover, it was as late as 16 Aug., 1746, when Walpole wrote to Montagu 
how people on the Strand before Temple Bar in London made a trade of letting, 
for a half-penny a sight, spyglasses to passers-by who wanted a good look at the 
traitors' heads, then impaled on the irons over the Bar: and in April, 1772, it is on 
record that one such head was still miserably sticking there. 

These ''dreadful and disgusting inhumanities " were perpetrated 
by whom? Refined and cultivated Europeans, mostly English 
Churchmen, graduates of Cambridge and Oxford. Such are the 
facts of modern history which should moderate our denunciations 
and charges of severity, brutality and narrow-mindedness against 
the colonial forefathers, who, it clearly appears, were much in ad- 
vance of their times. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF PROTESTANTISM. 



Sec. I. 


From f6o7 — 1662. 


' ' 2. 


From 1662 — 1720. 


3- 


From 1720 — 1745. 



Sec. 4. From 1745 — 1776. 
" 5. Fruits of the Half Way 
Covenant. 

AMID the convulsive throes of the reformation of the sixteenth 
century, a new people, with new ideas and institutions, was 
begotten. Escaping from the intolerance of the Old World, and 
moved by profound convictions of great religious responsibilities, 
they sought an asylum in America. As yet Protestantism had only 
passed through its inceptive stage. It had been neither fully de- 
veloped nor tested, for the necessary conditions had not hitherto ex- 
existed. In America, unembarrassed by the institutions of the Old 
World, it found the needful opportunity. By its doctrine of justi- 
fication by faith Protestantism broke the thraldom of the hierarchy, 
which claimed to be the only medium of Divine communication, and 
threw each individual upon himself and his God. Thus personal re- 
ligion passed from under the exclusive control of the sacraments and 
arbitrary prerogatives into stern and irrepressible conflicts with in- 
dividual lusts and worldly influences. Instead of pompous rituals 
there were the deep realities of the inner life. The scourge of the 
hierarchy disappeared, but the struggle with sense and self went on. 

Still recognizing the neccessity of a church, Protestantism never- 
theless pressed with powerful intensity upon each individual the 
fact of his personal responsibility, and that he must carry the burden 
of his own sins to the foot of the cross. He must seek for himself 
access to God, and, in the spirit of adoption begotten in his heart 
by the Holy Ghost, must find a sweeter satisfaction than priestly 
absolutions or benedictions can impart. 

What was to be the effect of these new religious conditions in 
the actual life of Protestant communities? Would religion under 
the fluctuation of individual affections, and the vacillation of indi- 
vidual wills, be characterized by alternations from enthusiasm to 
apathy? Or would this be only the more apparent and earlier 
aspect, while a closer scrutiny would reveal a deep, strong flow of 



126 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

religious life, more spiritual and real than the products of priestly 
functions? Such was one phase of the religious problem to be 
solved on the American continent. 

The religious life of the new communites in the colonial era — 
an era of crudeness, privation, fluctuation and embarrassment, with 
a semi-dependence upon European States and churches — now opens 
to inspection. 

The survey of this period will not be exhaustive, leading phases 
being chiefly noticed, but with sufficient fullness to show the moral 
and religious character of the times. 



Section 1.— From 1607 to 1662. 

The colonies comprised within this period were those of Virginia, 
New England, New York, and Maryland. 

Virginia. 

Among the cavaliers who founded this " Mother of the Southern 
Colonies" religious ideas were not the most prominent, and yet the 
early records afford ample evidence that it was founded as a 
Christian colony.* The piety of the emigrants, stimulated by the 
exhortations of their pastor, led to the almost immediate erection 
of an edifice which was dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. 
When Lord De La War arrived with a new body of colonists, in 
1610, the church bell was rung, and the people repaired to the 
sanctuary and united in thanksgiving and prayer. In the same 
year the Council of Virginia put forth an eloquent and stirring 
appeal, full of the genuine spirit of missions, seldom exceeded by 
public religious bodies in more recent times.f 

Such was the spirit of the first colonists of Virginia, who up to 



* The language of the royal instructions to the first colonists was, " to provide that the true 
Word and service of God be preached, planted, and used, not only in the said colony, but also as 
much as might be among the savages bordering upon them, according to the rites and doctrines 
of the Church of England." Burk*s History of Virginia. Vol. I, p. 91. 

One of the reasons for the grant assigned in the first charter was that the colony, " under the 
providence of Almighty Gnd, might tend to the glory of his divine Majesty, in propagating the 
Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true 
knowledge and worship of God." Chapter I. Hazard's State Papers, p. 51. 

+ " O, all ye worthies, follow the ever-sounding trumpet of a blessed honor ; let religion be 
the first aim of your hopes, and other things shall be cast unto you ; your names shall be registered 
to posterity with a glorious title. These are the men whom God raised up to augment the state 
of their country and to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Neither ought any man to live 
under Augustus as if he lived under Domitian, to whom sluggishness and privacy is imputed for 
wisdom and policy. The same God that hath joined three kingdoms under one Caesar will not 
be wanting to add a fourth, if we would dissolve the frosty iceinesse that chilleth our zeal and 



SIR THOMAS DALE. 127 

this time had been left to their own sense of piety and the instruc- 
tions of their spiritual teachers in promoting the cause of religion. 
Nothing more definite had been said than that the colonists were 
expected to conform to the Church of England. But from the ar- 
rival of Sir Thomas Dale, as governor, in 1611, the London Company 
attempted to regulate the religious affairs of the colony. " Lawes 
Diuine, morall, and martiall," * were furnished, " to aid the colon- 
ists in keeping a good conscience." This was supposed to be neces- 
sary from the character of the emigrants who at that time were added 
to the colony. Many of them were " broken down gentlemen or per- 
sons fleeing from crime and shame, dissolute and profligate in 
habits, and unwilling to devote themselves to honest toil." Such 
laws, however, produced little restraint upon these classes, and a 
serious deterioration in morals was every year perceptible in the 
colony. This tendency was increased by the difficulty in obtaining 
good clergymen from England, and the tyranny and rapacity of 
Captain Argyll, who became deputy governer in 161 7. 

Amid the general corruption, there were two ministers in this 
earliest period who were eminent for piety and usefulness. Rev. 
Robert Hunt was a leader in the original colony and the first pas- 
tor. • A man of modest and sterling Christian character, he exerted a 
salutary influence upon the people. He was especially noted for 
reconciling animosities, restraining the passionate, cheering the de- 
spondent, and for unselfish devotion to his work. In 161 1, the second 
church was established, in the town of Henrico, and committed to 
the care of Rev. Alexander Whitaker.f At his hands the celebrated 

maketh us so cold in the action. But it is a mere idea, speculation, and fancy to sowe spareingly, 
and to expect for to reape plentifully; when a penurious supply is like the casting on of a little 
water upon a great fire, that quencheth not the heat, but augments it. . . . Let no man adore 
his gold as his God, nor his mammon as his Maker. If God have scattered his blessings upon 
you as snow, will you return no tributary acknowledgements of his goodnesse? If you will, can 
you select a m. .re excellent subject than to cast down the altar of divels, that you may raise up 
the altar of Christ, to forbid the sacrifice of men, that they may offer up the sacrifice of contrite 
spirits. . . . Doubt ye not but God hath determined and demonstrated that he will raise our 
state and build his Church in this most excellent climate, if our action be seconded with resolu- 
tion and religion." See A True Declaration of the Estate of the Virginia Colony. Published by 
advice and direction of the Council of Virginia, London 1610. Also History of the Episcopal 
Churchin Virginia. By Rev. Franicis L. Hawks D.D. 1836. Harper & Brothers. Pp. 30, 31. 

*Stith's History of Virginia. P. 122, and Burk's History of Virginia, Vol. I, p. 165. 

tThe following description of Mr. Whitaker's character was sketched by a contemporary : " I 
hereby let all men know that a scholler, a graduate, a preacher well borne and friended in En- 
gland, not in debt nor disgrace, but competently provided for, and liked and beloved where he 
lived ; not in want, but (for a schoHer, and as these days be) rich in possession, and more in 
possibilitie ; of himself, without any persuasion, (but God's and his own heart) did voluntarily 
leave his warme nest, and to the wonder of his kindred and the amazement of them that knew 
him, undertook this hard, but in my judgment, heroicall resolution, to go to Virginia, and help 
to beare the name of God unto the Gentiles." See Bishop \\ ilberforce's Hist. P. E. Ch., p. 27. 



128 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Indian princess Pocahontas received Christian baptism, and by him 
also she was united in marriage to Mr. Rolfe. Mr. Whitaker was 
honored with the title of " the Apostle of Virginia." 

The Virginia Company seem to have felt the importance of pro- 
moting education in the colony. As early as 1619 they recom- 
mended " that each town, borough and hundred, should procure, 
by just means, a certain number of Indian children, to be brought 
up in the first elements of literature ; and that the most towardly 
of them should be fitted for college," * in an edifice to be erected for 
that purpose. In furtherance of this object the king sent letters to 
the bishops of England, directing that collections should be taken 
in all the churches. The object, as stated, was " for training up and 
educating infidel (heathen) children in the knowledge of God." f 
In the midst of these efforts the project received a death-blow by 
the great Indian massacre of March 22 . 1622, which was followed 
by a long and distracting Indian war. Seventy years then elapsed 
before another attempt to found a college. 

Forty years after the founding of the colony the condition of 
religion was very low. In 1642 a messenger from Virginia visited 
Boston, bearing letters from individuals in that colony, " bewailing 
their sad condition, for the want of the means of salvation, and 
earnestly asking a supply of faithful ministers." The ministers sent 
were warmly welcomed by a few, and their labors were attended 
with some success, \ but they were soon dismissed from the colony 
and their congregations scattered. § 

In referring to this period Bishop Meade | has said, " I do not 
question the piety and fidelity of some of the people and pastors 
during the whole history. But that its spiritual condition was ever 
at any time even tolerably good, bearing a comparison with the 
mother Church, over whose defects also there was so much cause to 
mourn, faithful history forbids us to believe. Many were the disad- 
vantages under which she had to labor during nearly the whole period 
of her connection with the Government of England, which were 
well calculated to sink her character beneath that of the Church of 
England and of some other churches in America. Immense were 
the difficulties of getting a full supply of ministers of any character, 



* Buik's History of Virginia, p. 225. 
t Stith's History of Virginia, p. 162. 

\ Winthrop's Journal, By Savage, \\ 334- Also American Quarterly Register, Nov. 1831, pp. 
125, 126. 

S History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, by Dr. Hawks, p. 57. 
j Old Churches. Ministers and Families of Virginia, b? Bishop Meade. Philadelphia, J. B. 
Lippincott & Co., 1857, Vol 1, pp. 13, 14. 



PURITAN RELIGIOUS LIFE. 129 

and of those who came how tew were faithful, and duly qualified for 
the station ! 

"The Council of Virginia also addressed the most solemn and 
pathetic appeals to the clergy of England, beseeching them to come 
over to the work of the Lord in the colony, though it is to be 
feared with little success; for, in the year 1655, it is recorded that 
many places were destitute of ministers and likely still to continue 
so, the people not paying their ' accustomed dues.' * There were 
at this time about fifty parishes in the colony, most of which were 
destitute of clergymen, as there were only ten ministers for their 
supply." 

New England. 

The settlement of New England followed thirteen years behind 
Virginia. The high religious character of its Pilgrim and Puritan 
founders has passed into undisputed history. Their religion was 
not merely an abstract principle. It existed in vigorous concrete 
forms and was both a dogma and a life. Whatever became its sub- 
sequent condition, religion was the chief concern of the first set- 
tlers. From 1630 to 1660 revivals of religion were very numerous, 
well-nigh uninterrupted, in some of the leading churches. The 
pulpit ministrations of some early Puritan ministers have been 
described as very spiritual, " lively, searching and awakening." The 
Holy Spirit was copiously poured out, and spiritual power was the 
distinctive glory of the churches — the legitimate result of the intense 
religious motives that prompted the emigration. In the early 
colonial annals it is said, " some of their ministers seldom preached 
without producing religious awakenings." This was particularly 
true of Revs. Messrs. Cotton, of Boston, and Shepard and 
Mitchell, of Cambridge. In 1634, under the ministry of Mr. Cotton, 
maiked revival influences f were enjoyed, and from that time to 
1652 six hundred and forty-nine \ persons were received into the 
First Church, in nearly equal numbers of men and women. 

The Sabbath services were usually protracted to a great length, 
and in the evening of the Lord's day the sermons which had been 
listened to in public were repeated and reviewed at home. Meet- 
ings were also held during the week, by the male members of the 
church, for recapitulating and discussing the Sabbath services. The 

* The clergy were supported by a tax paid in tobacco. 

t Winihrop's /ournat, Dec. 1633, gives a valuable testimonial to the character of Mr. Cotton, 
as a man and a minister. 

X See Emerson's History of the First Church, Boston, p. 81. 



120 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

time not absolutely required for secular business was given to relig- 
ious discourse. Religious lectures were delivered each week, involv- 
ing an amount of labor which made two pastors necessary in the 
larger churches. It is said that at one time an excess of religious 
services in some places interfered with the necessary secular labors 
of the infant colony, and obliged the magistrates to restrict the 
week-day lectures to one each week. But even then some of the 
people would go from town to town to attend them. An annual 
fast-day in the spring, and a day of thanksgiving in the autumn, 
were the only holidays, and they were religiously observed. Christ- 
mas, Lent and other festivals of the Romish and English churches, 
were wholly discarded as idolatrous, and the eating of mince pies 
on Christmas, or any thing else giving to the day a festive character, 
was regarded as superstitious and wicked. In their revolt from the 
papal doctrine of marriage as a sacrament, they declared it to be a 
civil contract, to be administered by a magistrate; while baptism, 
instead of being dispensed to all, as in the older churches, was 
restricted to the spiritually regenerated and their offspring. All 
amusements were proscribed and gayety was regarded as a sin, so 
that the colony became noted for the rigor and austerity of its 
morals — u a convent of Puritan devotees." 

The New England fathers of this period were men of prayer, with 
an overpowering sense of the sovereignty of God, his direct interven- 
tion in all human occurrences, and the power of prayer to reach and 
influence him. The annals of the old churches are full of records 
of special days of fasting and prayer, and days of thanksgiving 
and praise. Nothing seemed too great or too trivial to be brought 
to the throne of grace. 

The early churches of Cambridge and Watertown were favored 
with the labors of eminently spiritual men — Revs. Thomas Shep- 
ard and George Phillips — the former styled the Baxter of New 
England. When the location of Harvard College was being deter- 
mined, in 1638, Cambridge was selected because of " the energy 
and searching character of Mr. Shepard's preaching and his skill 
in detecting errors." * His congregation was quaintly described f as 
" a gracious, savory, spirited people, principled by Mr. Shepard, 
liking a humbling, mourning, heart-breaking ministry and spirit ; liv- 
ing in religion, praying men and women." Mr. Shepard deeply 
impressed the students of the infant college, and many eminent 
preachers trained there confessed their great indebtedness to his 

* American Quarterly Register, Nov., 1831, p. 126. 
t By h:s successor, Mr. Mitchell. 



RE V. JON A THAN MI TCHELL. 1 S 1 

words and example. One of them, Rev. Jonathan Mitchell, a grad- 
uate of Harvard College in 1648, followed Mr. Shepard in the 
pastorate of the Cambridge Church in 1650, and nearly rivaled 
him in talents and piety. He was called " the holy, meek and heav- 
enly Mitchell ; " 4i the matchless Mitchell." Richard Baxter said of 
him that " if there could be convened an Ecumenical Council of 
the whole Christian world Mitchell would be worthy to be the 
moderator of it." 

Cambridge was an important religious center. Five sessions of 
the early Synod were held there between 1637 and 1689.* The 
Synod which settled the famous controversy with Ann Hutch- 
inson and the other Antinomians met with this church. In this 
place, also, the celebrated " Cambridge Platform " was adopted, and 
missionaries were first sent forth among the Indians — the first Prot- 
estant missionaries to the heathen. The first printing-press in 
America, said to have been the gift of friends in Holland, was set 
up in Cambridge under the charge of Stephen Day, and a metrical 
version of the Psalms, prepared by Eliot, Welde and Mather, was 
published, and long continued in use in the New England churches. 
The first Protestant translations into a heathen tongue — Eliot's 
Indian Bible and religious tracts for Indians— were also printed there. 
In these works the Cambridge Church, under the lead of its eminent 
pastor, took a lively interest, f 

In 1636, the General Court founded in Cambridge a school for 
the education of ministers, which was soon after endowed by Rev. 
John Harvard (who died soon after his arrival in the colony), with 
the gift of his library and half of his estate (£800). Thereupon, 
the school was erected into a college, received the name of its ben- 
efactor, and was placed under the supervision of a board of over- 
seers composed of magistrates and ministers from six neighboring 
churches. In fixing upon a location for this institution Salem 
was passed by, on account of some Antinomian tendencies which 
had appeared there, and Newtown, subsequently called Cambridge, 
was chosen. The piety \ of the students was diligently cared for as 

* Mather, II, pp. 192, 207, 238, 279, 289. 

t See historical sketch of the First Church in Cambridge, Mass., in the Congregational Quar- 
terly, July, 1873, pp. 384-394. Also Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. I, p. 263. 

% An old book {New England's First Fruits, in respect to the progress of learning in the 
college at Cambridge, in Massachusetts Bay. London, 1643), gives the following among other 
rules of the college at this time : 

"2. Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, that the 
maine end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 
17. 3), and, therefore, to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge 
and learning." 



132 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of primary importance, while they were seeking intellectual culture. 
During the first one hundred years of its existence a little more 
than three sevenths * of its graduates became ministers of the 
Gospel. 

One who lived sufficiently near the early colonial period to be 
familiar with those times has said : " Although the generality, both 
of the first leaders, heads of families, and freemen, were persons 
of noted piety ; yet there were great numbers, not only of the 
younger sort, both children and servants, but also of every age, both 
in the year 1630 and in the ten following years, that came here only 
under the common impressions of a pious ministry, or education, 
or the religious influence of their friends, or the heads of families 
they belonged to ; and who were, therefore, fit materials for the 
numerous conversions which quickly followed under the lively, 
searching and awakening preaching of the primitive ministers." f 
"The Spirit from on high was poured upon them, and the wilder- 
ness became a fruitful field. In twenty-seven years from the first 
plantation there were forty-three churches in joint communion ; and, 
in twenty-seven years more, there appeared more than fourscore 
churches ; twelve or thirteen in Plymouth Colony, forty-seven in 
Massachusetts Colony and the Province of New Hampshire, nine- 
teen in Connecticut, three on Long Island, and one at Martha's 
Vineyard."^: The communicants in the New England churches in 
1650, were reckoned at 7,750. § 

The morals of this early period were of a high order. In 1641 
Governor Winthrop made the following entry in his Journal : "A 
great training in Boston, two days. About 1,200 persons were exer- 
cised in most sorts of land service; yet it was observed that there 
was no man drunk (though there was plenty of wine and strong 
beer in the town), not an oath sworn, no quarrel, nor any hurt done." 
It is stated by an early annalist that servants and vagrants were the 
authors of most of the open crimes which were committed. A 
prominent minister in the province, in 1650, said to his congrega- 
tion, " I have lived in the country seven years, and all that time I 

"4. That they, eschewing all profanation of God's name, attributes and ordinances, and times 
of worship, do studie with all good conscience, carefully to retaine God and the law of his truth 
in their minds, else let them know that (notwithstanding their learning) God may give them up 
to strong delusions, and in the end to a reprobate mind. 2 Thess. 2. it, 12; Rom. 1. 28." 

* From 1642 to 1742, there were 1,421 graduates, of whom 641 became ministers. 

t Rev. Thomas Prince, in a sermon before the General Assembly of the province, in May, 1730. 

X Christian History, pp. 63, 64. 

§ Emerson's History of the First Church in Boston, p. 8r. In 1674 there were also 3,600 
praying Indians. American Quarterly Register, Feb., 1832, p. 203. 



LUTHERANS IN DELAWARE. 133 

have never heard one profane oath nor seen a man drunk." * The 
Sabbath was kept with extreme strictness. All men, even strangers 
temporarily stopping in a place, were required to attend public wor- 
ship, or " to keep themselves quiet in their houses." f Some individ- 
uals who found the atmosphere too pure and religion too prominent 
returned in disgust to England and grossly slandered the colonists. 

That there was an extreme and impracticable rigidity in the 
spirit of many of these early Puritan settlers cannot be denied. 
But this was a relic of the intolerance against which they had 
revolted and into which they were betrayed in their zeal for the 
truth. % 

New York. 

The trading stations which constituted the first occupancy of New 
York soon grew into permanent settlements, after the organization 
of the Dutch West India Company in 162 1. While the chief motive 
was the acquisition of wealth, they very early adopted measures to 
have the Gospel preached, and churches were established. But the 
progress of religion in the Dutch colonies was slow, owing to the 
worldly spirit of the early settlers, the formal character of their 
piety, the agitations connected with the Indian hostilities, and the 
dependence of the churches for pastors upon the classis of Amster- 
dam, which, at so great a distance, could only imperfectly judge as 
to the character of the ministers best suited to the circumstances of 
the colony. And yet, with all these disadvantages, religious institu- 
tions were maintained, education was promoted, and morals, though 
not austere, were strict and wholesome. 



Delaware. 

In 1637 two ship-loads of Swedish Lutherans settled in Delaware. 
This settlement was in the interest of Protestant Christianity. Much 
desire was manifested for the evangelization of the Indians, and 
Luther's Smaller Catechism was published in their language. At 
the time Eliot was performing his truly apostolic work in behalf of 
the Indians in New England, Lutheran missionaries were engaged 

*See preface to sermons published in Boston, in 1721, by Dr. Increase Mather. 

t Winthrop's Journal, 1646. 

\ " If a body of men be deprived of their dearest rights for professing conscientious opinions, 
it is natural that they should attach more importance to those opinions than if they were allowed 
their free exercise. It not only makes them more sturdy champions of their belief, but it leads 
them into intolerance toward others." Essays and Reviews, by Edwin P. Whipple, New York. 
D. Appleton & Co. 1848. Vol. I, p. 204. Article, Neal's " History of the Puritans," North 
American Review, January, 1845. 



134 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

in the same holy work in Delaware and Pennsylvania. The royal in- 
structions to the governor of this colony especially enjoined that the 
true worship of God and a pure faith should be maintained. * 



Section 2.— From 1662 to 1720. 

This was a period of marked religious declension in all the 
colonies. 

Virginia. 

That it should be necessary in Virginia to enact a law requiring 
the clergy to preach constantly every Sabbath, and to administer 
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper at least twice each year, is, of 
itself, a significant fact. Passing down to the close of the first 
century of the colony, only a few more churches appear to have been 
established, and, though glebes and parishes had been provided, not 
more than one half of the congregations were supplied with 
ministers, the others being served by lay-readers. " As to. the 
unworthy hireling clergy of the colony, there was no ecclesiastical 
discipline to correct or punish their irregularities and vices. The 
authority of a commissary f was a very insufficient substitute for 
the superintendence of a faithful bishop. The better part of the 
clergy and some of the laity long and earnestly petitioned for a 
faithful resident bishop, as the Bishop of London was, of necessity, 
only the nominal bishop. For about two hundred years did the 
Episcopal Church of Virginia try the experiment of a system whose 
constitution required such a head but was actually without it. No 
such officer was there to watch over the conduct and punish the 
vices of the clergy ; none to administer the rite of confirmation, and 
thus admit the faithful to the Supper of the Lord." \ Under 
such circumstances the religious tendency was inevitably down- 
ward, and the morals also correspondingly declined. 

A passing tribute is due to the memory of Rev. James Blair, D.D., 
who contributed in his day more than any other individual in the 
southern colonies to the cause of learning and the diffusion of 
Christianity. A native of Scotland, where he also received his 

* Article on the " Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States," in the Bibliotheca 
Sacra, July, 1868, by Rev. J. A. Brown, D.D., Professor in Gettysburg Theological Seminary, 
PP- 437, 438. 

t An officer of the bishop exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction in distant parts of his diocese. 

X Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. Vol. I, p. 15. By Bishop Meade, 
Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857. 



WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. 135 

education, and was beneficed in the Episcopal Church, he quitted 
his preferments and went to England near the close of the reign of 
Charles II. The Bishop of London prevailed upon him to go as 
missionary to Virginia in 1685. Having studied the wants of the 
colony, and performed valuable service to the cause of religion, in 
1689 he was appointed commissary ; the first officer of this class 
ever appointed, and a position which he held, in intimate association 
with the Bishop of London, for fifty-three years. Dr. Blair has been 
described as "eminently a practical man," of " sincere piety, a clear 
mind, and indefatigable perseverance." To his labors may be 
directly attributed the founding of William and Mary College, in 
1693, of which institution he was president forty-nine years. He died 
at the age of eighty-six, after a ministry of sixty-four years, and for 
filty years he was a member of the king's council. He left four vol- 
umes of sermons, which were highly commended by Dr. Doddridge.* 

Maryland. 

There is no evidence of the organization of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in Maryland until about 1675.+ There were, 
doubtless, communicants of that Church in the province, but they 
were not numerous. In 1676 the moral and religious condition of 
the province was represented \ as most deplorable. In ten or 
twelve counties there were only three clergymen of the English 
Church. The Lord's day was generally profaned, religion was 
despised, and " all notorious vices were committed, so that it had be- 
come a Sodom of uncleanness and a pest-house of iniquity." In 1684 
the number of the clergy had increased, but they were " remarkable for 
their laxity of morals and scandalous behavior, utterly inconsistent 
with the sacred office." § From 1678 to 1692 there was a series of 
movements indicating a revolution against the Roman Catholics. 
Protestantism was in the majority, | and a spirit of deep unrest 
under Catholic administration rapidly increased until 1692, when 
the accession of William and Mary to the English throne afforded an 
opportunity to change the character of the government. The pro- 
prietary came to an end and the provincial form was adopted, 
bringing the province directly under the officers of the crown, and 



*See Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 74, 75. 

t History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks. 
New York, 1839. Published by John S. Taylor. 

X Letter from Rev. Mr. Yeo, of Patuxent, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Hawks, p. 48, 49, 
§ Hawks, p. 54 ; also, British Empire in America. Vol. I, p. 333. 
I Hawks, p. 53. 



136 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the Episcopal Church was formally established as the religion of the 
State. This was fully consummated in 1702. but the condition of 
morals was not improved. A letter from one of the clergy to 
the Bishop of London, in 17 14, drew a dark picture of the moral 
and religious condition of the province." In 1722 the number of 
parishes was thirty-eight, varying from nine to seventy miles in 
length, with eleven hundred Episcopal families and three thousand 
communicants. During this period a considerable number of 
Baptist, Quaker, and Presbyterian churches were founded in this 
province. 

New York. 

But little religious progress was made in the colony of New York. 
Local circumstances embarrassed the churches. The Dutch churches 
were still ecclesiastically dependent upon the mother church in 
Amsterdam. The colon}' fell into the hands of the English, and a 
new class of settlers came in, resulting in the establishment of the 
English Church in 1693, and general taxation for its support. This 
produced dissatisfaction and irritation. 

Pennsylvania. 

It was during this period that Pennsylvania was settled by the 
Quakers. Founded upon the principle of unlimited toleration, the 
colony became a favorite resort for people of all creeds, where they 
dwelt together in delightful tranquillity and harmony. Xo act of 
intolerance or of persecution ever disgraced this colony. Churches 
multiplied and spread into the interior, the Quakers and Presby- 
terians being the most numerous. The morality of the people was 
of a high order, and the spirituality of religion was genuine and 
unaffected. 

To Rev. Francis Makemie belongs the honor of laying the 
foundation of the Presbyterian Church in this country. A man of 
indefatigable zeal, clear-sighted, sagacious, fearless, and inspired 
by a truly apostolic spirit, he was pre-eminently adapted to the 
work. But the circumstances of the times taxed his virtues and his 
strength to the utmost. A true " itinerant missionary, and in 
reality the bishop of a primitive diocese," + he was emphatically u in 
labors abundant." He extended his circuit from Long Island to 
Maryland, and visited New England, Old England, and Scotland in 

* Hawks, p. 136. 

tGillett's History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Vol. I. p. 5. 



RELIGIOUS COLDNESS IN NEW ENGLAND. 137 

furtherance of his work, founding churches and obtaining ministers 
and funds. The obstacles which he everywhere encountered were 
spiritual coldness and formality. Presbyterianism in America had its 
origin during the dark and gloomy period preceding the great Edward- 
ian and Whitefieldian revivals. In addition to the unfavorable local 
circumstances and tendencies in this country, it was a time of 
spiritual decay and heresy abroad. " The Presbyterian churches of 
Switzerland had extensively fallen away from the vital doctrines of 
the Gospel. The writings of Whiston, Clarke, and Hoadley, in 
England, followed by the debates and publications of dissenters at 
Salter's Hall, showed that in London all was not sound, even among 
those who bore the honored name of the Puritan ancestry. In 
Scotland, moreover, the seeds of unsound doctrine had been widely 
sown." * In receiving ministers, therefore, from the mother country 
at this time, the early Presbyterian churches in America were com- 
pelled to exercise the greatest care. 

New England. 

In New England, also, where, in the earlier period, such deep 
spirituality had prevailed, a sad and general decline of piety and 
morals was manifest. The year 1662 marks a transitional point in 
the churches of New England. The adoption of the celebrated 
half-way covenant f that year opened the door for worldliness, 
formality, and dangerous errors. In 1670 a decay in spirituality 
was very apparent. Rev. Samuel Danforth, of Roxbury, spoke of 
"the temper, complexion, and countenance of the churches as being 
strangely altered," and " a cold, careless, dead frame of spirit " as 
having " grown steadily " upon them. In 1678 Increase Mather 
spoke of "conversions" as "rare." "The body of the rising 
generation is a poor, perishing, unconverted, and, except the Lord 
pour down his Spirit, an undone generation. Many are profane, 
drunkards, lascivious, scoffers at the power of godliness." In 1683 
Rev. Samuel Torry, of Weymouth, said : " Oh, the many symptoms 
of death that are upon our religion ! " " As converting work doth 
cease, so doth religion die away ; though more insensibly, yet most 
irrevocably. How much is religion dying in the hearts of sincere 
Christians !" In 1702 Increase Mather said : " Look into our pulpits 
and see if there is such a glory there as there once was. Look into 

* History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H, Gillett, D.D., 
Vol. I, p. 50. 

t See chapter on the Diverse Currents 0/ Religions Sentiment, and Section 5 of this chapter. 



J 38 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the civil State. Does Christ reign there as he once did ? How 
many churches, how many towns there are in New England over 
which we may sigh and say, the glory is gone!" Dr. Trumbull 
represented the condition of things in Connecticut at that time as 
very similar. In 1705 there was a partial reformation in Eastern 
Massachusetts, and in the western part of the State there were 
occasional revivals. Under the ministry of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, 
at Northampton, in a period of sixty years there were five revivals 
—in 1679, 1683, 1696, 1712, and 1718. Notwithstanding these few 
revivals, in 1720 the moral and religious condition of New England 
had sadly declined from what it was eighty years before. 

Several causes contributed to this general declension in religion, 
the most important of which were — the stormy political aspect of the 
times, being a period of frequent and violent changes in the mother 
country, for the most part, under the licentious and debauched 
court of Charles II., then of James II., and finally under the some- 
what improved but constantly disturbed administration of William 
III., all of which very sensibly affected the English colonies ; the 
emigration of new classes of inhabitants who, unlike the earliest 
settlers, were actuated by worldly motives, and were restive under 
religious restraints; in New England the celebrated "half-way 
covenant" which involved a vital change in the conditions of church 
membership, destroying the fundamental distinction of the Church 
as a separated and consecrated community, and the new currents 
of sentiment which were setting in from the Old World under the 
influence of the rising spirit of radical inquiry. 

A corruption in manners had been working downward through 
English society from the reign of Charles II. The pages of Addi- 
son, Steele, Johnson, and Goldsmith afford ample evidence of the 
general prevalence of frivolity and profligacy. The example of the 
mother country was contagious, and the children of the Pilgrims, the 
Covenanters and the Cavaliers sadly deteriorated in style of character 
and life. A growing liberality in thought, and an increasing tend- 
ency to deistical philosophy, during the reigns of William III. and 
the Georges diverted men's minds from the old channels of opinion 
and threatened to undermine the long-cherished doctrines. The 
first results of these influences were felt in the American churches 
early in the last century. The religious enthusiasm of the fathers 
had passed away, and their devotion, self-sacrifice, and sanctity of 
life had subsided into staleness of thought and stagnancy of feeling 
in all the colonies. 



SEVENTEENTH CENTURY CLERGYMEN. 



NAME. 



NAME. 



Trinitarian Congregational. 

Francis Higginson 

John Warham 

John Wilson 

George Phillips 

John Elior 

Thomas Welde 

John Cotton 

Thomas Hooker 

Samuel Stone 

Nathaniel Ward 

Thomas Parker 

James Noyes 

John Sherman 

Zaehariah Symmes 

[ohn Lothrop 

Peter Bulkly 

John Norton ... 

Thomas Shepard 

Peter Hobart , 

Hugh Peters 

Richard Mather 

Samuel Whiting 

John Wheelwright 

Nathaniel Rogers 

Ralph Partridge 

John Higginson 

John Davenport 

Samuel Eaton 

Henry Whitfield 

Thomas Cobbet 

William I looke 

John Fiske 

I John Allin 

Charles Chauncy 

Samuel Newman 

Abraham Pierson 

John Knowles 

Ezekiel Rogers 

Jonathan Burr 

Henry Dunster 

Thomas Thacher 

John Woodbridge 

John Brock 

Jonathan Mitchell 

Samuel Danforth 

Urian Oakes 



I5 S 7 
15S9 
1604 



15S5 

15S6 

1 570 

1595 
[608 
1613 
1 599 



1 6( >6 
1605 
1604 
1599 
i59 r > 
1597 



159S 



1616 

1597 
1597 



1 60S 
1601 
1601 
I59 6 
1592 
1600 



1590 
1604 



John Rogers 

William Hubbard. 
Increase Mather. . 
Eleazar Mather. . . 
Joshua Moody. . . . 

James Allen 

Samuel Willard . . . 

John Hale 

John Oxenbridge. . 
Solomon Stoddard. 
Abraham Pierson.. 



1620 
1613 
1620 
1624 
1626 
1631 
1631 
1631 
T.621 
1639 
1637 



1632 
1639 
1636 
1609 

1643 
1641 



1629 
1630 
1630 
1630 
1631 
1632 
1033 
1633 
1033 
1634 
1634 
1034 
1034 
1634 
1634 
1035 
1635 
1635 
1635 
1635 
1035 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1638 
1638 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1640 
1643 
1645 
1648 
1649 
1650 
1652 

1653 
1656 
1656 
1657 
1658 
1658 
1662 
1663 
1664 
1669 
1669 
1669 



1630 
1670 
1667 
1644 
1690 
1641 
1 6? 2 
1647 
1663 

1653 
[677 
[656 
16S5 
167 1 
1653 
1659 
[663 
1649 
167S 
[660 
[669 
i<>7>) 
1679 
1655 
[658 
1 70S 
1O72 
1665 

16S5 
[678 

1676 
1671 
1 69 1 
1663 
167S 
16S5 
1 660 
1641 
I 1659 

! 167s 
I 1695 
i6ss 
166S 
1674 
16S1 
1705 
1684 
1704 
1723 
1669 
1697 
1710 
1707 
1700 
1674 
1730 
1707 



Eil ward Taylor 1642 1671 

William Adams 1650 1672 

Samuel Treat 1647 1672 

George Burroughs 1 676 

John Wise | 1652 1680 

Cotton Mather 

Peter Thacher 

Thomas Barnard 

John Baily 

James Pieipont 

William Williams 

Samuel Eee 1625 

Charles Morton 1626 

John William.-, 1644 

Nehemiah Walter 1663 

Thomas Walter 1696 

Benjamin Wadsworth 1609 

Benjamin Colman 1673 

Timothy Edwards 1669 

Eliphalet Adams 1677 

William Prattle 1662 

John Hancock 1671 

Thomas Mayhews 15SS 

Thomas Mayhews 1621 

John Mayhews 

Experience Mayhews 1673 

Simon Bradstreet 1669 

Samuel Moody ! 1676 

Ebenezer Pemberton 1671 



1662 1680 
1651 1681 
1656 1682 
1644 1684 
1661 1684 
1664 1685 
1686 
1686 
1686 
1688 
1718 
1693 
1693 

1696 
1696 
1697 
1658 
1646 
1673 
1694 
1697 
1698 
1699 



Reformed Dutch. 

Johannes Michaelius .... 

Evardus Bogardus .... 

Johannes MegapoIen>is 

Samuel Dirgins 

Samuel Megapolensis 1634 

Henry Selyns j 1636 

William Van Xeuwenhuysen . .... 

Lutheran. 

Tacob Fabricius 



Protestant Episcopal. 

William Blackstone 

William Wilkinson | .... 

James Blair \ 1656 

"Hugh Jones 1670 

William Vesey 1674 



Baptist. 
Hansard Knollys. . 
Roger Williams. . . 
John Clarke 



1598 

1599 
1609 



Presbyterian. 
Francis Makemie... 

Ij Josias Mackie 

II Jedediah Andrews... 



729 
6S5 
716 
692 

725 

72S 
727 
71S 
697 
714 
741 
691 
69S 
729 
750 
724 
737 
747 
758 
753 
717 
752 
681 

657 
6S9 
75S 
74* 
747 
717 



1647 
1669 



1628 

1633 

1043 

1652 

1663 1700 

1660 i 1701 

1671 i 



1669 I 169: 



.... 1075 

1650 1663 

1685 1743 

1696 1760 

1697 1746 



1638 1691 

1639 1683 
1644 ' 1676 



1683 j 1708 
1692 '■ 1716 
1698 1747 



IMPRESSIVE EVENTS. 139 

Section 3.— From 1720 to 1745. 
The Whole Field. 

At the opening of this period, the Episcopal was the Estab- 
lished Church in Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mary- 
land, and New York, and it also commanded the special favor 
of the civil authorities in New Jersey. The Dutch Church also 
existed in New York and New Jersey, and the Quakers held ex- 
tensive sway in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The 
Presbyterians and the Baptists had established a few churches in 
all the Middle States. The Baptists had some churches in three of 
the New England States. The Roman Catholics existed only in 
Maryland, but even there they were deprived of the privilege of 
holding public religious services. There were a few Mennonites and 
other small bodies. The largest denomination of Christians was 
the Congregational, which had almost exclusive possession of New 
England. The total population of the colonies in 1700 was about 
320,000, and in 1750 they had increased to about 1,320,000.* In 
1733, Georgia, the last of the original thirteen United States, was 
settled under Governor Oglethorpe. 

New England. 

At this time several startling events in New England deeply 
impressed the people. In 1721 nearly six thousand cases of small- 
pox occurred in Boston and vicinity, of which one seventh proved 
fatal. In 1727 the greatest earthquake ever known in New England 
occurred, in the clear night of Oct. 29, while the moon was shining 
brightly. In 1735 a fatal throat epidemic raged. In New Hamp- 
shire, then consisting of only fifteen towns, one thousand persons 
fell victims to the terrible malady, of whom nine tenths were under 
twenty years of age. Temporary revivals of religion followed, but 
the communities soon relapsed into indifference. 

The venerable Increase Mather died in 1723, and his distinguished 
son, Cotton Mather, in 1728. In 1727 Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of 
Northampton, Massachusetts, the most influential public man in 
western New England, passed away. Three years before his death 
Cotton Mather presented a petition to the Legislature of Massa- 
chusetts, in the name of the general convention of ministers, praying 
that, in view of the great and visible decline of piety, a synod might 
be called to remedy the unhappy condition. No synod was called. 

* See Seaman's Progress of 'Nations, p. 583. New York, 1852. Charles Scribn^r. 



140 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Jonathan Edwards and the Great Revival. 

It was in the midst of such a religious condition that the memor- 
able movement known as " the great awakening " occurred. It 
was a series of far-reaching revivals, with Edwards as the prime 
mover, supplemented by Whitefield, each acting independently of 
the other — Edwards in New England and Whitefield throughout 
the colonies. 

Edwards was confessedly a man of rare intellectual power, the 
ablest preacher of his time, who subsequently acquired the reputa- 
tion of being the " most distinguished metaphysician from Leibnitz 
to Kant." He was acute in analysis and intense in thought. From 
early childhood he was deeply religious. Somewhat phlegmatic in 
temperament, trained up to a Puritanical primness, scrupulously 
precise in ministerial dignity, an absorbed student, solitary, and 
even ascetical in his habits, he was. nevertheless, a man of 
delicate sensibility, of fine esthetic taste, of rapt contemplation, 
and deep enthusiasm. Strong of will, of loft}' temper, and large 
moral consciousness, he was earnest even in his most deliberate 
actions ; and, however wanting in practical qualities and knowledge 
of men, he nevertheless possessed some very important qualifications 
for a religious reformer. His religious character was his most 
notable trait. His whole existence was a conscious longing after 
the Divine, springing from a profound conviction of the painful 
reality of sin and the glorious reality of redemption. A descendant 
from a London clergyman in the days of Elizabeth, a graduate and 
tutor of Yale College, most fortunately united in marriage to a 
woman* of the rarest qualities both of mind and heart, and called 
to the pastorate of one of the largest and most influential churches 
in New England, he began his ministry at Northampton in 1727 
under circumstances exceedingly auspicious. 

But the heart of Edwards could not rest in outward circum- 
stances, however bright. He looked for spiritual life, but found it 
not. In his church the ripest and worst fruits of the "half-way 
covenant " were conspicuous. For about twenty years his dis- 
tinguished predecessor had received unconverted persons to the 
communion and the Church, and had openly defended the prac- 
tice in controversies with his ministerial brethren. A worldly 
spirit prevailed ; the young people absented themselves from public 
worship and the restraints of family influence ; licentiousness 
grossly abounded, and the Sabbath was turned into a day of amuse- 

* Daughter of the Rev. James Pierpont, of New Haven, Connecticut. 



THE GREA T A WAKEMXG. 1 4 J 

ment. Edwards was deeply impressed with the prevailing laxity in 
morals, discipline, and doctrine. The virus was deeply seated, 
requiring radical treatment. He resolved to preach thoroughly 
upon the fundamental phases of doctrine involved in the situation. 
Influential friends endeavored to dissuade him, but he went forward, 
some finding fault and others ridiculing. He struck massive blows 
against the foundations of false hope, and set forth boldly the great 
principles of evangelical truth. 

In the latter part of December, 1734, a new religious condition 
became apparent, attended by inquiry and conversions. After 
several months the deep interest in Northampton extended to 
South Hadley, Sunderland, Deerfield, Hatfield, West Springfield, 
Hadley, and Northfield, in Massachusetts, and to Suffield, Windsor, 
Coventry, Lebanon, Durham, Hartford, Stratford, Tolland, Bolton, 
Hebron, Preston, Groton, New London, and other towns in Con- 
necticut. In Northampton alone three hundred persons professed 
conversion in about six months. The influence extended to the 
Presbyterian churches in New Jersey and some parts of Penn- 
sylvania under the labors of the Tennents, and subsequently 
of Cross, Frelinghuysen, and others. The revival spirit prevailed 
through several years. Powerful revivals occurred in 1739 
in Newark, New Jersey, and Harvard, Massachusetts, and 
in 1740 in New Londonderry, Pennsylvania, and New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey. In many places where there was no visible 
movement there was a quiet quickening of religious interest, 
and an increased attention to religion in the inner and outward 
life. Nine years after this revival Edwards attested that " there 
had been a great and abiding alteration in the town," " more 
general seriousness and decency in attending public worship," 
" less vice than for sixty years before," and a more " charitable spirit 
toward the poor." Nor in Northampton alone were these perma- 
nent benefits. The good effects were widely visible after the excite- 
ment had passed away. The churches were stronger in numbers and 
piety. Public morals were improved ; theology was more evan- 
gelical and the line of demarkation between the Church and the 
world more visible. 

Considered as a work of grace, this great revival was attended by 
many marks of genuineness,* deep views of sin and unworthiness, 
clear convictions of the truths of the Gospel, firm persuasions of the 
fullness and sufficiency of Christ as a Saviour, exalted apprehensions 
of the majesty of God, profound self-abnegation, utter dependence 

* See Edwards's Works. Vol. Ill, pp. 123, 140; also, History 0/ the Great Awakening. 
10 



142 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

on the Holy Spirit, restitution for wrongs, reconciliation of enemies, 
and extraordinary self-dedication to God. That there were 
cases of self-delusion, extravagance, and excesses, was freely con- 
fessed and deeply mourned by Edwards and his co-workers, who 
faithfully analyzed and exposed them. These things were made 
occasions for gainsaying and opposition, but great and lasting good 
was nevertheless accomplished. 

Whitefield. 

The revival under Edwards had nearly spent its force when White- 
field appeared and gave it a new impulse. He landed in Philadelphia 
in November, 1739, warm in the fresh glow of a new religious experi- 
ence, and flushed with his successes upon the plains of Moorfields. 
From a fiery ordeal of agonizing self-conflicts, and the deep melan- 
choly of ascetic follies, his struggling spirit had emerged into the 
liberty of spiritual adoption, and longed to proclaim its transports 
to the world. With a heart of great capacity and simplicity, with 
oratorical powers unexcelled in effectiveness, and imbued with rich 
spiritual influences, he was eminently fitted to be an evangelist. 
Inwardly moved with the conviction of a divinely appointed mission, 
and overflowing with sympathy, he began his labors in Philadelphia. 
The whole city was powerfully stirred, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quak- 
ers, and Churchmen, all flocking to hear him. From Philadelphia 
he went to New York, then to Philadelphia again, then to Chester, 
Pa., then to Delaware, then to Charleston, S. C, and Savannah, Ga., 
then to Philadelphia and New York, then to Savannah, and thence 
to New England, moving like the angel in the apocalyptic vision, 
his progress every-where a spiritual triumph. He reached Newport, 
R. I., Sept. 14, 1740. Reputation ran before him as a herald, pro- 
ducing a popular contagion and drawing multitudes to hear him. 
He preached incessantly, often sixteen times a week. High and 
low persons, clergymen, civilians, college professors and students, 
were alike swayed by his matchless eloquence. The hearts of tens 
of thousands from Maine to Georgia were stirred, and many pro- 
fessed conversion. He returned to England, but revisited America 
many times, traversing the length of the land and proclaiming the 
Gospel message with unparalleled power and success. At last he 
died, in 1770, at Newburyport, Mass., saying, almost with his latest 
breath, il Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work." 
It was Whitefield's mission to revive in the churches faith in Pen- 
tecostal power and results. What a sublime example of the conse- 
cration of the highest oratory to the work of saving souls ! 



REV. WILLIAM TEN KENT. I 48 

A considerable revival interest followed Whiter] eld's labors in 
Boston. A deep seriousness and an increased attendance upon 
Sabbath worship were for some time manifest. Rev. Wm. Tennent, 
of New Jersey, came and preached searchingly and powerfully for 
several months, with good results. " The very face of the town," 
it was said, " seems altered." The revival spread as far as Ports- 
mouth, N. H., Plymouth and Enfield, Mass., and Westerly, R. I. 
Tennent was followed by Rev. James Davenport, of New Jersey, 
under whose more erratic labors, guided by visionary impressions, a 
reaction set in. 

The Edwardian and Whitefieldian revivals continued, with vary- 
ing degrees of interest and success, from 1734 to 1745, and in some 
localities to 1750, but they were chiefly confined to the Congregational 
churches in New England and the Presbyterian churches in the Mid- 
dle States.* 

"The Log College" Work in the Middle States. 

The Presbyterian churches in the Middle States had sunken low 
in apathy and formalism, and the unsound doctrinal tendencies 
which had paralyzed many of the Presbyterian churches of Great 
Britain threatened to destroy those of the colonies. But Providence 
was raising up agencies to avert the threatened evils. 

Rev. William Tennent, a native of Ireland and a graduate of 
Trinity College, Dublin, came to America in 17 18, became a Presby- 
terian minister, and settled at Neshaminy, about twenty miles from 
Philadelphia. Here he founded what was long known as the famous 
" Log College," for training young men for the ministry. He had 
four sons, Gilbert, William, Jr., John and Charles, all eminent 
preachers. To this remarkable family, called " the right-hand men of 
Whitefield," and their intensely evangelical school, the first educa- 
tional institution of the Presbyterians in America, is largely due the 
spiritual resuscitation and aggressive power of this denomination in 
the Middle States. 

Rev. Samuel Finley, D.D., an Irishman by birth, entered the 
" Log College," became a wise, zealous, and useful minister, a coad- 
jutor of the Tennents in the spiritual revolution which saved the 
Presbyterian Church, and in later life was President of Princeton 
College. 

Rev. William Robinson — " one-eyed Robinson " — was another 
evangelist who studied at the i; Log College." The son of a rich 

* The Quaker, Reformed, and Baptist churches received some benefits. 



144 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Quaker, he became a zealous Presbyterian minister, laboring in 
neglected and scattered settlements in southern New Jersey, west- 
ern Virginia, and North Carolina. Threatened by the civil authori- 
ties because an itinerant, but allowed to go on his way, he became 
a shining light in the dark southern borders. Dr. Alexander sa'd 
of him that he was probably instrumental in the conversion of as 
many souls as any man who ever lived in this country. 

There were " unconverted ministers " in many of the Presbyte- 
rian pulpits of that time, says Dr. Gillett,* and great religious apathy; 
and the position of the Tennents and their coadjutors, in regard to 
revivals and the spiritual qualifications of ministers, awakened bitter 
conflicts in the Synod, resulting in its division into the " Old "and 
the " New Side " in 1741. In the end the spiritual side triumphed, 
and the parties were reunited in 1758. Many other ministers were 
raised up at the " Log College." The occasional visits of White- 
field and these evangelical allies kept the revival work alive many 
years, greatly augmenting the communicants in the churches and 
trebling the ministers in seventeen years. Princeton College grew 
up out of this revival in 1746. 

Results of Whitefield's Labors. 

Whitefield caused great commotion and disturbances in the 
churches, and serious divisions and animosities followed. Bitter con- 
troversies were kindled which did not die with that generation. 
But the old question comes back, Was it Ahab or Elijah who 
troubled Israel? The judgment of history affirms that not only 
the Middle Colonies but also New England were benefited rather 
than injured by Whitefield's visits. 

Whitefield often overrated both his audiences and his converts, 
but much of the fruit of his way-side sowing, never numbered on 
earth, may be seen in eternity. Dr. Coggswell f estimated the num- 
ber added to the New England churches at 25,000 ; Trumbull J at 
30,000 to 40,000 ; others as high as 50,000. The Congregational 
and Presbyterian churches shared largely. Many Separatist and 
Baptist churches were formed. Many ministers and church mem- 
bers were converted (twenty ministers, it was said, in the vicinity of 
Boston). The standard of the religious life was raised. Indian 
missions received a new impulse; Brainerd was thrust out on his 
missionary career; and from the same influence Dartmouth College 
had its inception, under Wheelock, in Lebanon, Conn. 



* Hi-t. Pivs. Cli., v 1. I, pp.82, etc. f Christian Philanthropist. % History of Connecticut. 



WHITEFIELD IN THE SOUTH. 145 

Maryland and Virginia. 

From 1725 onward, in Maryland the character of the clergy is 
said to have very much improved. Whitefield visited this State in 
1740, but his labors were attended with little success. Baltimore 
was just beginning to be a place of some importance, and the Epis- 
copalians were the first to erect a church there. The St. Paul's 
church was begun in 1732.* No Roman Catholic Church was built 
there until more than forty years later. 

Virginia, too, as well as Maryland, received but little benefit 
from the great revival. Says Dr. Hawks,f " It is not calumny to 
say that religion was in a deplorably low state." Another writer,;}; 
whom he quotes, said : " There are and have been a few souls in 
various parts of the colony who are sincerely seeking the Lord, and 
groping after religion, in the communion of the Church of England." 
" In the year 1740 Mr. Whitefield visited Virginia and preached at 
the seat of government and other places, and it is not improbable 
that his ministrations tended to create an increased interest on re- 
ligious subjects among some of the members of the Establishment. 
At any rate he obtained a ready and unprejudiced hearing because 
he was a clergyman of the Church of England, and a deeper sense 
of piety was exhibited among some of the Establishment soon after 
his visit." § 



Section 4.— From 1745 to 1776. 

This period was one of varying fortunes in the colonial churches. 
The influence of the great revivals which have been mentioned was 
felt in some localities for a considerable time, but it was a 
period of many distractions. The French and Indian war, con- 
tinuing through nearly nine years (i 754-1 763), and the agitations 
preceding the war of the Revolution seriously militated against the 
religious life and morals of the people. 

In eastern Massachusetts, where the Arian and Socinian defection 
was already extensively working, there were no revivals. In the 
western part of the State there were large churches, in North- 
ampton, Stockbridge, Westfield, and Southampton. In Connecti- 
cut, notwithstanding several ecclesiastical difficulties, there were 

* Griffith's Annals, p. 23. 

t History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, by Dr. Hawks, p. 100. 

% State of Religion Among Dissenters in Virginia. By Rev. Samuel Dalls, p. 10. 

§ History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, by Dr. Hawks, p. 100. 



146 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

quickenings in the churches in Canaan, Killingly, Lebanon, 
Bethlehem, Preston, Somers, etc. Rev. Drs. Bellamy, Backus, and 
Hart, of that State, were ministers eminent for piety and influence. 
In East Hampton, on Long Island, Rev. Samuel Buel, a man of 
extraordinary piety and talents, settled in 1746 ; and, in 1764, through 
his efforts, an extensive revival of religion spread on the island. 

Among the Presbyterians in New York, New Jersey, and Penn- 
sylvania several eminent men were raised up. 

Rev. Samuel Davies, D.D., the great pulpit orator and president 
of Princeton College, commenced his ministry in 1747; Rev. John 
Brainerd, the worthy brother of the great missionary to the In- 
dians, in 1748 ; Rev. John Rodgers, D.D., as associate of Davies, and 
also a pastor in New York City, in 1749; Rev. Elihu Spencer, D.D., 
one of the strongest names that adorn the Presbyterian annals, in 
1748 ; Rev. Naphtali Daggett, D.D., subsequently president of Yale 
College, in 175 1 ; Rev. John Todd, who was called to bear the 
mantle of Davies on his departure for England, in 175 1 ; Rev. 
Robert Smith, D.D., the honored theological instructor of many 
ministers of the Presbyterian Church, in 175 1 ; and Rev. George Duf- 
field, D.D., a man of marked abilities and pulpit power, pastor of a 
church in Philadelphia, in 1756. The Tennents, Drs. Blair, Finley, 
Sproat, and their co-laborers in evangelistic work, were yet alive, and 
the savor of their influence was extensively felt in the schools and in 
the churches. 

In the Dutch Church Rev. Drs. Archibald Laidlie and John H. 
Livingston were eminent names, the patriarchs and fathers of the 
Church. Laidlie, a Scotchman by birth and a graduate at Edin- 
burgh, commenced his labors in New York in 1764. This event 
marks a new era in the history of the Reformed Dutch Church. 
His evangelical and powerful ministry resulted in great spiritual 
blessings. His pastoral tact and success were remarkable. Crowds 
attended his ministry, and he was a successful winner of souls.* 
Livingston, a native of Poughkeepsie, a graduate of Yale and 
of the University of Utrecht, Holland, commenced his labors in 
New York in 1770. During his ministry he established a great 
reputation as an orator and a theologian. His pastorate in New 
York continued forty years. To him, more than any other man, 
is attributed the separate organization of the Reformed Dutch 
Church in this country. f 



*See Historical Discourse, 1856. By Dr. Thomas De Witt. Life of Dr. Livi?igston. By 
Dr. Gunn. Spr •ague'' 's Annals of American Pulpit, Vol. IX. 

t See Life of Livingston. By Dr. Gunn. Sprague" 1 's Annals. Vol. IX. 



DISS EXT IN VIRGINIA, 147 

Baptists and Presbyterians in Virginia. 

No noticeable event occurred during this period in Maryland ; 
but Virginia was the scene of new movements. Until near the 
middle of this century, with the exception of a few Quakers and 
Independents who had occasionally appeared and were almost as 
promptly dismissed, Virginia had been exclusively occupied by 
Episcopalians. A few Baptists had entered the colony in 17 14, 
and others from Maryland in 1743. But not many permanent Bap- 
tist churches were established until soon after 1750. The first 
Baptist Association was organized in 1766, and at the time of 
the Revolution about seventy* churches had been constituted, 
but they were located chiefly in the western part of the State. 
In the same sections the Presbyterian churches were established. 
''The Virginia Government encouraged emigration along its 
frontier settlements, where the hardy pioneers might serve as a 
defense against the incursions of the Indian tribes. There was no 
question now raised in regard to their faith and order. If they 
could carry a rifle, or plant along the western forest a line of pro- 
tection against savage inroads, they were sufficiently orthodox. 
Their distance, moreover, from the settlements on the eastern 
shore prevented any umbrage being taken at a dissent which did 
not attract notice or give offense. Thus, in obscurity and neglect, 
Presbyterianism, in spite of Virginia laws, planted itself unmolested 
west of the Blue Ridge. Germans, Quakers, and Irish Presbyterians 
from Pennsylvania took possession of the county of Frederick." f 

From 1719 to 1755, at various times, the people at " Potomoke," 
near Martinsburg, at Opekon, south of Winchester, at Wood's Gap, in 
Albemarle, at Timber Ridge, at the Triple Forks of the Shenandoah, 
at Staunton, and numerous other places, were supplied with 
preachers by the Synod of Philadelphia and the New York 
Presbytery. In 1755 the Hanover Presbytery was constituted, 
from which time the cause prospered more fully. That distinguished 
minister. Rev. Samuel Davies, D.D., was the most able and successful 
promoter of Presbyterianism in this region. The celebrated Patrick 
Henry was a frequent attendant upon his ministry. Great revivals 
attended his labors, and at the time of the Revolution the Presby- 
terian churches in western Virginia were quite numerous. 

In the eastern part of Virginia the Episcopal churches were life- 

*See List, by Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D. in Amei ican Quarterly Register, Nov. 1840, pp. 
182, 187. 

t See History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, 
D.D., Philadelphia. Presbyterian Publication Committee. Vol. I, p. 106. 



148 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

less. To say that the clergy were worldly and formal comes short 
of the truth. Many of them were not only irreligious, but also 
immoral. According to Jarratt,* " the Sabbath was usually spent 
in sporting." In the pulpits natural religion and essays on morality 
were substituted for the Gospel. " Tillotson's sermons," says 
Bishop Meade, f " abridged into moral essays and dry reasonings on 
the doctrines of religion, were, I fear, the general type of sermon- 
izing among the clergy who came over to America for the seventy 
or eighty years before the war of the Revolotion." There were 
only a few exceptions. The most distinguished of these deserve a 
a more extended notice. Under their labors, in some portions of 
Virginia a new spiritual life was promoted. 

Morgan Morgan, 

an eminent Episcopal layman, a native of Wales, emigrated in 
early life to Pennsylvania. In the year 1726 he removed to the 
county of Berkeley in Virginia, and erected the first cabin between 
the Blue Ridge and the North Mountain. As a man of exemplary 
piety, and devoted to the Church, " he went about doing good," 
visiting the sick, and impressing upon all the value of per- 
sonal religion, training his own family in the ways of piety, and 
died at the ripe age of seventy-eight years, full of faith and good 
works. In the absence of the clergy he often officiated as a lay- 
reader, visiting destitute localities, quickening the piety of the 
churches, cheering the desponding, extending his labors through 
the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson, and a part of Frederick, Hamp- 
shire, and a small portion of Maryland. He was every-where 
welcomed, beloved alike by the rich and the poor, and attracted 
attentive audiences. His character was his passport, and the fruit 
of his labors was long seen in the valley of Virginia. J The second, 

Devereux Jarratt, 

was a clergyman of deep spiritual character and zeal. In 1763 
this remarkable man became the pastor of Bath parish, in Din- 
widdie County, Virginia, having received ordination in London the 
previous year. In his autobiography he presents many striking 
facts relative to the condition of religion in this State. He was an 

* Autobiography of Rev. Devereux Jarratt, p. 28. 

t Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. By Rev. Bishop Meade. Philadelphia, 
J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857. Vol. II, p. 355. 

\ Hawks's History of the Episcopal Church in Virginia, pp. 112, 113. 



RE V. DE VERB UX JARRA TT. 149 

earnest and laborious minister, of very decided evangelical senti- 
ments. In a time when the parish ministers preached little but 
M morality and smooth harangues, in no wise calculated to disturb 
the carnal repose of the people," he says, " My doctrine was strange 
and wonderful to them, and their language one to another was to 
this effect : ' We have had many ministers, and heard many befoie 
this man, but we never heard anything till now of conversion, the 
new birth,' etc. At this time I stood alone, not knowing one 
clergyman in Virginia like-minded with myself.' " 

Bishop Meade says, * " It is to be feared that about this time, 
and for some years before, the clergy of Virginia were not only 
wanting in seriousness, but were immoral and ignorant." Com- 
plaint was made to the Bishop of London of the gross ignorance of 
four clergymen and the immorality of others. 

Mr. Jarratt was a man of extraordinary character, and his 
ministry extended through a period of thirty-eight years. He 
devoted himself zealously to his work, and was both pastor and 
evangelist, not only in the three churches in his parish, but often in 
many adjacent towns. In his preaching he discarded the merely 
moral and sentimental homilies, then the staple instruction of 
the clergy, and enforced often " in a bold and alarming man- 
ner " the guilt of sin, the depravity of mankind, their danger, 
and portrayed in most inviting strains the way of salvation by faith 
in Christ. When the spirit of religious inquiry was awakened in his 
parish, he extended his labors through the week, by night and by 
day, often in private houses, holding meetings for prayer, singing, 
preaching and conversation. His churches were crowded to over- 
flowing : his labors were sought for elsewhere, and extended through 
a circle of five or six hundred miles. Twenty-nine counties in 
Virginia and North Carolina were visited by this great Episco- 
palian evangelist, and for some years, as his journal shows, his 
sermons averaged five each week. 

Says Bishop Meade, " He was, of course, very obnoxious to 
many of the clergy. One of them charged him with violating an 
old English canon by preaching in private houses. To this he 
replied that no clergyman refused to preach a funeral sermon in a 
private house for forty shillings, and he preached for nothing; 
moreover, that many of the brethren transgressed the 75th canon, 
which forbids cards, dice tables, etc., to the clergy, and yet were not 
punished. Some complained of his encouraging pious laymen to 
pray in his presence, which he answered by reminding them how 

* Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. By Bishop Meade. Vol. I, p. 467. 



150 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

often they permitted ungodly laymen to swear in their presence, 
without even a rebuke. Mr. Jarratt adduced in proof of the low 
state of religion the small number of communicants, none but a few 
of the more aged, perhaps seven or eight, attending. The rest 
thought nothing about it, or else considered it a dangerous thing 
to meddle with. The first time he administered it there was only 
that number. About ten years after he entered the ministry there 
were at his three churches, including a number who came from 
other parishes, about nine hundred or one thousand, although 
he endeavored to guard the table closely against unworthy 
receivers. For many years this happy state of things continued, 
but after a time a melancholy change appeared." * The Revolution- 
ary war and French infidelity swept over the State. 
Returning to New England, we notice : 



Section 5.— The Fruits of the Half-way Covenant. 

The introduction of the half-way covenant into the New 
England churches, and the subsequent action of Rev. Solomon 
Stoddard, have been sketched in these pages. A few things need 
to be stated as to its actual workings and its later history. The 
two systems (that of the Synod of 1662 and that of Stoddard), 
during the last century, ran largely together. This fact should be 
considered in order to a proper understanding of the current 
events. As is often the case, some parts of the systems were not 
fully observed, and there was much laxity, an inherent tendency in 
the nature of the case. Says Dr. Buddington,t " Had the theory of 
the covenant been carried out, it might have been a source of all 
the good anticipated, but probably it was the vice of the system 
that it could not be carried out faithfully. It was looked upon 
by many as a form devised to procure a respectable standing 
in the community, and it was practiced as a form, with no intent 
to discharge its duties or submit to the discipline it implied. In 
this way it happened that the discipline of the churches was 
neglected ; indeed, so numerous had the children of the covenant 
become, that it became well-nigh impossible to exercise a faithful 
discipline, inasmuch as almost the whole community were members 
of the Church by baptism." 

* Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. By Bishop Meade. Vol. I, pp. 
47i. 472. 

+ History of the First Church in Charlestozvn, Massachusetts, p. 127, 



THE HALF-WAY COVENANT. 151 

The South Church, Hartford, Connecticut, as already stated, 
came into being out of the controversy which arose over the subject 
of baptism in the first Church in that city. It was organized in 
1670, under a protest against the half-way covenant, though it 
subsequently fell into the same practice. At its two hundredth 
anniversary Dr. Leonard Bacon said : kl In the days of the half-way 
covenant, whatever else was neglected, the baptism of children was 
well attended to. Looking into the records of an old church in 
Fairfield County, Connecticut, not very long ago, I saw something 
to this effect : the minister, in his old age, recorded this regret, that 
he had not kept an accurate registry of baptisms, and therefore 
supplied that deficiency by certifying, once for all, that according 
to his best knowledge and belief, every body * then living in the 
parish was baptized, except a few Indians in a remote corner." 

We are credibly informed that those who were baptized were 
urged and accustomed to come to the communion. We thus gain 
some conception of the condition of things in the churches of the 
last century. The churches were generally walking in this way. 

Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D., says : f 

This one historical fact is so comprehensive that it includes many others. 
In the light of it we can easily understand why the churches of Massachusetts 
were in a very unhealthy condition one hundred years ago. 

They had not, it is true, lost all their power as churches of Christ, but they 
were greatly shorn of their strength. From 1745 on to the close of the century 
there was a woeful absence of those special breathings of the Holy Spirit which we 
call revivals of religion. The churches were built up as to numbers, but largely 
with earthly materials, and the standard of Christian conduct came to be very low. 

We talk of the good old times, but all through the last century there were 
strifes and contentions in many of the churches, such as were far below the 
Christian standard of the present clay. 

We refer to these things not to dishonor our fathers, but rather to honor the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ in its power to overcome evil and make the world better 
from generation to generation. 

When Rev. Peter Thacherwas ordained in Boston over the New North, in 1723, 
there were disorders such as would not be endurable in our times. The vote that 
called him was not unanimous, though nearly so, but the few dissentients were so 
stout and hateful in their opposition that they actually undertook to interrupt and 
stop the public services on ordination day, and in doing this were guilty of most 
mean and dastardly acts. Not prevailing, however, to stop the ordination, one 
man afterward nailed up his pew door, and it remained in this condition for years, 
until some young men sawed it out one night and fixed it as a kind of sign on 
his shop. 

*The baptisms in the old church in Windham, Connecticut, from 1700 to 1800 were 2,389, 
Almost every person was a church member, and all had their children baptized, 
f Hist 07-ical Survey of the Churches, 1776-1886. 



152 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The type of religious experience, even in the most religious, was 
very somber, dull and gloomy — little of the cheerful, hopeful, happy 
piety of more recent times. The most experienced Christians were 
sadly in bondage to fear. When talking 'of spiritual things it was 
common for them to remark — " O, if I only knew I had a spark 
of grace I should be so happy." Some of the churches voted that 
no person should be required to make a relation of his religious 
experience when admitted to the Church, and in some, % * no 
assent to the covenant " was required. 

Outwardly the people, especially in New England, were more 
religious one hundred years ago than now. They all supported 
religious institutions, taxing themselves for that purpose. The 
mass of the population was more generally found in the sanctuary 
on the Sabbath than now, but aside from the Sabbath services there 
were few religious meetings. Even if they had been disposed to gather 
for extra services, their scattered condition, poor roads, scarcity 
of bridges, etc., would have been hinderances. They thought more 
of being members of the Church and having their children baptized 
than now ; but the reasons for these things were semi-political, and 
church attendance was not voluntary, but enforced under heavy 
penalties. In respect to the formalities of religion, that age was in 
marked contrast with the present. People were more reverent of 
God, of His Church, of the Bible, of ministers and magistrates, and 
more solemn and devout in worship. Devout, solemn airs, whining 
tones, and long faces commanded a high premium. But there 
were less than ten years of good average spirituality in the whole 
century. 

The effect of the half-way covenant upon the theology of the 
Churches will be developed in the chapter on Diverse Currents. 



THE RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS. 



153 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AMONG PROTESTANTS. 



Sec. i. The Ministry. 
" 2. The " The Meeting-Houses. 
" 3. Public Worship. 



Sec. 4. The Catechism. 



EC. 4. I ne Catechism. 

5. Thanksgiving and Fast Days. 



T 



Section 1.— The Ministry. 

HE parish minister was a conspicuous personage in the colonial 
times. In the very earliest years of the settlement of New 
England each of the larger churches had two ministers, one of whom 
was the " teacher " and the other the pastor ; but this custom did not 
long continue. The minister was known by his dress. His pow- 
dered wig was surmounted with a three-cornered clerical hat, usually 
of beaver. A ministerial coat, single-breasted, with an ample curve 
on each side, and a vest of enormous length, with large pockets and 
lappets, covered his body. He wore pantaloons, met at the knees 
by long, smooth silk or worsted stockings, and soft calf or deer-skin 
shoes, fastened together by shining silver buckles. He was a grave 
man, of imperturbable dignity, and of great importance in all the 
town, and " his person was sometimes made a bug-bear to frighten 
refractory children into obedience." So greatly was he revered 
that the people usually took off their hats and bowed to him as he 
passed. It has been jocosely said that men passing the parsonage 
with teams always put the best wheel on the end of the axle nearest 
the parson's house. 

In New England the minister was " the parson," which meant 
the person, in the parish — a much more important personage than 
now. He was consulted concerning the enactment of laws and 
questions of civil administration. To speak against him or his 
preaching was punished by fine, whipping, banishment, or cutting 
off ears. Every person was obliged to contribute for his support, 
usually, however, by tax ; all were required to hear him preach on 
the Sabbath, Fast and Thanksgiving days, or pay a fine of five shil- 
lings for every absence ; and all were expected to keep awake dur- 



154 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ing the sermon. Marriages were, however, performed by magis- 
trates, and, in the earlier period, the dead were buried without 
prayer, lest that should bring in papal customs. At this early time 
the term Reverend was not applied to the parson, but on portraits 
and pamphlets the name was followed by V. D. M. (Verdi Dei 
Minister). Among the Dutch in New York he was called the 
' Dominie." 

The salary of the minister at Danvers, Mass., in 171 3, was £60 
a year and 15 cords of wood while single, and £7$ when married. 
In Schenectady, in 1700, the allowance was £100 New York 
currency (about $250), house and garden rent free, pasturage for 
two cows and a horse, 60 cords of wood delivered at the parsonage, 
and traveling expenses from Holland.** Generally the salary was 
paid in money, but often, in part, in country produce. The Ply- 
mouth Legislature decreed that a portion of any whales " in God's 
providence " cast upon the shore should be set apart for "the en- 
couragement of an able, godly minister among them." 

Much is said of the narrow-mindedness and sectarianism of the 
ministers of that period, but we should not forget that all through 
the colonial era there was progress, and the minister of 1 750-1 775 
was far in advance of those of 1630- 1660 in respect to toleration 
and breadth of ideas. There was a constant general advance, far- 
sighted men leading the van and obtuse ones following far behind. 
As a whole, the ministers of those times were the leaders in public 
sentiment. There were no lyceum lectures, concerts, plays or 
amusements, outside of a very few large towns, and the sermons 
were the events of the week. In New England the sermons were often 
strongly tinged with philosophy, and varied with discussions of obscure 
points in science and metaphysics, which afforded new topics for 
conversation among the people. Crude as some of those discus- 
sions now seem, they were then the skirmish lines beyond which 
the intellect of this age has passed, only to be superseded by the 
generations to follow us. Such is the progress of ideas. The 
minister's influence was felt in every hamlet, but the lawyers and 
the physicians owed more to the parson than any other class of 
persons. The long sermons, often dealing in abstruse metaphysical 
questions, afforded the professional and educated men intellectual 
occupation and amusement. The pulpit served for the stage and 
the circulating library, and the sermons heard on Sunday were 
thought over and discussed during the week. 

* In 1784 it was advanced to £140 ($350), in 1796, £200. 



INFLUENTIAL MINISTRY. 155 

The Influence of the Minister. 

Five reasons have been given why ministers had so great influ- 
ence in the colonial times, i. Religion, in the earlier period, at 
least, was regarded by the people as a very serious business, the 
subject on which their lives and destinies turned, and the parish 
minister was both the Moses and the Aaron of their hopes. 2. He 
was really an important officer in the theocracy, the ecclesiastical 
order being the power behind magistrates and courts. 3. The 
superior learning of the clergy, they being the learned men of the 
settlements. 4. The simplicity of colonial life afforded them rare 
opportunities for personal influence. The complexity and expan- 
sion of society, with its great interests developing able men in their 
departments, now every-where surrounding us, was then unknown. 
The parson was a natural center of influence, as he cannot be now. 
He was often the physician and surgeon, and the more advanced 
schools were under his roof, where young men fitted for college and 
the ministry. There were few college graduates outside of the min- 
istry in the first century of our colonial history, and few lawyers, 
educators, editors and financiers. Managers of manufactories, rail- 
roads, etc., etc., were unknown. And there were no newspapers. 

5. The length of the pastorates was also favorable to the growth 
of influence. 

Long Pastorates. 

In 1782 Rev. Timothy Walker died at Concord, N. H., after a 
settlement of fifty-two years as pastor of that church. Among his 
contemporaries in that State were thirteen ministers * all of whom 
had long pastorates ; namely : 

Years | Years. 

Rev. Ebenezer Flagg, of Chester. . . 60 Rev. Jeremy Fogg-, of Kensington . 52 

William Davidson, of London- 
derry 51 



John Wilson (Presbyterian), of 

Chester 45 

John Odlin, of Exeter 48 j " Joseph Adams, of Neurington. 68 



William Allen, of Greenland. 53 
Samuel McChntock, of Green- 
land 47 

John Tuke, of Gosport 41 



John Moody, of Newmarket.. 48 

Samuel Parsons, of Rye 48 

Jonathan Cushing, of Dover. . . 52 

James Pike, of Somersworth. . 60 



Ministers were settled for life. Of 271 pastors in Massachusetts 
in 1776, 223 retained their pastorates until death; and only 48 were 
terminated by dismission or resignation. One had a ministry in the 

* Co7igregational Quarterly, July, 1873, pp. 362, 363. 



156 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

same parish over 70 years; 21, between 60 and 70 years; 51, be- 
tween 50 and 60 years ; 66, between 40 and 50 years; 62, between 
30 and 40 years : 24, between 20 and 30 years ; 32, between 10 and 
20 years ; 14, under 10 years. 

A small farm was attached to the parsonage in most towns, and 
the parson was often a skillful farmer. Sometimes he became very 
worldly and secular, neglecting study, and his sermons became stale. 
An eminent New England divine, himself a son of a Puritan clergy- 
man, used to relate that, when a boy, he heard the deacons in his 
father's house discussing the merits of their respective ministers. 
After many had spoken an old deacon said: " Wa'al, our minister 
gives so much attention to his farm and orchard that we get pretty 
poor sermons, but he is mighty movin' in prayer in caterpillar and 
cankerworm time." 



Section 2.— The Meeting-Houses. 

When the invading armies attempted to conquer the Anglo- 
Saxons they found the tribes bound together by a league they had 
nowhere else encountered — the league of the tuns. Each village was 
a tun, independent, managing its own affairs, each householder hav- 
ing the right of suffrage on all questions affecting the welfare of the 
tun. Every village had its moot, or meeting-house, where the in- 
habitants met to discuss all questions in tun meeting. Each tun man- 
aged its own affairs, and each united with its neighboring tun to 
repulse invaders. Rome could not conquer this people. The term 
moot (moot -question, moot-zowxt, etc.), signifying debate, gave char- 
acter to the buildings used for mooting, and the 7nootiug-house in the 
course of time was called a 7neetiug-house. The first settlers at 
Plymouth Rock were a tun, the beginning of a State — a Republic. 
In the wilderness they reared their moot — the mecti?ig-h.ouse — where 
on Sundays religious questions were mooted, and where, on other 
days, they mooted the affairs of the tun, elected tun officers, etc., every 
voter mooting his opinions upon all subjects relating to the tun, 
money for roads, schools, bounties on foxes and w r olves, down to the 
question of putting yokes upon geese and wires in the snouts of 
swine. The meeting-house was the legislative house of the minia- 
ture commonwealth, as well as a sanctuary where spiritual and eternal 
things were considered. The town meetings held in New England 
meeting-houses have become potent factors in the nation. In the 
meeting-houses troops were raised to fight the Pequots. From the 



EARLY CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 157 

pulpits patriotic fires were fanned that flamed into the Revolution, 
and from the meeting-houses the troops went forth to fight. 

Outside of New England, on some of the frontiers, meeting- 
houses were not so promptly reared, and Sabbaths and general morals 
ran low. But in New England, it may be said, in the beginning was 
the meeting-house. The edifice belonged to the town, in its paro- 
chial character, and the town meetings were opened with solemn 
religious services. All parish business was transacted in many New 
England towns at the regular town meeting. Even the most trivial 
matters, such as the appointment of a chorister, the purchase of sup- 
plies for the ordination dinner, arrangements for the ordination ball, 
which sometimes occurred, etc., were decided in this popular assem- 
bly. The records of one town meeting show a vote authorizing a 
committee "to purchase a pitch-pipe for the use of the chorister." 
For many years this was the only instrument used in singing in New 
England. " A barrel of rum to raise the meeting-house " was an- 
other town charge. 

The meeting-house always belonged to the town, in its parochial 
character ; but at the close of the last and the beginning of the pres- 
ent century these arrangements were gradually modified until, by 
the adoption of the amended " Bill of Rights " in Massachusetts, in 
1834, towns were discharged from all care of the Gospel and all con- 
nection with its institutions and agencies. In most other States this 
change came sooner. 

Rude Edifices. 

As to the character of the edifices, the very earliest belonged to 
the nondescript style of architecture — four walls of logs, with crevices 
stuffed with clay, no ceiling but the rough wood, often unhewed, and 
a thatched roof. Such were the first houses of worship in Virginia, 
New York and New England. They could do no better. In a little 
while the log church gave place to a square framed house, with a 
" tunnel" roof, the latter style of roof prevailing chiefly among the 
Dutch. In these buildings town business, courts, and many local 
contentions were held and criminals sentenced ; and stocks and whip- 
ping-posts were conveniently near. In the southern colonies the 
early churches were without spires for a hundred years or more, and 
were often located in retired places. 

In the days of Indian hostilities the sanctuary was loop-holed 

and surrounded with a palisade built of tall stakes as a protection 

against attacks. This building also stored the powder and served 

as a fort. A certain number of men were detailed to go every Sun- 

11 



158 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

day to the place of worship, with arms and ammunition, ready to 
repel an assault. 

Advance in Church Architecture. 

Only a little time, however, elapsed before the house of worship 
became a more worthy edifice. An old church, erected in eastern 
Massachusetts in 1 7 1 3, was 28 by 42 feet, three stones high, covered 
with plank one and a half inches thick, and clap-boarded. It was 
voted " to leave the inside to be plastered when ye precinct are 
able." There were no carpets, cushions, or pews, only hard oaken 
seats; the men sitting on one side and the women on the other until 
pews were introduced. Heavy beams crossed overhead, bare and 
unsightly, and when the building was crowded " some of ye sprightly 
lads sat on ye beams over ye heads of ye congregation." Dignita- 
ries of the State sat " on ye high seat by ye pulpit." It was long 
before the family or square pew was adopted. 

Most of the church buildings standing in the older towns in 1800 
were built from 1730 to 1770, the third of the series built since the 
first settlements. In the newer towns they were the second. 
Many of them were the best buildings of the period, the largest, 
most expensive and best cared for, requiring sacrifices from the 
people that would now be considered intolerable. They were 
painted white externally. An unpainted meeting-house, or one 
without a steeple and a bell, was an exception to the general rule. 
Sometimes, even in this more advanced period, the building of the 
steeple was deferred for lack of means, the modern expedient of a 
church mortgage not having been adopted ; but the glory of the 
sanctuary was deemed wanting until a lofty spire pointed heaven- 
ward and the welcoming notes of a bell reverberated to the remot- 
est corner of the town. It was then an imposing structure, located 
in the center, where the paths and lanes of the settlement converged, 
and often, in New England, on a high hill, where the first houses 
were built. The square house gradually gave place to an oblong 
structure of two stories and a gallery. Sometimes it was plastered 
only below the galleries, the portions above being left unfinished to 
the roof. Kegs of powder often stood on the great oak cross-beams 
for safe keeping, there never being any fire in the house. No cur- 
tains softened the light nor cushions the hard seats, except in the 
pulpit. 

No flue or chimney appeared in church architecture until near 
the close of the last or early in this century. Men warmed their hands 
by keeping them in their stout coat pockets, and knocked their feet 



CHURCH INTERIORS. 159 

together with not a little noise. Judge Sewall, of Boston, wrote 
(Diary, Jan. 24, 1685) : ''This day was so cold that the Sacramen- 
tal Bread was frozen pretty hard and rattled sadly on the plates." 
The women brought small foot-stoves,* replenished with charcoal, 
which sometimes occasioned fainting, though generally the cold and 
the fumes of gas were borne without complaint. The first stoves' 
were mounted on high platforms, sometimes nearly as high as the 
gallery, until the philosophers discovered that heat rises. 

A peculiarity of the early times were the " Sabba'-Day Houses ; " 
buildings erected near the church, about sixteen feet square, with 
small windows on three sides, a chimney built of stone or perhaps 
partly of brick, with a large fire-place. This room was furnished 
with rough seats. In this place the women passed the short inter- 
mission in mutual greetings, inquiries after health, commenting on 
the morning sermon, gossiping, etc., while the men lingered around 
the horse-sheds, or the bar-room of the tavern. 

The pulpit was lofty, reached by a flight of stairs ; so high that 
those who kept their eyes fixed upon the preacher did so at the 
peril of a stiff neck. Behind was a curtainless window, and above a 
curiously gilded canopy about six feet in diameter, in form resem- 
bling a flat turnip cut transversely. It was called a sounding-board 
and hung just above the speaker's head by a slender iron rod from 
the ceiling. Just beneath, in front of the pulpit, were the deacons' 
seats, in a sort of pen, where they sat on communion days, facing the 
congregation, with the communion table hanging by hinges in front 
of them. When pews were introduced they were constructed about 
six feet square, with high perpendicular walls, and a railing on the 
top. Within were uncushioned seats on two sides, and sometimes 
two or three plain chairs. The seats were hung by hinges, so that 
they might be turned up when the congregation rose, as it was the 
universal custom to stand in prayer time ; and " the slam-bang as 
they were turned carelessly down again at the close of prayers, not 
unlike a volley of musketry, was no inconsiderable episode in the 
ceremonies." 

Before bells were introduced a flag was raised and drums were 
used to call the people to worship. A good deacon, as was some- 



* From time immemorial only aged women and feeble persons were allowed to carry foot- 
stoves, which were replenished with coals at noon from the " Sabba'-Day House" or a neighbor's. 
In a town-meeting debate on the question of introducing a stove into the church in Brimfield, 
Mass., one speaker said : " We do n t need a stove in this h mse to warm it, the preaching is hot 
enough for that purpose." When a stove was introduced into a certain meeting-house a leading 
man fancied the air so uncomfortable that he walked out of the house in a rage, when a by- 
stander examined the stove and found that no fire had yet been kindled in it. 



160 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

times the case, with cocked hat and small clothes, solemnly beat the 
drum from hill to hill on Sabbath morning. The people came forth 
from their brown houses and wended their way to the meeting-house. 
A story is told of a faithful deacon who rode the same white horse 
to church for twenty years without missing a Sabbath ; but at length, 
taken sick, the deacon was kept at home. The venerable steed, 
however, without saddle or bridle, joined the worshipers as usual at 
the sound of the drum, went to the church, lingered till the services 
were over and then trotted home again. When carriages were first 
introduced those who used them were subjected to serious criticism, 
as extravagant and proud. 

The Congregations. 

" Behold now the congregation as it assembles on the Sabbath. 
Some of them are mounted on horses, the father with his wife or 
daughter on a pillion behind him, and perhaps also his little boy 
astride before him. They ride up to the stone horse-block and dis- 
mount. The young men and maidens, when not provided with 
horses, approach on foot. They have worn their every-day shoes 
until just before coming in sight, and have exchanged them for 
their clean calfskins or morocco, having deposited the old ones in 
some unsuspected patch of brakes or some sly hole in the wall. 
They carry in hand a rose, a lilac, a pink, a peony or a pond-lily 
(for this was the whole catalogue of flowers then known in the coun- 
try towns), or, what was still more exquisite, a nice bunch of caraway 
seeds. Instead of this in winter they bear a tin foot-stove contain- 
ing a little dish of coals, which they have carefully brought from 
home or filled at some neighboring house; and this was all the 
warmth they were to enjoy during the two long hours of the service. 
In winter they come a long distance on ox-sleds, or perhaps skim 
over the deep untrodden snow on snow-shoes. They enter the 
house stamping the snow from their feet and tramping over the 
uncarpeted aisles with their cow-hide boots. 

" Let us enter with them. The wintry blast howls around and 
shrieks among the loose clap-boards; the half-fastened windows 
clatter ; and the walls re-echo to the thumping of thick boots as 
their wearers endeavor to keep up the circulation in their half frozen 
feet, while clouds of vapor issue from their mouths ; and the man 
of God, as he raises his hands in his long prayers, must needs pro- 
tect them with shaggy mittens. So comfortless and cold — it makes 
one shudder to think of it. In summer, on the contrary, the sun 



THE MEETING-HOUSE SERVICE. 161 

blazes in, unscreened by window curtains ; the sturdy farmer, accus- 
tomed to labor all day in his shirt-sleeves, takes the liberty to lay 
aside his coat in like manner for the more serious employments of 
the sanctuary/' * 



Section 3.— The Worship. 

It is winter ; nevertheless the people are gathered, many of them 
from distant homes, in a cheerless sanctuary. Upon rough boards 
arranged on rude blocks sit the fathers of the church, in stout woolen 
frocks with snow-shoes near by and fur caps hung upon the muzzle 
of guns leaning against their shoulders. The pastor, too, has hung 
his three-cornered hat upon his own trusty musket, which stands by 
the side of the pulpit. 

The forenoon service begins at ten o'clock. A solemn tune is 
sung in nasal strains. The congregation rise and stand during the 
pastor's prayer, which is never less than fifteen minutes long, often 
twice or thrice as long, t Then a psalm is " lined off" by " the 
ruling elder," and sung by the congregation in " a most solemne 
tune." The sermon follows, never less than an hour in length, some- 
times extending to an hour and a half and two hours, so that " the 
hour-glass " on the preacher's desk is turned twice. " The Improve- 
ment " is often as long as the argument. It advances by regular 
stages to eighthly and even to sixteenthly. The elderly men, unac- 
customed to long sittings, occasionally stand up, stretching over the 
breastwork of the pew or gallery to relieve the fatigue of their posi- 
tion. It was the duty of the tithing-man to keep the people awake, J 
striking the boys with a knob at one end of his pole, and tickling 

* From the history of an old New Hampshire town. 

t Sometimes a pause was made at a certain stage of " the long prayer'' to accommodate 
those who chose to sit down. 

J In a satire, one of the preachers of that time is pictorially represented as saying to his audi- 
ence, " I know you are good fellows, stay and take another glass." Another minister who stood 
in a pulpit on the side of the church next to the cemetery, seeing many asleep, sarcastically 
remarked that those behind him could hear as well as those before him. 

" In one town in eastern Masssachusetts it was voted 'that the three hindmost seats in the 
meeting-house be left for the boys that are under twelve years old, and three seats above in the 
men's gallery be left for older boys to sit in, and that the select men see to the getting of two 
men to look after the boys, that they be made to sit in the seats appointed for them and they be 
kept from playing.' If any of the boys above twelve years old should play on the Sabbath day in 
the time of public worship they were to be ' brought below and compelled to sit with the smaller 
boys, until they leave off playing on the Sabbath.' It was also voted that the same course be 
taken with the girls. Two misses in one case were fined for laughing in meeting, and for speak- 
ing deridingly of God's Word and ordinances men were sentenced to pay five pounds or be 
whipped." . . , 



162 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the ears of the girls with a feather at the other end. * After the 
sermon another psalm is read. "The long hymn" is lined off and 
sung with a strong nasal twang and hearty good will to some good old 
St. Ann's or St. Martin's, and finally the benediction is pronounced. 
The congregation still remain in place, to go out in prescribed order: 
first, the minister ; then, the deacons ; then, those in the front seats 
below ; and at the same time, those in the front gallery seats and 
those in the pews, etc., etc. 

The Intermission. 

They separate for a short intermission, and to dispatch their 
lunch f of doughnuts or apples ; in summer they stroll in the grave- 
yard hard by, to hold silent converse with those who sleep there 
and be impressed with the lesson of their own mortality. In win- 
ter those from a distance take refuge before the blazing hearth of 
some friend in the village, and are, perhaps, regaled with a hos- 
pitable mug of cider or something stronger ; and after an hour's inter- 
mission all re-assemble for the afternoon service, which is much like 
that of the morning. Some ministers, however, in the morning 
usually preached a doctrinal sermon, and in the afternoon drew infer- 
ences and practical lessons. This logical, connected style of preach- 
ing trained the minds of their hearers to habits of consecutive 
thought. 

Sanctuary Items. 

There were some incidental items in the religious services of 
those times which have been well described by a writer \ in The 

* An old document speaks of a disturbance in an old church at Danvers, Mass., in 1713 : 
"There was a disturbance in ye gallerie when it was filled with divers negroes, mullattoes and 
Indians. And a negro called Pomp Shester, belonging to Mr. Gardner, was called forth and put 
in ye Broad Aisle, when he was reproved with great awfulness and solemnity ; he was then 
put in ye deacon's seat, between two deacons, in view of ye whole congregation, but ye Sexton 
was ordered by Mr. Prescott to take him out because of his levity and strange contortions of coun- 
tenance giving great scandal to ye grave deacons, and put him in the lobby under ye stairs. Some 
children and a mulatto woman were reprimanded for laughing at Pomp Shester." 

t " It was not an uncommon thing in those days for people to bring their dinners to meeting. 
In a certain instance a pitcher of milk was set on the pulpit stairs by the occupant of a pew mar 
by. During the long prayer a dog found his way into the meeting-house, and in wandering 
about in the aisles espied the pitcher. Putting his nose into it he kept on lapping tiil his head 
had forced itself so far into the vessel that it was impossible to shake it off. To see the dog work- 
ing vehemently to get the pitcher from his head, as he ran up and down the aisle, was too much 
for the risibles of the congregation, even in the time of prayer. The minister, opening his eyes, 
caught sight of the dog and was hims If overcome by the ludicrousness of the scene. The con- 
gregation were too much demoralized to resume worship for that occasion, and it was found 
practicable to adjourn till afternoon." 

\ To this writer the author is indebted for some of the previous items, as well as some which 
follow. 



A PURITAN CHRISTENING. 163 

Congrcgationalist. Before " the long prayer" a string of notes was 

read. " A- H asks prayers for herself, sick and weak ; " 

" B S requests prayers for him, sick and low, that he may 

be restored to health or prepared for God's will concerning him." 
11 That T S 's death may be sanctified to wife, parents, chil- 
dren, brothers and sisters." Then a note of " thanks for mercies 
received " by the parents of a new-born child, which occasions some 
sheep's eye glances in the congregation. Last comes one which 
stirs every heart. " Prayers are desired for Thomas Cobbett, son 
of Rev. Thomas Cobbett, of Ipswich, who has been taken captive 
by the Tarantine savages, that the Lord who preserved the life of 
Joseph and delivered him out of prison may be with our friend and 
brother, to preserve his life and health, and restore him to his dis- 
tressed and sorrowing family." The long prayer that followed pre- 
sented every case separately before the Lord. 

In the afternoon, " during the opening prayer," the "mercies re- 
ceived " for which thanks were offered in the morning, in a little red 
bundle of wrappings and adornments from over the sea, is brought 
by its pleased but timid father, half way up the pulpit stairs to the 
font, at the end of the railing in front of the deacons. The descend- 
ing pastor takes the infant tenderly, sprinkles her tiny forehead, 
pronounces her significant name, " Welcome," and after the rite 
returns to the pulpit and goes on in his suspended prayer — " Now, 
O Lord, be pleased to ratify in thy courts above what has been 
done in thy courts below, and grant in thy great mercy that the 
name of this dear child may be written in thy Book of Life." Then 
follows singing and the sermon. 

The sands of the glass at the left end of the deacon's railing run 
their hour and the sermon closes. " One of the deacons says, ' Breth- 
ren, now there is time left for contributions ; wherefore, as God hath 
prospered you, so freely give.' The magistrates and chief gentle- 
men first, and then all the congregation, go up oneway, putting their 
offering, if it be money, into a box, or if any other chattel — as a 
squash, a bag of beans or a spare-rib — depositing it before the dea- 
cons, and all return by another way to their seats. These gifts are 
for the poor and needy, many of whom from their designated places 
in the front galleries anxiously watch the deposits." 

The service closes, and just as all are ready to start they halt to 
hear the voice of the town clerk cry out, " Jonathan Bishop and 
Esther Jennison intend marriage." As this is their second announce- 
ment it awakens no surprise, and all depart for their homes. In 
some meeting-houses there was a stool of repentance for transgressors, 



164 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

who were placed on elevated seats, with labels designating their 
offenses so fixed upon their persons as to be seen by all. Confes- 
sions were also required to be made by penitents before the congre- 
gation on Sabbaths and lecture days. 

In the seventeenth century no Scripture lessons were read in the 
New England pulpits. About 1700, the Brattle Street Church, Bos- 
ton, introduced the practice of reading a Bible lesson, but they were 
called to order by the other churches. Some New England churches 
did not introduce this practice until near the close of the last cent- 
ury, and then only in the morning service. 

When the meeting was over, says the writer already quoted, 
the people hurried home to kindle their fires, raking open the bed 
of coals on the hearth. If the fire had gone out they rekindled 
it by striking a flint against a piece of steel, throwing a spark upon 
tinder. After supper was over the family sat around the old fire- 
place and recited the catechism, beginning with " What is the chief 
end of man?" all taking part. It was a long time to bed-time, but 
there were no Sunday-school books, no religious papers, nothing to 
read except the Bible and the Printer, with the rhymes : 

" Xerxes the Great did die 
And so must you and I." 

As the Sunday ended at dark, it came to be a question with 
many how dark it must be before it would do to work or play. 
The prevailing rule was that " when five stars could be seen the Sun- 
day was at an end." When the boys could count the five stars their 
pent-up spirits burst wildly out in whoops and jumps. 

The Music. 

The music of the early part of the eighteenth century, in the 
better congregations, while not artistic, was doubtless essentially 
good, and expressive of devout feeling. Manuals and collections of 
sacred music had been published and were freely used.* Handel 
died in 1759 and Haydn was born in 1733. Rev. Dr. Chauncy, of 
Durham, Connecticut, published an able pamphlet on " Singing by 
Rule," as early as 1728. One of the smaller collections of Hymns 
and Tunes shows more than fifty tunes in use prior to 1800, and 
more than twenty-five which antedated 1760. This in a few of the* 
better congregations, while the sparser and newer seldom used 
more than two or three, or perhaps a half dozen tunes. 

* B fore the cl se of the last century some collections of hymns had been published in New 
England, one of them containing 500 pages. They were expensive, however, and for that reason, 
and because -many could not read, the hymns were " lined off," 



CONGREGATIONAL SINGING. 165 

Congregational singing was the general custom. In the latter 
part of the last century a few choirs were formed, and a revolution 
in the singing customs began. Musical instruments came in — bass 
viols, or " big fiddles," as they were contemptuously called, occasion- 
ing serious quarrels. 

In the early New England churches the singing never ministered to the har- 
mony of a Sabbath congregation. And there was a greater discord than ever in 
the meeting-houses when an attempt was made to improve the singing by forming 
choirs, and teaching them to read notes and sing " by rule." This was first done 
in the Brattle Street meeting-house, Boston, in 1720. In the country towns the 
innovation met with stout opponents, who declared that it would lead to popery, 
and that " fa," "sol," "la," was the voice of the pope in disguise! Each party 
accused the other of disturbing the public worship of God, one in attempting to 
perpetuate the " old way," the other to force in the "new way" of singing. The 
opponents of the new way said that the old way was more solemn, and that the 
new way must be wrong because the young people so readily fell into it ! 

Some congregations did not understand the merits of the controversy well 
enough to have any opinion about it. On the Stamford, Connecticut, records is 
the following amiable decision : — 

" Genewary ye 28, 1747. Voted yt. Mr Jona. Bell, or any other man agreed 
upon to sing or tune ye Salm in his absence in times of publick worship, may 
tune it in ye old way or new way, which suits you best." 

At Windsor, JConnecticut, in 1736, it was decided to sing " in the old way " in 
the morning and " in the new way" in the afternoon. The new way of singing 
gradually broke up the custom of employing a town reader to read aloud the 
hymns, line by line, to the singers, which was first introduced at Plymouth, in 1685, 
at the request of worshipers who could not read. This custom, which finally 
attached itself to the deacon's office, prevailed in all parts of New England for a 
hundred and fifty years, because it removed "the embarrassment resulting from 
the ignorance of those who were more skillful in giving sound to notes than in 
ciphering letters " (Lincoln's Worcester.} Education finally rendered the 
custom unnecessary, and the formation of choirs caused it to be destroyed. At 
Worcester, Massachusetts, August 5, 1779, it was " voted that the singers carry 
on singing in public worship, and that the mode of singing be without reading the 
psalms line by line, to be sung." On the next Sabbath the aged Dea. Chamberlain, 
unwilling to abandon the old custom, arose and read aloud the first line of the 
hymn as he had been accustomed to do. The singers, whose bold array stretched 
along the front of the gallery, sang line after line without noticing the deacon, 
while he, raising his voice, read the lines as usual, until the strength of the choir 
overpowered him. Then he took his hat and left the meeting-house, weeping and 
mortified. But the Church, not satisfied with this triumph over the old man, 
publicly censured him, and deprived him of communion because he had absented 
himself " from the public ordinances on the Lord's day." * 

Long Sermons and Long Prayers. 

The prayers as well as the sermons in those days were very long. 
A little more than two hundred years ago Jasper Dankers and Peter 

* A writer in The New York Observer, 



166 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Sluyter, of Friesland, visited Boston, and gave the following 
account of the exercises on a certain day for fasting and prayer : 

We went into the church, where, in the first place, a minister made a prayer in 
the pulpit of full two hours in length, after which an old minister delivered a ser- 
mon an hour long, and after that a prayer was made and some verses sung out of 
the Psalms. In the afternoon three or four hours were consumed with nothing 
except prayers, three ministers relieving each other alternately ; when one was 
tired the other went up into the pulpit. 

A suggestive record of an early Thanksgiving Day service 
(Dec. 22d, 1630) is worth introducing. 

Beginning some half an hour before nine, and continued until after twelve 
o'clock, ye day being very cold— beginning with a short prayer, then a psalm sung, 
then more large in prayer, after that another psalm and the Word taught, after 
that prayer and then a psalm. 

A certain preacher of the olden time, after exhausting his sand- 
glass, which ran an hour, turned it and kept on. When he had 
gone through with three fourths of another hour the congregation 
had nearly all retired, and the clerk, tired out, audibly asked his 
reverend superior to lock up the church and put the key under the 
door when the sermon was done, as he and the few remaining 
auditors were going home. 

The stories which have come down to our day about the 
length of the prayers by the ministers in the early times seem 
exaggerated and fabulous, but they are doubtless true. The author 
of this volume, while writing these lines, has before him a book of 
written sermons by Rev. Thomas Clapp, who graduated at Harvard 
College, and was settled in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1725. On 
the introductory leaves is a " Scheme of Prayer," covering six pages, 
in fine writing. It is divided into five general heads, with numerous 
sub-heads; there are four and even seven grades of sub-divisions as 
follows : — 

Part I. Adoration of God — thirty-one sub heads. 

Part II. Confession — forty-nine sub-heads, in rive classes, designated by He- 
brew numerals, capital letters, Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, and small letters. 

Part III. Petitions — ninety sub-heads, in five classes, as above. 

Part IV. Thanksgiving — forty-two sub-heads, in seven classes. 

Part V. INTERCESSION — twenty-eight sub-heads, in four classes. Total, 
two hundred and forty sub-heads. 

We can easily imagine that an hour would be consumed in 
offering a prayer upon this elaborate plan.* It would contain a 
body of divinity. 

* Hon. Samuel Sewall mentions a fast at which, after three persons had prayed and one 
had preached, " another prayed about an hour and a half." Dtary, vol. I, p. 76, 



THE CATECHISM. 167 

The sermons of this minister are also a curiosity. The pages 
measure seven inches by four and a half, but so closely written that 
the average number of words in a page is eight hundred and nine- 
teen.* The Xortli American Review, at the present time, averages 
about four hundred and fifty printed words per page. The printed 
matter is six and a half inches by four inches, a little smaller than 
the pages of the MS. in question. But the North American Review 
has forty-one lines per page, and averages eleven words to a line, 
while this MS. has sixty-three written lines, and averages thirteen 
words in a iine.f We can easily understand why the reading desks 
in those times were built so high — a necessity in reading such 
closely written sermons. 



Section 4.— The Catechism. 

The Catechism was an important element in the religious history 
of New England, but its origin antedates the Puritans. Two 
hundred and fifty years before the Pilgrims landed on our shores, 
John Wickliffe wrote the first catechism of which there is now any 
knowledge. R. Legatt's catechism appeared in 1545; King 
Edward VI. 's Short Catechism, in 1553; Calvin's catechism, in 
Geneva in 1536, and in England in 1560. A great number of 
catechisms, large and small, were published by the Puritans, Non- 
conformists, and Independents, in the sixteenth and first half of 
the seventeenth centuries. Rev. William Perkins's catechism was 
translated into Dutch and printed by William Brewster (Father of 
the Pilgrims) at his press in Leyden, in 1617, in a stout quarto of 
184 pages. It was much used by Nonconformists in Old and New 
England, and was translated (probably by one of the May hews, 
though not printed) into the Indian language. Rev. Daniel Rogers, 
son of the proto-martyr, prepared a catechism which was much used 
by the Puritans, and to some extent in New England. 

Thomas Lechford, an English attorney and scrivener, who passed about three 
years in Massachusetts, 1638-41, and after his return to London published his 
Plaine Dealing or Newes from New England, complained that there was here 
" no catechising of children or others in any church, except in Concord church, 
and, in other places, of those admitted [to Church membership] in their receiving. 
. . . But God be thanked," he adds, " the Generall Court was so wise, in June last 
[1641], as to enjoyn or take some course for such catechising, as I am informed." 

"""Some of them contain over eight hundred and fifty words per page. 
t These sermons cover about eighteen or twenty pages. 



168 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The vote of the court as it appears in the record was, " It is desired that the Elders 
would make a catechism for the instruction of youth in the grounds of religion." 

The fact seems to be that the early Congregationalists in New England did 
not object to catechising, but had some differences of opinion about catechisms ; 
and, moreover, they regarded the catechetical instruction of the young as a duty 
of the household rather than a distinct office of the Church. As Mr. Cotton ex- 
pressed it (in his answer to John Ball's discourse of Set Formes of Prayer), " The 
excellent and necessary use of catechising young men and novices . . . we willingly 
acknowledge ; but little benefit have we seen reaped from set forms of questions 
and answers devised by one church and imposed by necessity on another." The 
objection to " set forms " was not to be removed by any action of the general 
court. If any form must be adopted, every church looked to its own minister to 
provide one. " Public catechising of children or others, in church" was not 
generally practiced, but there is abundant evidence that catechising in the family 
and in schools was not neglected, and soon there was no lack of approved cate- 
chisms written and printed in New England. At the end of the century Cotton 
Mather wrote : 

"Few pastors of mankind ever took such pains at catechising as have been 
taken by our New English divines. Now, let any man living read the most judi- 
cious and elaborate catechisms published, a lesser and a larger by Mr. Norton, a 
lesser and a larger by Mr. [Richard] Mather, several by Mr. Cotton, one by Mr. 
Davenport [and sundry others], and say whether true divinity were ever better 
handled." * 

Catechisms were prepared by Richard Mather and John Cotton 
{Spiritual Milk for Babes) and printed in numerous editions. 
In 1697 Cotton Mather wrote that "the children of New England 
are to this day most usually fed with this (John Cotton's) excellent 
catechism," and in 1702 he called it "peculiarly The Catechism of 
New England;' and predicted that " it will be valued, studied, and 
improved until New England ceases to be New England." " It 
made a part of A Primer for the Colony of Connecticut, printed 
about 171 5, and of The New England Primer, improved in the 
editions of 1775, 1777, and after. A translation of it into the Indian 
language of Massachusetts, by Rev. Grindal Rawson, was printed 
in 1 69 1, and again in the Indian Primer of 1720." \ 

The Assembly s Shorter Catechism was before Parliament in 1647. But many 
catechisms were prepared by individual pastors : Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Cam- 
bridge ; John Fiske, of Chelmsford ; John Norton, of Boston ; Davenport, of New 
Haven ; Stone, of Hartford ; Fitch, of Norwich ; Noyes, of Newbury ; Cotton 
Mather and others. 

The Westminster Assembly s Shorter Catechism (first printed in 1647) was 
reprinted at Cambridge in 1665, and again, with " the proofs out of the Scriptures," 

* Articles on Catechisms in Old and New England. By J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D., 
in the Sunday-School Times, September 8 and 15, 1883, to which the author is greatly 
indebted. 

fj. H.mmond Trumbull, LL.D. 



THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER. 169 

Boston, 1683. At what date it was introduced into the New England Primer is 
not ascertained. It does not appear in the contents of the " enlarged " Primer of 
1691, or of the Connecticut Primer of 171 5, but it makes a part of the earliest 
New E?igland Primer of which any complete copy is preserved— the one printed 
at Boston, in 1737. Cotton Mather tells us that the Rev. John Fiske, of Chelms- 
ford, who died in 1677, " did, by most laborious catechising, endeavor to know the 
state of his flock, and make it good," and, " although he did himself compose and 
publish a most useful catechism, Watering of the Olive Plant, before mentioned, 
yet he chose the Assembly's Catechism for his public expositions, wherewith he 
twice went over it in discourses before his afternoon sermons." The Rev. Samuel 
Willard, of Boston, gave his people a course of two hundred and fifty lectures, 
continued for more than nineteen years (1688-1707), on the Shorter Catechism, 
and these lectures were published after his death, in a stout folio, as a " body of 
divinity." But, until the middle of the eighteenth century, " the children of New 
England " were (as Mather said) " most usually fed with Cotton s Milk for Babes," 
or some of the many catechisms written for the use of particular congregations. * 

Describing The New England Primer, Dr. Trumbull says: 

The contents of the little book are nearly the same as in the editions of fifty 
years ago, which some of us remember. There are " The Great Capital Letters " 
and "The Small Letters," the " Easie Syllables for Children " — ab, eb, ib, ob, ub, 
and the rest — the " Words of One Syllable," and upward, to those terrible " words 
of five syllables, beginning with " A-bom-i-na-tion " and ending with " Oual-i-fi-ca- 
tion." Then comes the chief attraction of the Primer, the rude woodcuts and 
their associated rhymes, from 

" In Adam's Fall 
We sinned all," 



down, through the alphabet, to 



Zacc/ieus he 

Did climb the Tree.' 



These are followed by "The Dutiful Child's Promises" (which take the place 
given in later editions to the series of Scripture questions beginning with " Who 
was the first Man?"); then "An Alphabet of Lessons for Youth," in verses or 
parts of verses from the Bible ; " A wise son maketh a glad father," etc. After 
these the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments ; texts teaching 
the "Duty of Children toward their Parents," and, on two following pages, six 
verses, one of which every child was directed to "learn by heart: " 

" Have communion with few, 
Be intimate with ONE. 
Deal justly by all, 
Speak evil of none." 

Another of these short verses every child did learn from his mother if not from 
his Primer — the prayer at lying down ; more familiar to English-speaking Protest- 
ants than any other, the Lord's Prayer only excepted. Lisped in infancy, breathed — 
with closed lips possibly — in middle age, reaching beyond and above all distinc- 
tions of creed and differences of doctrine, its every syllable hallowed by early 

*J. Hammond Trumbull, LL.D. 



/ 

170 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

y 
associations, that evening prayer has ascended to God from the hearts of " a great 

multitude which no man can number:" 

" Now I lay me down to sleep; 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep ; 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray the Lord my soul to take." 

Only a short time before his death the venerable John Ouincy Adams said 
that he had never laid his head upon his pillow without saying this prayer, as his 
mother taught him to do in childhood. 

After the short verses, prayers at lying down and for the morning, and the 
"Names and Orders of the Books of the Old and New Testament," come (in the 
Primer of 1737) the "verses for little children," beginning : 

" Though I am young, a little one," 
and the hymn — 

" Lord, if Thou lengthen out my days." 

Then, turning the leaf, we have the principal embellishment of the volume, in the 
rude type-metal cut of " Mr. John Rogers, minister of the Gospel in London, the 
first martyr in Queen Mary's reign, "about to be burnt at Smithfield, "his wife with 
nine small children, and one at her breast, following him to the stake." 

Without giving Dr. Trumbull's description in full, we pass to 
what he says of later editions of the Primer. 

Between the Primer of 1737 and that of 1768 came the great revival of religion, 
Edwards and Bellamy, and the ministers they had trained, had given a new cast to 
New England theology. This is not the time or place to discuss the nature or 
extent of the change which had taken place in the religious teaching of New 
England, but we may observe some indications of it even in the Primer. The 
earlier Primers were distinctly Protestant, or rather anti-papal. They were de- 
signed to inculcate hatred of Romanism — hatred which, for the first century and 
a half of our colonial existence, was intensified by fear. In the Primer of 1768 
" the Pope, or Man of Sin " no longer appears as a bugbear on the first page. The 
general tone becomes evangelical rather than anti-papal. This point deserves 
notice, because an exactly opposite conclusion has been formed by previous 
writers, who had not an opportunity of examining the earlier editions. Mr. George 
Livermore, to whose articles on The New England Primer I have more than 
once referred, had seen no copy of earlier date than 1775. This was the edition 
which was reprinted in 1843 by Mr. Ira Webster, and which has been popularly 
regarded as the " original New E?igla?id Primer." It was, in fact, one of the few 
editions which copied the " improved " Primer of 1768. More modern editions 
are founded on the earlier type, and the deviations in these editions from the 
Primers of 1768 and 1775, instead of being, as Mr. Livermore and other critics 
have argued, " unwarrantable alterations," are, in fact, a return to the original 
Puritan standard. 

The catechism was used in the religious families with great 
uniformity and punctiliousness during the last century. The time 



FEASTS AND FASTS. 171 

most generally observed for catechising the children was after the 
return from worship on Sunday afternoon. Besides this, in some 
places, the parish minister visited the district school twice each 
term, when all the pupils were required to repeat the ^catechism. 
In some schools in Connecticut the catechism was attended to at 
the close of the half-day school on Saturday, or, if no session Satur- 
day, on Friday afternoon. 



Section o.— Thanksgivings and Fasts. 

The Thanksgiving custom did not originate with the colonists. 
Among the Jews the Feast of Tabernacles was a thanksgiving for 
the harvest. In England, under Edward III., after the battle of 
Cressy there was a national thanksgiving; another under the Black 
Prince ; another under Henry V., after the battle of Agincourt. 
The Puritans brought this custom to America. On December 11, 
1 62 1, o. s., the first thanksgiving on American shores was observed 
at Plymouth, in view of a good harvest. In 1630 a general thanks- 
giving was appointed for the safe arrival of Winthrop and his 
party, and another the following year for the arrival of provisions. 
During the infancy of these colonies this festival had no stated 
season, but was appointed on occasions of success, the civil power 
ordaining the feast, although the religious element was the power 
behind them. Later it was a stated yearly observance. Outside 
of New England this festival was unknown till late in the last 
century. Fast days were also extensively observed, and with great 
punctiliousness, at first only occasionally, but later a regular yearly 
observance- 



1 72 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER VII 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS. 



Sec. i. In New England. 
" 2. In the Middle Colonies. 
3. In the South. 



Sec. 4. Jesuit and Protestant Missions 
compared. 
5. Results. 



THE early Protestant colonists have been severely aspersed for 
their treatment of the Indians. They have been accused of 
maintaining an unkind, suspicious attitude, of rushing hastily into 
hostilities,* and making only a few tardy, feeble efforts for the con- 
version of the natives to Christianity, while the Spanish and French 
colonists, it is claimed, drew the red men into cordial relations and 
converted them in large numbers to the papal faith. The situation 
should be considered. 

The Spanish and French, in advance of all Protestant settle- 
ments, had occupied the northern and southern borders, and were 
intent upon the possession of the whole country. Studiously 
attaching the Indians to themselves and fostering jealousy and 
hatred toward the English, the Jesuits, working in the interests of 
Spain and France, kept the Indian mind biased against the English 
colonists and strongly predisposed to hostility. Even the natives 
living within or near the lines of the Protestant settlements were 
tainted with the infection, and with difficulty were held in affiliation. 
Almost all the troubles of the English colonists may be traced to 
this source. 



Section l.—In Hew England. 

The principal tribes of Indians in New England were the Peqiwts, 
in north-eastern Connecticut ; the Mohcgans, in south-eastern Con- 
necticut ; the Narragansctts, in Rhode Island, and Bristol County, 

* Bishop Wilberforce, in his History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States, says : " It is calculated that 180,000 of the aboriginal inhabitants were slaughtered by 
them (the colonists) in Massachusetts and Connecticut alone." How absurd ! It is probable 
there were not 30,000 in Massachusstts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, in 1630. 



PURITAN WORK AMONG THE INDIANS. 173 

Massachusetts; the Pawkunnawkutts, on Nantucket, Martha's Vine- 
yard, and the neighboring shores, as far as the Plymouth Colony 
and the Cape; the Massachusetts, around Massachusetts Bay and 
back to the center of the State ; the Pawtucketts, in the northern 
and eastern part of Massachusetts, and extending into New Hamp- 
shire and a small part of Maine ; the Abenaki's, further east, 
roaming through northern New Hampshire, Vermont, and the 
Canadas ; the Housatounocs, on the rivers in western Massachusetts 
and Connecticut. At one time, shortly before the settlement at 
Plymouth began, it is said that the Pequots could muster 4,000 
warriors; the Narragansetts, 5,000: the Pawkunnawkutts, 3,000; 
the Massachusetts, 3,000; the Pawtucketts, 3,000; a total of 18,000 
men, indicating an Indian population of about 70,000. About 
[612-13 a terribly fatal epidemic swept them off by tens of 
thousands. The Pawtucketts were reduced to about 250 men, be- 
sides women and children. The other tribes were greatly decreased, 
but not so seriously. Probably 30,000 would be a high estimate for 
the number of Indians, if we except the Abenakis, in all New 
England in 1630. 

The Royal Charter of the Plymouth Colony called for " the con- 
version of such savages as yet remain wandering in desolation and 
distress to civil society and the Christian religion." The charter 
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony enjoined the duty to win the 
natives " to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and 
Saviour of mankind," and the seal of the colony presented the 
figure of an Indian with a label at his mouth on which was 
inscribed the Macedonian cry, " Come over and help us." And 
when it was reported to Rev. John Robinson, at Leyden, that, in an 
early skirmish with the Indians, some of them had been killed, he 
wrote to the governor, " O that you had converted some before you 
had killed any." In less than one year from the landing at Plym- 
outh Robert Cushman wrote to England that many of the Indians 
were " tractable both to religion and humanity ;" that if the colonists 
had means they would instruct many of the native children, and 
that young men of wealth in England would do well to come over 
and devote themselves to this work. During the earlier years of 
hardships and privations much was done, by both ministers and 
laymen, as opportunity offered, to impart the Gospel to their 
heathen neighbors, and some of them gave satisfactory evidence 
of conversion to Christ. As early as 1636, in the Plymouth Colony, 
laws were enacted providing for the preaching of the Gospel among 
the Indians. 



174 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

These Pilgrims and Puritans were the pioneers of the Protestant 
world in attempts to convert heathen to Christ. They were mis- 
sionary colonies — self-supporting missions — composed of men who 
went on their own responsibility and at their own expense, to 
establish their posterity among the heathen, whose salvation they 
sought. Nor should it be omitted that for more than fifty years, if 
we except one short, sharp, bloody conflict, brought about by an 
out-settlement of factious men who could not be tolerated at 
Plymouth, the founders of Massachusetts lived in peace with the 
Indian tribes. Scarcely a gleam of light shone into the minds of 
these savages. They adored the sun and the moon, and were in 
bondage to a system of conjuring and of professed intercourse with 
evil spirits. Their condition was so degraded that Rev. John 
Eliot, in his first letter to England in regard to the Indians, said : 

Wee are oft upbraided by some of our countrymen (/. e., in England), that so 
little good is done by our professing planters upon the hearts of natives. Such 
men have surely more splene than judgment, and know not the vast distance of 
natives from common civility, almost humanity itself; and 'tis as if they should 
reproach us for not making the winds to blow when we list ourselves. It must 
certainly be a spirit of life from God which must put flesh and sinews unto these 
dry bones. If wee would force them to baptisme (as the Spanish do about Cusco, 
Peru, and Mexico, having learnt them a short answer or two to some popish 
questions), or if wee would hire them to it by giving them coates and shirts to allure 
them to it, wee could have gathered many hundreds, yea thousands, it may be, by 
this time into the churches ; but wee have not learnt, as yet, the art of coyning 
Christians, or putting Christ's name and image upon copper mettle." 

The General Court of Massachusetts (Nov. 19, 1644) ordered : 

That the county courts should take care that the Indians residing in their 
several shires should be civilized, and that they should have power to take order, 
from time to time, to have them instructed in the knowledge and worship of God. 

Two years later the court 

Ordered and decreed that two ministers should be chosen by the elders of 
the churches every year at the court of election, and so to be sent with 
the consent of their churches, with whomsoever would freely offer themselves 
to accompany them in that service, to make known the heavenly counsel of God 
among the Indians, in most familiar manner, by the help of some able interpreter, 
. . . and that something might be allowed them by the General Court to give 
away freely to those Indians whom they should perceive most willing and ready 
10 be instructed by them. 

Rev. John Eliot. 

Rev. John Eliot was educated in Cambridge University, En- 
gland, came to Boston in 1631, and was settled as "Teacher" of the 



REV. JOHX. ELIOT. 173 

Church, in Roxbury, in 1632. He was eminently an intellectual 
and devout man of high character. Almost simultaneously with 
Thomas Mayhew, on Martha's Vineyard, he gave himself to the 
work of converting the Indians, and urged the subject upon the 
attention of the colonists in their legislative assembly. President 
Dunster, of Harvard College, advised that they be instructed 
through their own language rather than the English. From his first 
settlement in Roxbury, Eliot had given much attention to the wel- 
fare of the natives. Long after his efforts seemed hopeful to himself 
he encountered incredulity and opposition from those around him. 

Eliot's preliminary preparation extended through several years. 
An Indian captured in the Pequot wars, and who lived in Dor- 
chester, was the first native, " whom he used to teach him words and 
to be his interpreter." He took the most unwearied pains in his 
strange lessons from this uncouth teacher, finding progress very 
slow and baffling, receiving no aid from the other tongues which he 
had learned and taught in England, and which were so " difficultly 
constructed, inflected, and augmented." 

Though he is regarded as having gained an " amazing mastery of 
the Indian language, he frequently, even to the close of a half 
century in his work, avowed and lamented his lack of skill in it. He 
secured from time to time what he called the more ' nimblc-witted 
natives, young or grown,' to live with him in Roxbury and to 
accompany him on his visits, to interchange with him words and 
ideas. * 

First Sermon to the Indians. 

After two years of study Eliot ventured to preach in the Indian 
tongue. On the 28th of October, 1646, on a hill f in Nonantum, 
about four or five miles from Roxbury, he discoursed for an hour 
and a quarter to the dusky natives, from Ezekiel 38: 9. Here 
resided Waban, one of the principal chiefs, who had gathered his 
tribe to listen to the new message. Eliot's "prayer was in English, 
as he scrupled, lest he might use some unfit or unworthy terms in 
the solemn office." This prompted an inquiry from his interested 
but bewildered listeners, whether God would understand prayers 
offered to Him in the Indian tongue. His method in subsequent 
visits, when he gained more confidence, was to offer a short prayer 
in Indian ; to recite and explain the ten commandments ; to describe 

* Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D., in Memorial History of Boston, Vol. I, p. 260. 
t Within the present limits of the city of Newton, on the south bank of the Charles River, 
opposite to Watertown. 



1 7 6 CHRIS TIA XI T I ' IX . THE I 'XI TED S TA TES. 

the character, work, and offices of Christ as Saviour and judge : to 
tell his hearers about the creation, fall, and redemption of man. 
and to persuade them to repentance. He then encouraged them 
to put an\- questions that rose in their minds, promising answers 
and explanations. Some oX their queries were so apt and pertinent, 
indicating so much acumen,* that their good friend was ofte i 
puzzled to satisfy them. Cotton Mather, in commending Eliot's 
style in sermonizing, said: " Lambs might wade into his discourses 
on those texts and themes, wherein elephants might swim." Such 
a style must have been equally suited to his white and red auditors. 
Sonne of the leading men of the colony, magistrates and ministers, 
occasionally accompanied Eliot on his preaching visits, and however 
the}- may have fallen short of his enthusiasm and hopefulness, they 
gratefully appreciated his devotion and zeal." + 

The following week Eliot met another company oi Indians at 
Neponset, about four miles south-west from his own home, in the 
wigwam of Chicatabut. chief of another tribe. Between Xonantum 
and Neponset he alternated his labors. These chiefs soon became 
zealous helpers of Eliot, and their people generally accepted 
Christianity. 

Interest in England. 

Eliot's narrative of his Indian labors was printed in England, in 
1647. under the quaint title. The Day-Breaking if Not the Sun 
Rising of the Gospel with tlie Indians in Xeiv England. In 1648 
another from Rev. Thomas Shepard appeared, entitled. The Clear 
Sun-shine of the Gospel Breaking Fortli Upon the Indians in Xeiv 
England, and dedicated " To the Godly and Well-affected of This 
Kingdom of England." This tract ''• begat a debate." in the House 
of Commons, " now the Parliament of England might be serviceable 
to the Lord Jesus to help forward such a work begun." After two 
years' delay, in 1649 an act was passed entitled. " A Corporation 
for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in 
Xew England." This ordinance set forth that 

Divers heathen natives of Xew England had. through the blessing of God upon 
the pious care and pains of some godly English, from being very barbarous become 
civil, but many of them forsaking their sorceries and other satanical delusions, did 

* Being told that they were the children, not of God, but of the devil, they were naturally 
interested chiefly in the latter. They asked, "Whether ye devil or man was made first? 
:.er there might not be something, if only a little, gained by praying to ye devil? Why 
does not G' d, who has full power, kill ye devil that makes all men so bad ? If God made hell 
in one of the ' six days." why did he make it before Adam had sinned ? If alive world be burned 
up, where shall hell then be ? ' " 

ton Vol. I. p. 262. 



MISSIONARY CORPORATION FORAGED. 177 

then call upon the name of the Lord; and that, for the propagation of the Gospel 
among- these poor heathen, universities, schools and nurseries of learning must be 
settled, and instruments and material fit for labor and clothing, with other neces- 
saries, must be provided. 

The ordinance enacted that a corporation of sixteen persons 
should be formed with power to hold lands, goods, and money. 
Collections for the corporation were ordered in all the cities, towns 
and parishes of England. Under the superintendence of Edward 
Winslow ,£12,000 were soon raised -and invested. Correspondence 
was opened with the Commissioners of the United Colonies in New 
England, through whom the work of evangelization was to be carried 
on, meeting annually in September, in Boston, Hartford, New 
Haven and Plymouth, in rotation. Edward Rawson, Secretary of 
Massachuetts Bay Colony, held the treasuryship till his death, in 

The commissioners kept in close communication with Eliot and the 
Mayhews, and employed others as assistants, both Englishmen and 
natives, as circumstances permitted. Young men were selected to 
be fitted at Harvard College for future service as teachers of Indian 
youth, and a small building for the accommodation of native pupils 
was erected within the college precincts. Provision was made for 
printing catechisms and an Indian Bible. Between 165 1 and 
1660, six tracts in the Indian language, known as " Eliot's Tracts," 
were published in England. 

The death of Cromwell, under whose patronage the English 
movement had been sustained, and the restoration of the Stuarts 
affected all the interests of religion as well as of the State. Hugh 
Peters, who had been for a short time an honored pastor in Mas- 
sachusetts, an active promoter of the cause of Indian evangelization, 
suffered death on Tower Hill. The corporation,* being a creature 
of the Long Parliament, ceased to exist, and even its invested prop- 
erty was in danger. But by the wise management of Hon. Robert 
Boyle the king was conciliated and a royal charter obtained. Boyle 
presided over the company nearly thirty years. Eliot's translation 
of the New Testament into the Mohican dialect of the Indian lan- 
guage was published in Boston, in 1661, and dedicated with fulsome 
compliments to Charles II. In 1663 the publication of the Indian 
Bible was completed, by a font of type sent from England by the 
society. The second edition of Eliot's Bible appeared in 1685, in 
which he was aided by Rev. John Cotton, of Plymouth. The foilow- 

" For a fuller account of this early organization see Andover Review, October, 1885. Article by 
Hamilton Andrews Hill, to which the author acknowledges indebtedness. 



178 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ing year the The Practice of Piety, by Bishop Bayly, translated 
by Eliot, appeared in the Indian language. 

The First Indian Settlement. 

Worldlings complained of Eliot for injuring the trade in peltries, 
by calling off the Indians from the chase, and settling them in 
agricultural pursuits. Magistrates were sometimes unfaithful to 
their covenants. Indian powwows, magicians, sorcerers, and med- 
icine-men were secretly jealous, sometimes actively hostile. King 
Philip, hearing of Eliot's work, refused to receive the missionaries, 
and spoke in bitter contempt of the English religion. On 
one occasion he heard Eliot, but scorned his message, and, taking 
hold of a button on Eliot's coat, told him he cared no more for his 
religion than for the button. Cotton Mather called the hard-heart- 
ed Philip " a blasphemous Leviathan." Uncas, the Mohegan 
sachem, forbade any proselyting work among his Indians. 

After deliberate examination of several localities Eliot made choice of a region 
which stills bears its original name, Natick, for his first experiment for the subjects 
of his care, who came to be known as " the praying Indians." A considerable 
number of the natives were gathered here in 1651. Eliot kept the general court 
informed of all his proceedings and sought its sympathy and aid. It is curious to 
read on the records enactments by which portions of one wilderness territory, the 
whole of which had so recently been regarded by the savages as in their unchal- 
lenged ownership, were bounded off as henceforward to be their own for improve- 
ment. * 

The experiment at Natick, the first of a series of a dozen others 
subsequently made under the care of Eliot, was thoroughly under- 
taken. Retaining for a long time his parish at Roxbury, he alter- 
nated between Natick and Neponset, riding on horseback in all 
weathers, through woods, swamps and streams, carrying miscellaneous 
burdens for his neophytes. With quiet enthusiasm, meek patience, 
and steady advances, he met the obstacles almost constantly pre- 
sented by an intractable race, and with mild virtues he parried the 
coldness and distrust of many of the colonists, looking in hope " for 
the coming in of ye fullness of ye Gentiles." 

The Indian community at South Natick was divided by the 
Charles River, over which the natives built a strongly arched foot- 
bridge, eighty feet long. Three streets ran parallel with the stream, 
two on one side and one on the other, with lots marked for houses, 
tillage, and pasturage. A palisaded fort inclosed a meeting- 

* Memorial History 0/ Boston. Articl ■ by Rev. Geo. E. Ellis D.D., Vol I, p. 262. j. P. 
Osgood & Co. 



SOUTH X A TICK. 179 

house fifty feet long and twenty-five wide, built of squared timber, 
in English fashion, by the natives, and used for worship and a 
school The village soon began to wear an aspect of industry, 
thrift and comfort. In deference to the Indians the wigwam was 
allowed, but cleanliness and decency were insisted upon. A gov- 
ernment by rulers of tens, fifties, and hundreds was formed, with 
magistrates and school-teachers of both sexes of their own race. 
September 24, 165 1, they entered into a solemn religious covenant, 
kk with God and each other, to be governed by the word of the 
Lord in all things." The house for public worship also answered 
for a school-room. He had a Sunday-school in 1650. 

"Here it was," says Cotton Mather, "that in the year 1651 those that had 
heretofore lived like wild beasts in the wilderness now compacted themselves into 
a town, and applied themselves to forming a civil government. . . . Mr. Eliot, on 
a solemn fast, made a public vow that, seeing these Indians had not any form of 
civil government, he would instruct them in such a form as we have in the Word of 
God, so that they in all things might be a people ruled by the Lord. . . . The lit- 
tle town of Indians being thus pitched upon this foundation, they utterly abandoned 
that polygamy which had hitherto been common among them; they made severe 
laws against fornication, drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, and other immoralities. 

They soon desired to be organized as a church. A day was 
therefore set apart, called a day of. asking questions, when the minis- 
ters of neighboring churches, assisted by interpreters, examined a 
goodly number of these Indians as to their knowedge and religious 
experience. The results were satisfactory, and it was decided that 
a church should be constituted. 

They proceeded very cautiously, however, and the Church was 
not formed until 1660, the Indians being kept as catechumens for 
several years. 

South Natick was the first of the Indian communities. In 1670 
it consisted of 29 families, from whom 60 or 70 persons had become 
communicants. The other Indian communities were ; Packemitt, in 
Stoughton, 12 families; Hassanamessett, in Grafton, 12 families; 
Okommackamesit, in Marlborough, 10 families ; Wamesit, in Tewks- 
bury, 15 families; Nashobah, Chelmsford and Groton, 10 families ; 
Maqunkaquog, Hopkinton, 5 families. There were others in 
Oxford, Dudley, Auburn, Littleton, Uxbridge, Brookfield and 
Woodstock, Connecticut — 14 towns, within 70 miles of Boston, with 
1,100 souls, all of which Eliot visited, and in all of which there 
were some praying Indians under his spiritual supervision. 

In 1656 the General Court commissioned Daniel Gookin, a man 
of high character, and Eliot's most attached co-worker, as the gen- 



180 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

eral magistrate over all the Indian towns. The income of the 
English society for converting and civilizing the Indians, amount- 
ing to the then large sum of about £700 annually, was expended 
for the salaries of the missionaries, in printing books, furnishing 
goods, tools, clothing, etc. Eliot's salary, even after his whole time 
was devoted to this work, never exceeded £$0. Eliot died in 1690. 
Tackawambit, an Indian neophyte, succeeded him as pastor of the 
Natick church ; but he did not long survive the apostle Eliot, and 
the church fast declined. 

An Indian Magistrate. 

Thomas Waban, an Indian justice of the peace in this settle- 
ment, was highly esteemed. How he enforced law may be judged 
from the following warrant which he issued : 

" You big constable, you quick catchum, Jeremiah Offscow ; strong you hold 
um ; safe you bring um afore me." Thomas Waban, JUSTICE. 

When Waban became superannuated a younger magistrate was 
appointed to succeed him. Cherishing respect for age and 
experience, the new officer waited upon Waban for advice. Hav- 
ing stated a variety of cases and received satisfactory answers, he 
at length proposed the following ; " When Indian get drunk, and 
quarrel, and fight and act like devil, what you do ? " Waban quickly 
answered, " Tie um all up, and whip um plaintiff, whip um fendant 
and whip um witness." 

Eliot traveled extensively among the Indians from Cape Cod to 
Worcester County, and occasionally visited Martha's Vineyard. 
He translated the Bible into the Indian language, * a work attended 
with great difficulty, from the Indian habit of clustering together 
in one prolonged word the separate ideas which, in our language, 
are expressed in several words. This Indian Bible, f with catechisms, 
psalms, primers, grammars, " Practice of Piety," Baxter's " Call,' 7 
etc, translated into the Indian tongue by Eliot, were printed in 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the expense of the English Society. 

Other Laborers in Eastern Massachusetts. 

In 1 72 1, thirty-one years after Eliot's death. Rev. Oliver Pea- 
body was induced to go Natick and labor for the good of the 



* " Its words," said Cotton Mather, " are long enough to tire the patience of any scholar in the 
world ; one would think they had been growing ever since Babel." 

\ In 1663, 1,500 copies were printed ; in 1685, 2,000 copies — the first and only Bibles printed in 
America until the time of the Revolution. 



REV. OLIVER PEA BOD V. 181 

Indians. At that time there were but two families of white people 
in the town. Among the Indians there was no church, nor a mem- 
ber of a church, nor even a person known to have been baptized ; 
for though a church had been formed there sixty years before, by 
Eliot, it had become extinct.* In 1729 a church was gathered, 
partly of English and partly of Indians, three of the former and five 
of the latter. Under Mr. Peabody's influence the Indians were con- 
formed to the usages of civilized society, and some of them exhib- 
ited fruits of a religious life. In about twenty-two years one hun- 
dred and sixty Indians were baptized, of whom thirty-five were 
admitted to the church. Mr. Peabody died in 1752, greatly beloved. 

In the colony of Plymouth, Revs. Richard Bourne and Rowland 
Cotton, of Sandwich, John Cotton, and Thomas Tupper, labored 
among the Indians. The praying Indians in Massachusetts, in 
1685, were numbered at 1,435, besides other members of the Indian 
families. 

Rev. Samuel Treat, eldest son of Robert Treat, Governor of 
Connecticut, while pastor at Eastham, Massachusetts, 1672-17 17, 
became interested in the welfare of the Indians, who were numer- 
ous in his vicinity. He commenced the study of their language, and 
so far mastered it as to be able to preach intelligibly to the Indians, 
fully equaling Eliot himself. Through his influence they were 
brought into a condition of order, civilization, and a practical 
knowledge of Christianity. There were five hundred and five 
adult Indians in the township, of whom he said he did not know 
one habitually absent from religious worship. They were organized 
in four villages, with four teachers in religion and general knowl- 
edge, who every week conferred with Mr. Treat in regard to their 
work. Six justices of the peace and other officers of their own 
people regulated civil affairs. A Confession of Faith was trans- 
lated into their language. But before Mr. Treat's death a fatal dis- 
ease swept off most of the Indians. 

The Mayhews on Martha's Vineyard. 

The same year that Eliot began his labors at Nonantum the two 
Thomas Mayhews (father and son — the father the governor of the 
island and the son the minister) commenced a similar work on 
Martha's Vineyard. The son had been educated at Cambridge, 
Mass., but his English flock was small, and his compassion was 

* There had been a very great and serious decline of spiritual religion in all the Massachussets 
churches. It extended from about 1660 to 1735. 



182 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

moved toward the untaught natives, several thousand of whom 
existed on the islands of Buzzards' Bay. He treated the Indians 
with great kindness, learned their language, and gradually won 
many of them to Christ. Thus was begun a series of labors which 
extended through several generations. These missionary Mayhews 
were: *Thomas, the second, 1646-1657 ; Thomas, the elder, 
1658— 1681 ; John, 1673-1689 ; Experience, 1694-1758. 

The story of the labors and privations of the Mayhews is full of 
heroic and thrilling interest, but it cannot be here related in detail. 
As early as 165 1, 199 men, women and children, had become wor- 
shipers of the true God, and thirty Indian scholars were collected 
in a school. By the end of 1652, 282 Indians, besides children, had re- 
nounced their false gods, and eight of the powwows had forsaken their 
trade. In 1657 Thomas Mayhew, the son, perished on his way to En- 
gland to seek assistance for his mission, and his venerable father,though 
governor of the island, and sixty years old, took up the work, visited the 
plantations, learned the language, and persevered in his mission toils 
until his death, at ninety-two years of age. He was succeeded by his 
grandson, John Mayhew, who followed closely in the steps of his 
father and grandfather, and died in 1689, after sixteen years spent 
in his ministry. His eldest son, Experience Mayhew, followed in 
the same field of toil five years after his father's death, and died in 
1758. Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, subsequently an able minister of 
Boston, was his second son. In 1727 Experience Mayhew published 
a volume in which he gave an account of the lives of thirty Indian 
ministers and about eighty Indian men, women and chidren, who 
resided on Martha's Vineyard, worthy of remembrance on account 
of their piety. His son, Zaccheus Mayhew, was employed in pro- 
moting the Gospel among the Indians in North America until his 
death in 1803. King Philip's war, in 1675, greatly injured this mis- 
sion work, but it soon recovered, and in 1698 Revs. Grindal Rawson 
and Samuel Danforth, visited the several plantations of Indians in 
Massachusetts and reported to the Society for Propagating the Gos- 
pel thirty distinct assemblies of Indians, with thirty-six teachers, 
five school-masters and twenty rulers, comprising, in all, 3,080 souls. 
All the above officers and teachers were Indians. The commissioners 
expressed a favorable opinion of the improvement and manners of 
the Indians, their sobriety, dress, and proficiency in reading and 
writing. 

In Connecticut and Rhode Island Indian missions were less 
successful. The Narragansetts were decidedly opposed to Chris- 

* See Sprague's Annals, Trinitarian-Clergymen. Vol. I, p 131. 



PRAYING INDIANS. 183 

tianity, though they permitted Roger Williams to preach among 
them occasionally. Revs. Messrs. Pierson and Fitch labored indus- 
triously among the Pequots, and the Mohegans also received much 
attention. In 1733 the Indians in Westerley and Charlestown, R. I., 
were visited by Rev. Mr. Parks, and Rev. Mr. Horton labored sev- 
eral years among the Montauk tribe on eastern Long Island. 

Distinguished Friends of the Indians. 

At the time of Eliot's death, in 1690, the celebrated Judge 
Sewall was a good friend of the Indian race, and devoted much 
time and thought to the society organized in their behalf. In their 
interest he officially visited Martha's Vineyard in 1702, 1706 and 
1 7 14. During this last visit arrangements were made for the occu- 
pation and cultivation of lands belonging to the society by the 
Indian families severally. Other friends of Indian evangelization 
were William Dummer and Thomas Hutchinson, among the laity; 
and Benjamin Coleman, Edward Wigglesworth, Joseph Sewall, 
Thomas Prince, etc., among the clergy. This society continued in 
force until the Revolution. 

The aggregate number of praying Indians in eastern Massachu- 
setts in 1664 was estimated : * 

Under Mr. Eliot's care 1,100 1 On Martha's Vineyard, etc., under 

In Plymouth, under Mr. Bourne.. 530 the Mayhews 1,500 

In Plymouth, under Mr. Cotton. . 170 1 

On the island Nantucket 300 j Total 3,600 

In Berkshire County, Mass. 

The Stockbridge mission was full of interest. In the western 
part of Massachusetts was the small Housatonnoc tribe, so named 
from a river, which signifies over the mountains, flowing through 
that section. About 1720 the General Assembly of Massachusetts 
purchased two townships, Sheffield and Stockbridge, with a reserva- 
tion of two tracts for the exclusive occupancy of the Indians, Skate- 
kook and Waliktukook. When the English commenced their settle- 
ments near them, Kunkapot, the principal Indian personage at the 
latter place, was soon discovered to be a worthy, industrious man, 
and favorably inclined toward Christianity. The Commissioners for 
Indians Affairs at Boston, hearing this, sent Revs. Messrs. Bull, of 
Westfield, and Williams, of Longmeadow, to confer with the Indians 
in reference to the establishment of a mission among them. The 

* American Quarterly Register, February, 1832, p. 203. 



184 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

conference took place in July, 1734, resulting in an agreement to 
receive a minister. In the following October Mr. John Sargeant, a 
tutor in Yale College, left New Haven to enter upon this mission 
field. 

Immediately on his arrival he delivered a discourse through an 
interpreter, named Ebenezer, to an interested audience. This Indian, 
having already some knowledge of Christianity, expressed a desire 
to make an open profession, and was baptized in his wigwam the 
following day. An intermediate spot between the two reservations, 
which were eight or ten miles apart, was agreed upon, where the 
Indians should live together for the greater convenience of Sabbath 
worship and the instruction of their children. In addition to other 
difficulties attending such work among untutored savages he encoun- 
tered trouble from an unexpected quarter. The Dutch traders on 
the Hudson sold rum to the Indians, taking advantage of their fits 
of intoxication to make dishonest and extravagant bargains. The 
introduction of Christianity these traders regarded as unfavorable to 
their business, and hence they exerted their influence to resist the 
establishment of the mission. By wise management, however, Mr. 
Sargeant effectually neutralized the base influence of the traders. 

In January, 1735, deputies from the several clans which consti- 
tuted the tribe of River Indians met in council, nearly two hundred 
in number, under Corlair, the chief sachem, and after repeated con- 
ferences approved of the action of their Housatonnoc brethren in con- 
senting to be taught the Christian religion. In the autumn a con- 
siderable number were baptized. The year following the land grants 
to the Indians were reconstructed by the State so as to accommodate 
the Indians and the work of the mission also, and they were settled 
in one village, at Stockbridge, in 1737. 

No missionary ever exceeded Mr. Sargeant in his devotion to these 
red men. When they went into the woods for some weeks at a time 
every year, to make maple sugar, Mr. Sargeant, unwilling that they 
should remain so long without instruction, accompanied them, in 
their own language prayed with them morning and evening, and 
preached on the Sabbath. In the day-time he taught their children 
to read, and in the evening the adults to sing, sleeping at night 
upon boughs and blankets. Several prayers and Dr. Watts's first 
catechism for the use of children were translated into their language, 
and another mission station eighteen miles to the north-west was 
opened, into which a few years later David Brainerd entered. So 
zealous was Mr. Sargeant to extend the blessings of the Gospel that 
he made- extended tours to Indians occupying an island in the Hud- 



THE STOCKBRIDCE MISSION. \ 83 

son River, and even visited the Shawanoos, two hundred and twenty 
miles distant, on the Susquehanna. 

At length Mr. Sargeant became convinced that the best results 
could not be accomplished until the Indians should be in some 
degree civilized, and exchange their barbarous language for the 
English. He therefore formed a plan for the education of Indian 
children which would more thoroughly affect their habits of thought 
and life. The plan included study, manual labor, and a knowledge 
of agriculture; for the girls, besides study, training in the duties of 
domestic life ; and for all, knowledge of the principles of Christianity. 
By great exertion Mr. Sargeant carried his plan into effect before 
his death. Mr. Sargeant's annual salary of $ I2 5 from the Commis- 
sioners of Indian Affairs at Boston was supplemented by individual 
donations, the General Court building the school-house and the house 
of worship. When he entered upon the field he found fifty Indians 
on the ground; when he died, in 1749, the number had increased to 
two hundred and nineteen, of whom one hundred and twenty-nine 
had been baptized and forty two were communicants. 

In 175 1, through the joint action of the church at Stockbridge 
and the " Society in London for Propagating the Gospel in New 
England and the parts adjacent," Jonathan Edwards, who had just 
been dismissed from his church at Northampton, entered upon the 
Stockbridge mission. Here he continued six years, but his more 
important labors were performed in his study, elaborating his great 
works on Original Sin and the Freedom of the Will. When Edwards 
was called to the presidency of Princeton College, he was followed 
at Stockbridge by Rev. Samuel West. Rev. John Sargeant, son of 
the preceding missionary, soon followed Mr. West, and, after many 
years of labor among the red men, died in 1824. The Indians, how- 
ever, under the westward migration, gradually disappeared from their 
old haunts. Some were absorbed in the war of the Revolution ; 
some went to western New York, thence to White River, Indiana, 
thence to Green Bay, thence to Lake Winnebago, etc. 



Section 2.— In the Middle Colonies. 

In the New York Colony Rev. Joannes Megapolensis preceded 
Rev. John Eliot, by three years, in labors for the religious welfare 
of the Indians. At Albany, then an extreme outpost of civiliza- 
tion, he interested himself in the Indians who came thither to trade, 
and so learned their " heavy language " as to speak and preach 



186 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

fluently in it. The early records of the First Reformed Church in 
Albany contain many names of Indians converted, baptized and 
reeeived into the communion under his labors. During his stay in 
Albany, the celebrated Jesuit missionary, Isaac Jogues, was cap- 
tured on the St. Lawrence by the Mohawks, and subjected to horrible 
cruelties. The Dutch at Albany tried to ransom him. At length 
escaping from his captors he was kept in close concealment by the 
Dutch for six weeks. During this time Megapolensis was his con- 
stant friend and rendered him every kindness in his power. Another 
Jesuit father, Simon Le Moyne, also became intimate with this 
Dutch parson at Fort Orange, and wrote three polemical essays to 
convert him to the papal faith ; but the stanch dominie wrote a 
vigorous reply. 

At Schenectady. 

Almost all the early Dutch churches in New York and on the 
Delaware performed missionary work among the Indians, and their 
old records contain many names of Indian neophytes. The Dutch 
Church founded in 1680, in Schenectady, was in the midst of the 
Mohawks, with whom they held friendly relations. One of their pas- 
tors, in 1700, speaks of thirty-six of them as having received the 
Christian faith. Rev. Bernardus Freeman became well versed in 
the Indian tongue, speaking fluently and writing in it. The Liturgy 
of the Dutch Church was translated into the Indian language, par- 
ticularly the morning and the evening prayers, the Creed of St. 
Athanasius and portions of the Old and New Testament. When 
they heard them read in their own tongue the natives were " mightily 
affected." The Dutch fathers at Albany and Schenectady looked 
upon the Mohawks as "something more than brutes from whom 
beaver-skins could be obtained." Three of the pastors at the latter 
place were missionaries to the Indians, and the records of that church 
show that hundreds of the red men became proselytes to the Chris- 
tian faith, worshiping with the fathers in the old churches. 

There they partook of the same communion together. There the Indian pap- 
pooses were held in the arms of their dusky mothers, who stood in beads and 
blankets before the same baptismal font at which awaited the white lady and her 
infant in christening quilt of silk and embroidery. There, too, the Indian lover stood 
with his Indian bride, and in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost vowed 
to love and cherish one wife in his wigwam. And when the fathers came annually 
to pay their pew rent or subscriptions in beaver-skins, the Christianized Indian 
came with like gifts for the sanctuary.* 

* Memorial volume commemorating the two hundredth anniversary of the First Reformed 
Protestant Dutch Church in Schenectady, in 1880, p. 38. 



AMONG THE MOHAWKS. 187 

Under the Episcopal Church in New York, at an early date, mis- 
sions were undertaken among the Mohawks. Rev. Thorouoficrood 
Moore arrived in New York in 1704 and proceeded to Albany as 
missionary among the Mohawks. Owing to the influence of the 
fur traders his labors proved fruitless, and he returned to New 
York. Rev. Thomas Barclay, missionary at Albany under the 
Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, often visited 
the Indians beyond Schenectady, as early as 1708. He was fol- 
lowed in 17 1 2 by Rev. William Andrews, who was welcomed with 
great formality and respect. Next Rev. Thomas Barclay and Rev. 
John Miles, successively rectors at Albany, extended their labors 
to the Mohawks. In 1734 Rev. Henry Barclay was appointed 
catechist to these Indians, at Fort Hunter. He found them docile 
and attentive, and catechised them Sunday evenings. Called away 
a few years, on his return he was received by his Indian neo- 
phytes with tears of joy. On an occasion of gathering of the Six* 
Nations, to renew their league of friendship with the English, he 
preached to a large number of them, and had the pleasure of hear- 
ing the Mohawks make their responses regularly in the service. 
In 1 74 1 Mr. Barclay reported 500 Indians settled in two towns, 
thirty miles from Albany, and 58 Indian communicants. In 1743 
only two or three of the whole tribe remained unbaptized, and two 
Mohawks were employed as school masters. But his work was 
checked by the hostile intrigues and invasions of the French Indians. 

In 1739 a zealous Moravian Christian, Henry Rauch, began a 
mission in New York State, not far from Kingston, but in five 
years he was compelled to move his converts to Pennsylvania. 
Numerous other Moravian missions were started. 

Brainerd. 

In 1742 Rev. David Brainerd, a young man of quenchless zeal and 
superior purity, was appointed missionary to the Indians by the 
British Society. At Kaunameek, an Indian village fifteen miles from 
Kinderhook, N. Y., he opened his commission. The following year 
he visited Indian villages on the Delaware River, in Pennsylvania, 
where he was favored with remarkable success, his congregation 
often being in tears under his fervent appeals, and in less than one 
year seventy-seven persons were baptized. Many who had been 
debased and profligate seemed wholly reformed. In 1746 he visited 
the Indians on the Susquehanna River. During this trip he con- 
tracted disease, which soon ended his life, aged thirty years. 

* The original Five Nations, joined by the Tuscaroras, driven from the South. 



188 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Among the Six Nations. 

Rev. Gideon Hawley graduated at Yale College in 1749, early 
resolving to devote himself to labors among the Indians. First he 
assisted Edwards as a teacher at Stockbridge. Later, the commis- 
sioners at Boston engaged him to establish a mission in the 
country of the Iroquois, a hundred miles at least beyond the 
remotest boundary of civilization. Mr. Timothy Woodbridge, a 
gentleman of high character and great influence among the Indians, 
accompanied him. On their way they secured the influence and 
aid of Sir William Johnston at Albany. After encountering various 
perils and some hostility from wandering Indians, one of whom 
attempted to shoot Mr. Hawley, they reached Onohoghgwage, on 
the Susquehanna, where they were welcomed, In 1756 he was 
obliged to withdraw on account of the French and Indian war. 
Subsequently he settled among the Marshpee Indians, in Massa- 
chusetts, in 1758, where he spent the residue of his long life in 
the most benevolent and self-denying labors for the salvation of 
the Indians, dying in 1807. 

In 1762, at the request of the commissioners at Boston, Rev. Eli 
Forbes, D.D., of Brookfield, Mass., undertook a mission to the 
Oneida Indians, the chief tribe of the Six Nations in New York. 
With a colleague and an interpreter he set out for the distant 
field, reached the Mohawk River, which he followed for seventy 
miles, then turned southward to the Otsego Lake, then down one 
of the branches of the Susquehanna River, a hundred and twenty 
miles to a town called Onoquagie, containing three hundred inhab- 
itants. Here he preached, established two schools and gathered a 
church. After tarrying three months he left them in the care of 
his colleague, Rev. Asaph Rice, and brought home several Indian 
children to be educated, some of whom became highly respectable 
and useful persons. 

Rev. Samuel Kirkland, after long study of the dialects of the Six 
Nations, in 1771 undertook a mission to the Oneidas. The 
troubled condition of the country prevented Mrs. Kirkland from 
accompanying her husband and occasioned many interruptions in 
his labors. During the Revolution his mission was virtually dis- 
continued and he was long absent from Oneida, sometimes serving 
as a chaplain in the Continental Army, and sometimes negotiating 
with the Indians in behalf of the Continental Congress. He was 
especially active in endeavoring to preserve the neutrality of the 
Six Nations during the war, making long journeys among the 



MR. GEORGE THORPE. 189 

tribes, and attending their councils. But through the influence of 
Brandt, the famous Mohawk warrior, the worst fears of the colonial 
patriots were realized by the rejection of overtures of peace and 
friendship by most of the Indians. In 1777 and 1778 he spent most 
of his time among the Oneidas. On the return of peace, at the 
earnest request of the Indians he returned to Oneida, and until his 
death, in 1808, performed a large amount of mission labor, and 
numerous valuable public services among the Indian tribes.* 

As early as 1748 Rev. Elihu Spencer, one of the ablest men in 
Presbyterian annals, went as a missionary among the Oneidas. In 
1752 the Presbytery of New York formally ordained and commis- 
sioned a missionary to the Indians, and in 1756 Mr. John Brain- 
erd entered upon this service and continued his faithful labors until 
his death, in 178 1. In 1761 a mission was established by the 
Presbyterians among the Oneidas, under the care of Rev. Samson 
Occum, an Indian of the Mohegan tribe, educated by Rev. Dr. 
Wheelock, at Lebanon, Conn. In 1763 the New York Presbytery 
appointed a committee of exploration among the Indians in the 
West, consisting of Rev. Drs. Allison, Witherspoon, and Rodgers, 
and Messrs. Brain erd and Ewing, to devise and report plans for 
more extensive operations. 



Section 3.— In. the South. 

The Protestant efforts for the conversion of the aborgines to 
Christ date from the beginning of their settlements. The charter of 
the Virginia Colony enjoined that " all persons should kindly treat 
the savage and heathen people in those parts, and use all proper 
means to draw them to the true service and knowledge of God." 
The first minister, Mr. Hunt, entered upon the work of propagating 
the Gospel among " such people as live in darkness." f Mr. Whit- 
aker, his successor, was not backward in this work, and Pocahontas 
was the first Indian convert. In the infancy of the colony £500 
were sent from England to be expended " in instructing the 
young Indians in the faith in Christ." Ten thousand acres of land 
were set apart for this institution, which was to comprise both 
English and Indian youth, and other large sums of money were 
contributed. The Colonial Legislature in 1619 and 1620 showed 
commendable zeal in this movement. Mr. George Thorpe, who 

*For fuller account see Sprague's Annals 0/ the Trinitarian Pulpit. Vol. I, p. 621, etc. 
t Hazard's State Papers. 
13 



190 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

accepted the headship of the school, visited the Indian chiefs in 
their own haunts, to win them to Christ. The treatment of the 
natives was mild and friendly. The settlers' houses and tables 
were open to them, and Mr. Thorpe and his co-laborers fondly 
looked forward to the time when the Indian tribes should obtain 
salvation. But jealousies were secretly working in the minds of 
the Indians, and out of the apparent calm, suddenly, in 1622, there 
arose a fearful hurricane. The Indians sprang at once upon the 
slumbering colony, and within one hour three hundred and forty- 
seven persons, including Mr. Thorpe, were slaughtered. The mas- 
sacre would have been complete but for the disclosure of the plot 
the night before by a converted Indian. A spirit of distrust and 
deadly hostility thenceforward prevailed ; and for many years no 
more efforts were made by the Virginia colonists to convert the 
natives. 

I 11 J 735 J onn an d Charles Wesley went to Georgia, the latter as 
a missionary to the Indians ; but his efforts were unsuccessful. 
Whitefield soon followed, made an unsuccessful attempt to frame 
a grammar of their language, and became satisfied that his call was 
not to them. But the Moravians were on the ground achieving 
success among the Creeks. They founded a mission the same year 
that Sargeant went to Stockbridge. 



Section ^.—Jesuit and Protestant Missions Com- 
pared. 

From the first, Protestant missionaries to the Indians worked 
upon a plan very different from the Jesuits, involving more radical 
treatment and attended with greater difficulties. The Jesuits only 
slightly interfered with the native habits, wild ways and impulses 
of the savages. For the most part, the French, lay and clerical, 
compromised themselves and their own civilization by meeting the 
Indians more than half way, by living with them on easy if not 
equal terms, carefully avoiding any thing that might cross their 
inclinations or shock their prejudices. The French Jesuits did not 
seek to settle them in fixed residences,* to make them cleanly, and 
improve their dress, but shared the native wigwam and loathsome 
cookery, regardless of filth, vermin, and immodesty. The religion 



*The Spanish Jesuits did promote local settlements of Indians; but the French encouraged 
their roving, hunting life, in deference to the secular interests of the French fur traders, who 
were eager -for peltries. 



SAMSON OCC UM. 1 9 1 

they taught consisted of a fcw simple ritual ceremonies, the repeti- 
tion of a prayer or chant, and the baptismal rite. Thus the doomed 
heathen was easily turned into a professed Christian and an enfran- 
chised citizen of France. Didactic moral and intellectual training 
was deemed unessential. The simplest assent of a savage to a few 
dogmas of the Church was sufficient.* Such was their converting, 
Christianizing process. 

Quite otherwise with Eliot and other Protestant missionaries. 
They aimed to establish communities of Indians in fixed settle- 
ments, exclusively their own, with changed habits of life, dependent 
no longer upon roaming and hunting, but pursuing industrious 
occupations, with lands cleared and fenced, modestly clothed, living 
in houses, regarding property and decency. Ultimately they were 
to have local magistrates, mechanics, teachers, and preachers of 
their own race, with all the comforts and securities of the towns of 
the white men, and organized and covenanted churches. Eliot 
wrote, " I find it absolutely necessary to carry on civility with 
religion." 

The educational efforts of Protestantism among the Indians 
in this early period were very considerable, some of which 
have been already mentioned. But much more was done for the 
education of the Indian. Under the lead of the Apostle Eliot free 
tuition was provided for Indian children in the public schools of 
the Massachusetts Colony, the expense to be defrayed by a 
yearly contribution — voluntary, or by rate if any refused ; and the 
order was confirmed by the general court. Eliot also planted 
schools among the converted Indians, and sent their brightest lads 
to English schools to learn Latin and Greek. The Connecticut 
code of 1650 ordered that the teaching elders should go among the 
Indians and give them religious instruction. Schools were also 
established among them. A very successful one, at Farmington, 
was taught from 1648 to 1697 by the minister of the parish, and 
as late as 1736 notices of this school are found in the colonial 
records. 

In December, 1743, Rev. Eleazar Wheelock of Lebanon, Conn., 
was induced to receive into a school which he kept in his own house 
Samson Occum, a Mohegan Indian, aged about nineteen. Occum 
was under Mr. Wheelock's tuition about five years, and subse- 
quently became a preacher of 'distinction. Encouraged by this suc- 

* The Jesuit Biard, in Acadia, says he was satisfied with translating into Indian "ye 
Lord's Prayer, ye salutation of ye Virgin, ye Commandments of God, and of ye Church, with a 
short explanation of ye Sacraments, and some prayers ; for this is all ye theology they need." 



192 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

cess Mr. Wheelock formed a plan of an Indian mission school. He 
thought that educated Indians would be more successful than white 
men, as missionaries among the red men. Gradually his plan was 
carried out, until, in 1762, he had more than twenty youths, chiefly 
Indians, under his care. Funds for their maintenance were 
obtained from benevolent individuals, from the legislatures of Con- 
necticut and Massachusetts, and from the Scotch Society for Prop- 
agating Christian Knowledge. Joshua Moor, a farmer in Mansfield, 
Conn., having about the year 1754 made a donation of a house and 
two acres of land in Lebanon, contiguous to Mr. Wheelock's house, 
the institution was called " Moor's Indian Charity School." Sev- 
eral gentlemen were associated with Mr. Wheelock as trustees. 
Here Brandt the Mohawk chief received his education, and also Rev. 
Samuel Kirkland, an eminent missionary among the Oneidas, from 
1764 to 1808. In 1765 the Scotch Society sent white missionaries 
and Indian school-masters to the Mohawks in New York. Occum 
had preceded them among the Oneidas. 

In 1766 Mr. Wheelock sent Mr. Occum and Rev. Nathaniel 
Whitaker to Great Britain, to solicit benefactions for the school. 
Mr. Occum made a favorable impression. He was the first Indian 
preacher from America that had visited Great Britain, and he 
preached several hundred times to large assemblies. The king sub- 
scribed ,£200, Lord Dartmouth fifty guineas, and, in all, 
.£7,000 were collected in England and more than ,£2,000 in Scot- 
land. After conducting Moor's school in Lebanon, Conn., fourteen 
or fifteen years, Dr. Wheelock, in order to increase its usefulness, 
removed it to Hanover, N. H., in 1770, where it became the foun- 
dation of Dartmouth College. 



Section #.— Results. 

Later results do not correspond with the noble beginnings. 
Before King Philip's war it was estimated that " about a fourth 
part of all the Indians in New England — those of Massachussetts 
being 3,000 of that quarter — had been more or less influenced by 
civilization and Christianity, and that had these been in full league 
with Philip the whites would have been exterminated." That ter- 
rible war very seriously affected the mission work. " After the 
war the stated places for Indian church settlements were reduced 
to four, while there were other temporary stations. There were 
ten stations in Plymouth Colony, the same number on the Vine- 



DECA Y OF INDIAN RACES. 1 93 

yard, and five on Nantucket. President Mather, writing in 1687, said 
there were in New England 6 regular churches of baptized 
Indians, 18 assemblies of catechumens, 24 Indian preachers, and 4 
English ministers who preached in Indian. A committee to visit 
Natick in 1698* reported a church there of 7 men and 3 women 
(Indians), a native minister ordained by Eliot, 59 native men, 51 
women, and 70 children. Up to 1733, all the town officers were 
Indians. The place was incorporated as an English town in 1762. 
In 1792 there was but a single Indian family. At a local celebration, 
in 1846, the two hundredth anniversary of Eliot's first service, a girl 
of sixteen was the only known native descendant." f There were 
places in Massachusetts where feeble remnants of partially civilized 
natives remained longer than at Natick. On Martha's Vineyard 
some still exist. 

A strange fatality has overhung the Indian races. They had 
been decimated by disease before the Pilgrims landed, and they 
have dwindled ever since, from natural causes inhering in the races, 
which unfriendly influences from without have accelerated. The 
Pequot wars, the King Philip's war, the French and Indian wars, 
the war of strong liquors and debauchery, the wars of rapacious 
greed, and — may we not add ? — civilization itself have terribly wasted 
them. How forlorn the spectacle of these poor pensioners and 
vagabonds, crushed in abject abasement before the white man, tac- 
iturn, retrospective, and without heritage,}: name, or progeny! 

* Eight years after Eliofs death, at the age of 86. 

t Rev. Mr. Ellis, in Memorial History of Boston. Vol. I, p. 274. 

\ More recently favored with " Reservations " of land. 



194 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



DIVERSE CURRENTS 



Sec. I. Inception of American J Sec. 2. Inception of Unitarianism. 

Skepticism. "" 3. Inception of Universalism* 

AN inspection of the religious life of the colonial era reveals new 
currents of theological sentiment, silently but steadily setting 
in, at various points, against the long accepted theories. In the 
subsequent periods they will appear as more active assailing forces, 
openly antagonizing the old beliefs and seriously engaging the 
attention of the world. 

As to their origin, they were chiefly exotic, out-growths from the 
modern spirit of inquiry in Europe, evoked by the revival of 
learning,* and the bold revolutions inaugurated by Luther and 
Descartes. Those great and devout minds never dreamed of the 
reckless extravagances which followed their action. Not contented 
with freedom from hierarchical and scholastic intolerance, many wild 
spirits broke loose from all moorings, threw overboard anchor, 
compass and chart, and recklessly sailed out into the stormiest seas. 
Investigation extended to all departments of inquiry; the meta- 
physics of religion became a disputed domain ; errors were disclosed 
in natural science ; skeptical criticism was fostered and incredulity 
was accepted as a token of superior wisdom. " Speculation glided 
into doubt, as all morbid conditions of the body sometimes glide 
into the prevailing contagion. Not a land nor a church in Western 
Europe was exempt from the pestilence. Theologians felt the 
influence, many yielding to it seemingly without consciousness." f 

However varied in its minor phases, there was one point of 
unity in this movement — a disposition to break from the traditional 
theology and adopt rationalistic methods.;): 

* The Neo-Platonic philosophy, Arianism, etc., were brought to the surface, in the Renais- 
sance in Italy, as early as the middle of the fifteenth century. 

+ Bishop Burgess, in Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England. 

% See Problem 0/ Religious Progress. By Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt, 
New York City, 1881. Pp. 55-70. Ueberweg's History of Philosophy t Vol. II. History oj 
the Reformation. By Prof. Fisher, of Yale College. 



EXGLISH DEISM. 195 

Section 1.— The Inception of American Skepticism. 

As early as the middle of the seventeenth century symptoms of 
this great revolt appeared, in the English mind, in the gradual un- 
folding of the principle that the natural consciousness of the Divine 
existence and man's conscience are all the materials necessary for 
the construction of a perfect religion, and that Christianity is of no 
value except as containing germs of this natural religion. In the 
course of the following century these sentiments obtained a formal 
recognition under the name of English deism, accompanied often 
with a denial of the historic verity of the Christian records and a 
denunciation of the Christian system as priestcraft. The history 
of English deism covers a period of about one hundred and seventy- 
five years (1625-1800) * from Herbert to Gibbon, embracing groups 
of essayists, poets and novelists distinguished for splendid talents 
and extensive acquisitions. A large portion of the English 
mind was tainted with these ideas, and a serious deterioration in 
faith and morals became apparent. 

Introduced into America. 

Down to the middle of the last century the common American 
mind had known but little of the productions of these men; only a 
few of the more learned or curious and some of the later emigrants. 
But the celebrated French and Indian war, extending through a 
period of nine years (1754-1763), afforded an opportunity for their 
inculcation. During this war American citizens were brought into 
close relations with English officers and soldiers who had accepted 
deistical sentiments. " Most of their American companions had 
never heard the divine origin of the Scriptures questioned, and their 
minds were, of course, unprovided with answers even to the most 
common objections. To such objections as were actually made 
was added the force of authority. The British officers were from 
the mother country — a phase of high import — until after the com- 
mencement of the Revolution. They came from a country renowned 
for arts and arms, and regarded by the people of New England as 
the birth-place of science and wisdom. These gentlemen were also, 
at the same time, possessed of engaging manners : they practiced 
all those genteel vices which, when recommended by such mariners, 
generally fascinate young men of gay, ambitious minds, and are 

* Herbert died 1648 ; Hobbes, 1679 ; The Earl of Shaftesbury, 1713 ; Toland, 1722 ; Man- 
deville, 1733; Collins, 1729 ; Woolston, 1733 ; Morgan, 1743; Tindal, 1733; Chubb, 1747; 
Bolingbroke, 1751; Hume. 1776; Gibbon, 1794. 



196 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

often considered as conferring an enviable distinction on those who 
adopt them. Many of the Americans were far from being dull 
proficients in this school. The vices they loved, and soon found 
the principles necessary to quiet their consciences. When they 
returned home they had drunk too deeply of the cup to 
exchange their new principles and practices for the sober doc- 
trines and lives of their countrymen. The means that had been 
pursued to corrupt them they now employed to corrupt others. 
From this prima mali labes the contagion spread, not indeed 
through very great multitudes, but in little circles surrounding the 
individuals originally infected. As these amounted to a consider- 
able number, and lived in a general dispersion through the country, 
most parts of it shared in the malady." * 

The period intervening between the French war and the Revo- 
lution was characterized by a perceptible relaxation of morals, and 
it is certain that religion suffered serious decline. 



Section £.— The Origin of American Unitarianism. 

Simultaneously with these more radical departures from Chris- 
tianity, as a system, there appeared a revolt against some of its 
vital doctrines by those who still clung to its records and institutions. 
Arian and Socinian sentiments had their advocates on the Continent 
of Europe from an early period of the Reformation^ and in En- 
gland as early as the latter part of the sixteenth century.;}: In the 
following century they became more common. Near its close 
Unitarians had places of worship in London, and the great Trini- 
tarian controversy was waged by South, Sherlock, Howe, etc. 

* Travels in New England and New York. By Rev. Timothy Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D. 
Vol. IV, p. 365. 

t Before 1500 Arian sentiments were revived in Italy. Among the early continental 
advocates of these views may be mentioned John Dork, who died 1528 ; Hitzer, a learned friend 
of Zwingle, beheaded 011529; Servetus, burned 1553; Campanus, died in prison, at Cleves, 
1578; Gentilis, a Calabrian, died 1566; Daniel Jarvis, died at Basle, 1556: Laelius Socinus, "an 
inquiring but skeptical man of letters," died 1562 ; Faustus Socinus, who organized the Uni- 
tarians in Poland and gave them a system of theology, died 1604. A printing office was 
established at Racon, Poland, before the close of the sixteenth century for the publication of the 
writings of Faustus Socinus. 

I From 1550 to 1612 Arians and Socinians perished in the fires of Smithfield. John Biddle 
(1615-1652) has been styled "The father of modern Unitarianism." In 1652 copies of the 
Raconian catechism were burned in London. In 1655 Dr. Owen wrote, " there is not a city or 
town where some of this poison has not been poured forth." 



THE " LIBERAL" THEORIES. 197 

The English Sources. 

Unitarian sentiments invaded the English Church, and some 
distinguished ministers became Arians or Socinians.* Whitby, 
Emelyn, Whiston, Samuel Clarke, all strongly tended that way, 
some of them avowedly. Emelyn was a decided Arian, and advo- 
cated those views in an " Inquiry into the Character of Jesus 
Christ ; " Whitby sifted them into his Commentary on the New 
Testament ; and Clarke was an opposer of creeds, especially the 
Athanasian, and a decided Arian. To such an extent had those 
views pervaded the Established Church that it was stated, in 1705, 
that there were " troops of Unitarian and Socinian writers, and not 
one dissenter could be found among them." 

Natural religion was the favorite study of the English clergy 
and of the learned generally. While Collins and Tindall pro- 
nounced Christianity to be priestcraft, Whiston, learned, intrepid, 
and earnest, declared the miracles to be Jewish impositions, and 
Woolston called them allegories. In David Hartley these two 
tendencies were combined, and " the publication of his book, Obser- 
vations on Man, based on the sensational philosophy, gave rise to 
a new school, of which Joseph Priestley was the head." " Of this 
stamp was the Unitarianism that first made its appearance in 
America about the middle of the last century." f Traces of it are 
very perceptible in the writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., 
of Boston, the champion of the new and then unnamed tendency 
in America, who held correspondence with several English writers 
of this class. Drs. Gay, of Hingham ; Chauncy, of Boston ; West, 
etc., etc., also patronized these productions. The high literary and 
scientific reputation of Clarke, Whitby, Whiston, Woolston, etc., 
gave their numerous writings great currency. They exerted a 
leading influence upon the thinking minds of that age, among 
whom the rising divines of New England occupied prominent 
positions. It will not seem strange, therefore, with these facts 
before us, that about the middle of the last century there was a 
very perceptible change in the theological opinions of some of the 
New England clergy. The same thing was also to some extent 
apparent in Virginia and New York. " The liberal theories " in 
philosophy and religion in Europe exerted a great influence upon 
many leading minds in America. They were important factors in 

*Revs. Daniel Whitby, D.D., 1638-1726; Thomas Emelyn, 1663-1743 ; Rev. # William 
Whiston, D.D., 1667-1752; Rev. Samuel Clarke, D.D., 1675-1729. 
t Appleton's Cyclopedia. Article : " Unitarianism." 



198 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the development of the " Liberal Christianity," which, under various 
minor designations, has come down to the present time. 

The American Sources. 

But the origin of this defection was not altogether, nor even 
chiefly, foreign. The most potent and far- reaching causes were 
engendered in the New England mind, and hence this great de- 
parture made its first appearance in that section, while it was 
generally withstood elsewhere. Local causes prepared the way, 
but the process of development was slow. The vital and conserving 
elements of ecclesiastical life were gradually eliminated before the 
most far-sighted minds even conjectured the result. The Unitarian 
departure had its inception in the introduction of the famous " half- 
way covenant," * which was adopted in the infancy of the colonies, 
only forty-two years after the landing of the Pilgrims. This 
measure was a politico-religious expedient resorted to for the pur- 
pose of relieving themselves from embarrassments growing out of 
an extreme and impracticable application of Christianity to the 
relations of the Church and the civil power. 

" The founders of the chief colonies of New England were of 
one heart and of one mind, and this was a source of a great error 
in their ecclesiastical system. They forgot that never again could 
the community which they founded be what it was at first ; that 
they had collected and brought into the wilderness a peculiar 
people, but that they must afterward meet human nature as it 
arose in all its varieties. They could exclude from their communion 
or banish from their territory the man who would not share their 
faith, but they could not decide the character nor annul the birth- 
right of the children who should succeed to their own places. The 
apostolical conception of the Church, as an assembly of believers 
received, on the profession of their faith, to the sacraments and to 
the fellowship of the saints, and seeking there the grace by which 
they might be trained for heaven, and subject to exclusion on proof 
of willful and persevering sin, till they should furnish the fruits of 
penitence, was not at all obscure or difficult. It was no objection 
that it might be compared with the net of a fisherman, which 
gathers up all alike, or with a field in which tares are nightly 
sown by an enemy. The settlers of New England, however, had 
learned. to dread chiefly the ills of a church which was identical with 
a nation ; and it was their endeavor so to fence round their own 



*'See Chapter IV, oa Church and State ; also Chapter V, on Religious Life. 



PERVASIVE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 199 

that, as far as might be, it (the civil power) should embrace 
none but spiritual, accepted followers of the Captain of Salva- 
tion." * 

It has been already observed that the early churches of New 
England held very strictly to the necessity of saving faith and 
spiritual regeneration as conditions of membership. And their 
religion was not a dreamy speculation, or a mere sentiment, or an 
abstraction, but it was carried out in concrete forms in the practical 
details of life. Religion was the stock upon which every thing must 
be ingrafted, and that which could not bear the process must be 
rejected. Hence we find the State growing out of the Church. 
Under their regimen no person could hold public office, or vote in 
elections, or enjoy any of the ordinary privileges of citizenship, who 
was not a member of the Church. 

In 1633 Rev. John Cotton preached a sermon in Boston, entitled, 
"A Discourse About Civil Government, in a New Plantation, whose 
Design is Religion." Its object was " to prove the expediency and 
necessity of intrusting free burgesses, who are members of churches, 
gathered amongst them according to Christ, with the power of 
choosing from among themselves magistrates and men to whom the 
managing of all public and civil affairs of importance is to be com- 
mitted." This was in accordance with the general usages of the 
New England colonies. f 

Religious ideas were carried into every thing they did. The 
recluses of the Middle Ages had removed religion from practical 
life, into caves and cloisters, but the Puritans reversed the order and 
carried it into the most common affairs. Thus actuated, they made 
the franchise of the Commonwealth dependent upon church 
membership, and the latter upon a genuine religious experience. 
A solemn form, too, was observed in the relation of religious ex- 
perience before the Church, and inquiries were made into the 
previous conviction for sin and the radical character of the change. 
Thus were the membership of the Church and the franchise of the 
State hedged in with impressive and uncompromising religious 
ideas and usages. 

It is not strange that in a few years this system should be felt 
to be unjust. Appeals were made to the Crown, petitions were 
sent to the General Court, and a strong agitation was carried on in 
the principal towns. Favorable responses were given by the En- 

* Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England. A pamphlet. By Bishop 
Burgess. Pp. 10, 11. 

t The Ecclesiastical History of New E77 gland. By Joseph B. Felt. Vol. I, p. 169. 



200 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

glish Government, and the way was prepared for the adoption of a 
new measure to remedy the evil. 

The Half-way Covenant. 

In 1662, by the recommendation of the General Synod, the half- 
way covenant was introduced into the churches. This celebrated 
measure provided that persons baptized in infancy were to be 
regarded as members of the church to which their parents belonged, 
although they were not to be admitted to the communion without 
giving evidence of regeneration ; and, that such persons, on arriving 
at maturity, " understanding the doctrine of faith and publicly pro- 
fessing their assent thereto, not scandalous in life, and solemnly 
owning the covenant before the Church wherein they give them- 
selves up and their children to the Lord, and subject themselves to 
the government of Christ in the Church," had a right to baptism 
for their children. 

This was a great change ; it relieved the applicant for church 
membership from the necessity of giving evidence of regeneration, 
and it compelled the Church, if it would exclude him, to convict 
him of heresy or of a scandalous life. The object was to confer so 
much of church membership as would bring men fairly within the 
State, and so little as would leave them short of full communion 
with the Church. They hoped thus to conserve both the purity of 
the Church and the Christianity of the State. Events have since 
proved that it would have been better not to have yielded any thing 
in respect to the membership of the Church, but for the Church to 
have relinquished to the State the full control of the right of 
suffrage. But they hoped, how vainly will hereafter appear, that 
such a concession would promote the spiritual welfare of their 
children. This measure, however, in its practical results, proved to 
be full of evil to the churches,* an inlet for dangerous errors and the 
most disastrous consequences, which spread through generations. 
It was the u wooden horse " admitted within the walls of Troy. 

The adoption of this measure was soon followed by a very 
marked religious decline. f Ten years later the declension was a sub- 

* The half-way covenant was not adopted by all the churches at once. Some delayed many 
years, a few more than thirty years, and there was much strife and debate over it. The writings 
of those who favored the action of the Synod were called Synodalia, and of those opposed, Anti- 
Synodalia. The Old South Church, Boston, sprung into being out of this division, being an 
off-shoot of the first Church, a majority of which opposed the Synod. This majority formed the 
Old South. In Connecticut the opposition was more extensive. In the New Haven colony it 
was general. In 1664 the General Court of Connecticut, seeing no movement toward adopting the 
action of the Synod, took the matter in hand and urged its acceptance. 

t See Chapter V, Religious Life, Section 2. Pp. 101, 137, 150, 198, 202. 



THE HALF-WAY COVENANT. 201 

ject of frequent remark and was deeply deplored by many. The 
published sermons, ecclesiastical reports, and other religious litera- 
ture of the next seventy years in New England are full of con- 
fessions, lamentations, and pungent appeals on account of the low 
state of the churches and the increase of immorality, in striking 
contrast with the first forty years of their history. It has been 
already noticed that during the seventy-three years following the 
adoption of this measure, down to the great Edwardsian revival, the 
average condition of the churches was very low. 

Another Departure. 

Forty-five years later another departure still more seriously 
aggravated the downward tendency, and the predecessor of Rev. 
Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton, was the innovator. Rev. 
Timothy Dwight has said of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, that " he 
probably possessed more influence than any other clergyman in the 
province during a period of thirty years."* In 1707 Mr. Stoddard 
preached that " sanctification is not a necessary qualification for par- 
taking of the Lord's Supper," that " the Lord's Supper is a con- 
verting ordinance," " a means of regeneration," and, therefore, " unre- 
newed persons ought to be permitted to partake of it as a means 
of procuring that desirable change." He contended that it was 
11 especially important, since it is impossible to distinguish the regen- 
erate from the unregenerate so as to admit only the former and 
exclude only the latter.'' To this sermon Dr. Increase Mather 
replied the following year, and in 1709 Mr. Stoddard rejoined. After 
strenuous opposition the new view prevailed in Northampton, and 
quite extensively in other parts of New England, and thenceforth 
persons who had been baptized in infancy, not convicted of " scan- 
dalous conduct or of heresy " were in full communion in the Church. 

Religious experience, being no longer a test of Church member- 
ship, disappeared from the pulpits as a theme of discourse, and the 
ministry — as well as the churches — was filled with unregenerate men. 
The cognate doctrines were also set aside, and moralizing and spec- 
ulation constituted the topic of pulpit ministrations. Church dis- 
cipline, too, was relaxed, for unregenerate men would not call others 
to an account. Laxity of belief and morals prevailed, creeds and 
confession of faith were discarded, and candidates for the ministry 
often refused to answer inquiries in regard to both faith and experi- 
ence. In the "Convention Sermon" in 1722, Rev. Cotton Mather 

* Travels in New England. Vol. I, p. 333. 



202 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

lamented " the threatened banishment from the ministry of the 
truths which all real and vital piety lives upon." Thus was a state 
of things currently called " dead orthodoxy " developed, in which 
truth had little hold on the conscience, and many abandoned them- 
selves to frivolity and corrupt practices. 

In the meantime New England thinkers were drawn into sym- 
pathy with English non-conformists, and English literature was 
infiltrated through the compact structure of New England social and 
religious life. The great Trinitarian controversy of South, Sherlock, 
etc., was studied in Boston scarcely less than in London. The sub- 
sequent writings of Emelyn, Whiston, Dr. Samuel Clarke, etc., found 
ready readers in New England. About 1720 Cotton Mather wrote 
of " the most grievous apostasy of so many of our English brethren, 
going off to Arianism, Gentileism, etc., and the Laodicean temper 
of many more who have withheld the testimonies which the labor- 
ing truth has called for." 

While this great spiritual declension was going on, God was pre- 
paring on both sides of the Atlantic great counter movements for 
the preservation of spiritual Christianity — the Methodistic revival in 
England, and the Edwardean revival in New England — the latter 
accomplishing a great, though temporary, work, to be supplemented 
in due time, and carried steadily forward, by the introduction of 
Methodism. 

The Great Revival. 

In Chapter V the revival under Edwards and Whitefield 
was sketched. The revival brought into new prominence the 
subject of Christian experience and the doctrine of the insufficiency 
of works done without grace as a fitness for heaven. Wherever, 
therefore, it went, it awakened opposition, chiefly in the churches 
and the ministers favoring the " liberal" tendencies. White- 
field's first visit to the Puritan metropolis was warmly welcomed, 
and multitudes waited with deepest interest upon his power- 
ful ministrations. Within two years he was followed by Revs. 
Gilbert Tennent, Wheelock and Davenport, who visited Boston and 
other New England towns. Tennent was bold and unsparing, pro- 
ducing " a wide and tumultuous swell of religious emotion," under 
the influence of which many professed conversion, and "towns were 
invested with a new aspect." Davenport " was not afraid to pro- 
nounce publicly the names of unconverted ministers," and every 
Congregational pulpit in Boston was soon closed against him. 
Whitefield and Tennent had also " disowned the prevailing rever- 



THE "NEW LIGHTS." 203 

ence for authorities," and had quite distinctly intimated their opin- 
ions of the spiritual state of many of the clergy. Whitefield pro- 
nounced the college at Cambridge to be, " as far as he could gather, 
not far superior to the English universities in piety and true godli- 
ness." A tide of censorious enthusiasm set in and seriously marred 
the revival work; but it grew out of the stern resistance which 
spiritual religion every-where met — often the effect, and perhaps as 
often the cause of the opposition. 

Amid the prevailing excitement in 1743 a convention was held, 
soon followed by another. In the first a " Testimony" was drawn 
up against the new movements, which was sustained by a majority 
of thirty-eight. The minority called the second convention and 
put forth a cautious and discriminating paper — decided and solemn 
— warning the people against being drawn into Arminianism and 
Antinomianism through fear of the opposite errors. The latter 
paper received the signatures of one hundred and twenty ministers 
in New England. About half of the one hundred and seventy- 
five Congregational ministers in Massachusetts were opposers of the 
revival measures. This was the first marked division of the two 
parties in the New England churches. 

When Whitefield returned in 1744 he encountered a wide-spread 
prejudice, entire Associations declining to receive him to their pul- 
pits. Coleman, of the Brattle Street Church, invited him to assist 
in the administration of the Lord's Supper, contrary to the remon- 
strance of his ministerial brethren. Chauncy and others preached 
against him, and did not hesitate to characterize the revival as an 
unmixed evil. The faculties of Yale and Harvard colleges entered 
the lists against him. Counter statements also appeared. 

The exciting point of this conflict was the question of " a change 
of heart." The old doctrine of the fathers had declined and the 
churches were dead. They were filled with men who had never 
been regenerated, who, according to the new theology, were to be 
regarded as Christians needing instruction ; but, according to the 
revivalists, they were impenitent persons, enemies to God, far from 
righteousness, and must be converted or perish forever. Such 
preaching, as might be expected, provoked resistance, and nowhere 
more than in the churches. The " New Lights," as the revivalists 
were called, were accused of censoriousness and extravagances. 
Edwards went on, however, and attempted to fully revolutionize the 
system which had been introduced by his predecessor, wrote a trea- 
tise upon it, and would not practice it. In a sharp contest which 
finally arose upon it in his parish he was dismissed, in 1750. But 



204 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the friends of the revival generally adopted his theory, and the 
system of Stoddard gradually fell into disuse in those churches 
which did not subsequently become Unitarian. Those who rejected 
the views of Edwards continued to admit men to the communion 
without regeneration if moral in life. 

The remaining steps of the transition were easy and natural. 
Thus were the leading elements of the so-called " Liberal Chris- 
tianity " engendered long before the formal separation took place. 
Such were the local causes in the New England churches which con- 
spired with the latitudinarianism of the English mind to produce 
the great defection which has been so marked in more recent 
times. The change that had been going on before the " Great 
Awakening " was hastened * by it. Calvinism f was fading, and men 
were becoming accustomed to the charge of " Arminianism," % 
andaw T ordof more radical significance — Socinianism — was brought 
into use. 

" Thus," says Mr. William C. Gannett, " the first stage in the rise 
of Unitarianism was completed so far as this, that now Arminianism, 
or anti-Calvinism, was an established fact in Massachusetts. The 
change toward Rationalism had been long and gradual — first crum- 
bling away certain Church rites, then silently affecting doctrine, till 
toward the middle of the century, when it grew yearly into clearer 
recognition. The new name, however, was very vaguely used. . . . 
No split in the church was thought of yet. But from this time 
forward the two parties constantly and consciously diverged and 
watched each other." § 

Extent of the Movement in the Middle of the last Century. 

Having traced the inception and progress of this defection down 
to the middle of the last century, it is desirable to briefly set forth 
its proportions and its character in the period intervening before 
the Revolution. 

A considerable number of distinguished and very excellent min- 
isters who did not favor the movements of the " New Lights " were, 

* In 1750 Edwards said, rife as the dangerous doctrines were before the revival, "Within 
seven years (that is, from its crisis) they have made vastly greater progress than ever before in 
the like space." 

+ Some New Hampshire ministers revised the Catechism by leaving Calvinism out of it. 

% Really Pelagianism. They evidently did not use the word Arminian in its strict historical 
sense. They meant by it a system of doctrine in opposition to Calvinism, without due discrim- 
ination in regard to all the phases of the case. The new departure then going on was, indeed, 
a revolt against Calvinism ; but, more than that, it was also a revolt against the Trinitarian and 
sacrificial theology to which Arminius and his followers closely adhered. 

§ Lecture on the rise of Unitarinism in New England. Index, Feb. 15. 1873. 



PROGRESS TOWARD UNITARIANISM. 205 

nevertheless, still faithful in their adherence to the old Calvinistic 
theology. One * every way qualified to speak upon this matter 
has expressed the opinion that there were in 1750 not less than 
forty-six ministers who either " openly opposed or did not teach 
and advocate the Calvinistic doctrines, and whose orthodoxy was 
either denied or suspected." 

President John Adams.-f writing May 15, 1S15, said, "Sixty 
years ago (1755) my own minister, Rev. Lemuel Bryant, Dr. Jona- 
than Mayhew, of the West Church, Boston ; Rev. Mr. Shute, of 
Hingham ; Rev. John Brown, of Cohassett ; and, perhaps equal to 
all, if not above all, Rev. Dr. Gay, of Hingham, were Unitarians. 
. . . Among the laity how many could I name, lawyers, physicians, 
tradesmen, farmers." 

In 1754 Whitefield was again in Boston, but his advent awak- 
ened no enthusiasm. The spirit of freedom of inquiry so rife in 
England was the burden of the leading minds. Under this broad 
and specious shield doubt found ample shelter, and slyly pushed its 
attacks upon the citadel of faith. Creeds and confessions were 
abhorred and freely denounced in sermons, particularly on ordina- 
tion occasions. Mayhew called the Athanasian creed "a riddle, 
still somewhat enigmatical, notwithstanding all the labors of the 
pious and metaphysical Waterland," and jested on the Canticles. 
A little later, in 1769, Rev. John Lathrop declared to a friend that 
creeds and confessions had been generally laid aside, and that it was 
impossible to get a vote in the Convention for their revival. In 
1756 Emelyns's Inquiry into the Scriptural Account of Jesus Christ 
was republished in Boston at the suggestion, it is said, of Dr. May- 
hew, to which President Burr, of Princeton, replied. In 1768 Rev. 
Samuel Hopkins, D.D.,;J; preached a sermon in the Old South Church, 
Boston, on the Divinity of Christ, which was composed for that 
occasion, as he said, " Under the conviction that the doctrine was 



* Hon. Alclen Bradford, LL.D., biographer of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., was personally 
acquainted with Drs. Gay, Chauncy, Cooper, Shute, Turner, West and other prominent actors 
in this movement. He mentions in this class {Memoir of Mayhew, p. 24), Revs. Nathaniel Apple- 
ton, D.D., of Cambridge ; Ebenezer Gay, D.D., of Hingham; Charles Chauncy, D D., of Bos- 
ton ; William Rand, of Kingston ; Nathaniel Ellis, of Scituate ; Edward Barnard, of Haver- 
hill : Samuel Cooke, of West Cambridge ; Jeremiah Fogg, of Kensington, N. H. ; Andrew 
Elliot, D.D., of Boston; Samuel Webster, D.D., of Salisbury; Lemuel Bryant, of Braintree ; 

Stevens, D.D., of Kittery, Me. ; Tucker, D.D., of Newbury; Timothy Harrington, 

of Lancaster; Jonathan Mayhew, of Boston, and nineteen others. A little later he speaks ol 
twelve others, making forty -six in all. Some of them, however, as in the case of Dr. Appleton, of 
Cambridge, did not finally go over to this party, and have been ranked with the " Orthodox " por- 
tion, although they had been at times somewhat shaken by the prevailing tendencies. 

t Letter to Rev. Dr. Jedediah Morse, of Charlestown, Mass. 

% j*it obio graphical Sketches of Rev. Samuel Hopkins. D.D., p. 95. 
14 



206 CHRISTIAXITY IN THE UXITED STATES. 

much neglected, if not disbelieved, by a number of the ministers in 
Boston." 

A few of the leading minds of this period deserve more extended 
notice : 

Dr. Gay was the pastor of the church in Hingham, a town about 
fifteen miles from Boston, for a period of seventy years (1717-1787). 
He was an intimate friend of Chauncy and Mayhevv. Dr. Brad- 
ford thinks that Dr. Mayhew was indebted to him for some of his 
" liberal and rational views." He was a man of consummate pru- 
dence, especially in expressing his opinions publicly. Hon. Solomon 
Lincoln says. " By some who fully understood the position of Dr. 
Gay. after the middle of the last century, he has been claimed to 
have been the father of modern Unitarianism. This must be con- 
ceded — that his discourses will be searched in vain, after that point 
of time, for any discussions of controversial theology, any advocacy 
of the peculiar doctrines regarded as orthodox, or the expression 
of any opinions at variance with those of his distinguished successor 
in the same pulpit, the Rev. Dr. Henry Ware."" 

Dr. Chauncy was the pastor of the First Church, Boston, sixty 
years (1727— 1787). In him were singularly combined great frank- 
ness, courage and prudence, with a mind remarkably acute and vig- 
orous. Pie was not an orator, but he wrote with transparent clear- 
ness and extraordinary facility, and published more volumes than 
any other Xew England minister of his time, although none of them 
were very extensive or elaborate. He employed vigorous argu- 
ments with exceptional ability, writing against Whitefield and the 
revivalists, and resisting their measures for promoting the spirituality 
of the churches with all his might. He was also a strenuous oppo- 
nent of episcopacy. It has been said. " To him, among all the 
eminent divines of Xew England, belongs the unhappy pre-eminence 
of having been the first to take the spirit of doubt to his bosom/' 
that he " questioned the consciousness of the soul between death 
and the resurrection." and that he " nourished that sarcastic hos- 
tility to the sentiments of past ages, and the determination of ven- 
erable bodies on doctrines which, like a light troop of scouts, pre- 
cede the main assault and explore the danger. Deeply significant 
was his sneer against the ' Homoousianity ' of the Nicene Coun- 
cil." + 

Dr. Mayhew was pastor of the West Church, Boston, from 1747 
to 1766. Younger than Gay and Chauncy, and shorter lived, he ran 

* Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit. The Unitarian Pulpit, p. 7. 

+ Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England, \>. 25. # 



JON A THAN MA YHE W. 207 

a more brilliant career. He was a man of great talents, of exten- 
sive learning, of remarkable frankness and boldness, somewhat 
eccentric, and sometimes rash and impetuous. The most open and 
undisguised of all the clergymen referred to in opposing the pre- 
vailing system of theology, he became the champion of the " lib- 
eral " tendency in his day. He was the third in a line of ministers, 
the Mayhews of Martha's Vineyard, who labored for the conversion 
of the Indians upon that island. His father, Rev. Experience 
Mayhew, A.M., is described as a man of great independence and 
vigor of mind, writing against the extreme Calvinistic tenets in a 
volume entitled Grace Defended, and also conducting a controversy 
with Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, President of Princeton College, New 
Jersey, against necessity. 

Jonathan Mayhew was regarded as unsound in his theological opin- 
ions at the time of his settlement, on which account some of his 
ministerial brethren refused to participate in the services of that 
occasion. Dr. Bradford says, " He early gave his views on most of 
the doctrines then called orthodox, and expressed his opinions with 
unwonted clearness and decision.* He was accustomed to speak 
out his sentiments freely, and did not hesitate to ridicule many 
things which had long been held as sacred by the Church. It was 
to him, doubtless, that Bellamy referred when he said, " Come from 
New Hampshire along to Boston, and see there a celebrated doctor 
of divinity at the head of a large party! He boldly ridicules the 
doctrine of the Trinity, and denies the doctrine of justification by 
faith alone, in the sight of all the country in his Book of Ser- 
mons!' 

He was a man of extensive personal acquaintance, numbering 
among his intimate friends Hons. John Hancock, John Winthrop, 
for forty-one years Professor in Harvard College ; Stephen Sewall, 
Chief Justice of Massachusetts; Samuel Adams, James Otis, James 
Bowdoin, Rev. Oxenbridge Thatcher, Robert Treat Paine, John 
Adams, Samuel Dexter, Rev. Nathaniel Appleton, D.D., of Cam- 
bridge, and many others. Among his correspondents in Great 
Britain were such names as Lardner, Benson, Kippis, Blackburne 
and Hollis. In this wide circle Dr. Mayhew exerted a powerful 
influence, contributing more than any other American clergyman" in 
his lifetime to spread " liberal sentiments." His enthusiastic 
biographer says, " By the influence of his elevated theological 
views a new era commenced in f the Christian Church among the 
descendants of the Puritans. And from his day men have no longer 

* Memoir, p. 25. 



SOS CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

been obliged to discard reason to be religious, either as to their belief 
or practice." * 

Dr. Bradford also sheds some light upon 

The Character of the Movement. 

He says that at this early period " It was not wanton nor extrav- 
agant." although it was strong and decided. It did not boldly assert 
itself, except in opposition to Whitefield, yet it was quietly work- 
ing. The more liberal clergy of that period " bowed as reverently 
as ever before the majesty of divine truth, accepting and advocat- 
ing zealously and ably the moral government of God, his overruling 
providence, and many other cardinal doctrines, while they either 
denied or doubted the Trinity, total depravity, personal election 
and reprobation irrespective of moral character, miraculous and 
instantaneous conversion, the inability of man to become religious 
without special and irresistible grace," etc. 

As yet only " a few had either expressly denied or openly 
opposed these doctrines." " But many refrained from inculcating 
them, without denying man's moral freedom or accountability, or 
endeavoring to show that the trinitarian tenet/as they held it, was 
not inconsistent with the doctrine of the divine unity. These were 
called " Arminians," or " moderate Calvinists," and " Arians," or 
" semi-Arians," as they deviated more or less from the orthodox or 
Calvinistic creed. The doctrine of the Trinity was approached with 
caution and reluctance, for most considered it of difficult interpreta- 
tion, and as involved in mystery which could not be fully explained 
or comprehended, and had, therefore, better not be discussed ; and 
thus they contented themselves with the phraseology of the Script- 
ures on the subject. That of total depravity, and others flowing 
from it or connected with it were more openly opposed." f 

The controversy in regard to the Trinity came on at a later 
period. It was not openly debated until the beginning of the 
.present century. So great was the impulse given to the new theo- 
logical tendencies by the spirit of freedom in inquiry which per- 
vaded the literary circles of England, and also by the bold and able 
leadership of Mayhew, that it has been said that the rupture in 
the New England churches would have occurred thirty or forty 
.years earlier than it did had not the exciting topics of the Revolu- 
tionary period engrossed the attention of the people. 

* Memoir. Preface, p. i. 

\ Memoir of Rev. Jonathan Mayheiv, D.D. By Alden Bradford, LL.D. Boston, C. C. 
'Little & Co., 1838. P. 23. 



J?£S TOR A TlONISM. 209 

Section 3— Inception of Universalism. 

At the same time that the leaven of Unitarianism was silently 
working, another, and, in some respects, very similar movement was 
going on, which was also destined, in due time, to attract attention. 

The origin of Universalism in America has generally been 
traced to Rev. John Murray, who landed in this country in 1770. 
But a careful observation of the field, both in Europe and America, 
will afford evidence, as early as the middle of the last century, of 
the existence of tendencies, entirely independent of any influence 
which Mr. Murray exerted, toward the adoption, in some 
form, of the doctrine of the final salvation of all men. It was a 
revulsion from the old and repulsive dogmas of " High Calvin- 
ism." The writings of Siegvolck, Whitby, Law, and other Euro- 
pean authors abound in traces of that sentiment. In 1741 Dr. 
George De Benneville, a refugee from persecution in Europe, 
appeared in Germantown, Pa., and became extensively and 
favorably known as a skillful physician and a lay preacher. Occa- 
sionally, for many years, he made extensive tours through Pennsyl- 
vania, Maryland, and Virginia, preaching the doctrine of the final 
restoration of all men to holiness and happiness. In 1753 an edi- 
tion of Paul Siegvolck's Everlasting Gospel was published in Ger- 
mantown, in which the doctrine of restorationism was inculcated. 
In this place there was a society of German Baptists, descendants 
from the Anabaptists of Germany, who held those sentiments. 
Rev. Philip Clarke, rector of St. Philip's Church, Charleston, S. C. 
1754-1759, was a believer in the doctrine of universal salvation. 
It was not an uncommon thing for this doctrine to be preached by 
the Virginia clergy about the middle of the last century. Rev. Mr. 
Yancy, of Louisa, published a sermon on the subject, and Rev. Mr. 
Talley, of Gloucester, Va., also inculcated it.* 

In the old churches of New England the same tendency existed. 
Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., of Boston (1747-1766) preached the 
doctrine of the final restoration of all men to holiness and happiness.f 
Rev. Charles Chauncy, D.D., of Boston (1727-1787), wrote a 
book entitled, The Mystery Hid from Ages; or, the Salvation of 
All Men the Grand Thing Aimed at in the Scheme of God, in which 
the doctrine of restorationism was advocated. It was not pub- 
lished until 1784, but it was written more than twenty years before, 
and shows the tendency of religious inquiry in the middle of the 

* Old Families. Ministers, and Churches of Virginia. By Bishop William Meade. Vol. I, p. 183. 
+ See Sermon on " The Goodness of God," published in 1762. 



210 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

century. The delay in the publication of the volume has been 
attributed to the extreme cautiousness of Dr. Chauncy.* 

Rev. Joseph Huntington, D.D., 

of Coventry, Conn. (1763-1794), a clergyman in the Congregational 
Church, is another striking example of this tendency. According 
to Rev. Abiel Abbott, D.D., he was one of the most popular 
preachers of his day, a man of superior talents, a laborious student, 
and at one time a candidate for the presidency of Dartmouth Col- 
lege. During his lifetime he sometimes introduced in public and 
private discourses inquiries in reference to the final salvation of all 
men ; but at his death a manuscript volume, f entitled Calvinism 
Improved, was found among his papers, containing a vigorous 
defense of the doctrine of the salvation of all men in the article of 
death. In the preface the author says that this volume was 
" a small part of a system of divinity which he had been meditating 
for more than twenty years," showing that as early as about 1770, 
his mind had adopted those views. 

Drs. Huntington and Chauncy agreed in recognizing the literal 
resurrection of the body and the future general judgment. Dr. 
Huntington denied all future misery, but Dr. Chauncy held to 
future punishment, in its strict penal form, " for ages of ages," in a 
local hell and in literal fire. The latter wholly revolted from the 
old doctrine of predestination, but the former construed it so as to 
embrace all men among the elect. Dr. Chauncy held to Arian 
views of depravity and atonement, but Dr. Huntington accepted 
the " evangelical " doctrines, except in regard to the salvation of 
all men. 

Three Other Preachers of Universalism 

appeared before the American public about the time of Mr. Mur- 
ray — Revs. Adam Streeter, Caleb Rich, and Thomas Barnes. Mr. 

* Dr. Bradford in his Memoir of 'Mayhew, said : " When Dr. Chauncy had written on the final 
salvation of all men, which he chose not to publish for many years after the work was prepared 
for the press, he showed it to Dr. Gay and a few other particular friends. Dr. Gay inquired if 
Dr. Mayhew had seen it. " No," said Dr. Chauncy ; " he cannot keep a secret. I am not yet 
ready to determine to publish it ; but if he sees it, such is his frankness that all the world will 
soon know it.'' 

t This volume was published in accordance with Mr. Huntington's will, in 1796, in New Lon- 
don, Conn , by Samuel Green (8vo). "It had but a limited circulation, much the greater part 
of the edition being- consigned to the flames by one of his daughters, a lady of rare excellence, 
who loved simple Calvinism better than Calvinism Improved, and whose regard for orthodoxy 
seems to have been an overmatch for her filial reverence." See Sprague's Annals of the American 
Pulpit. Vol. I, p. 601. 

In 1796 Rev. Nathan Strong, D.D., pastor of the Congregational church in Hartford, Conn., 
replied to Dr. Huntingt ri's volume, in a 12-10 book of 408 pages. 



RE V. JOHN MURRA V. 211 

Streeter was an ordained minister of the Baptist denomination, and 
on becoming a Universalist he proclaimed his new opinions very 
freely in various parts of New England. He died in Smithfield, 
R. L, September 22, 1786. Mr. Rich joined the Baptist church 
in Warwick, N. H., in 1771, but soon became a Universalist, and 
preached those doctrines for many years. Mr. Barnes was an early 
convert of Mr. Rich, and subsequently became the founder of 
Universalism in Maine. These three preachers had never seen or 
heard of Rev. John Murray when they adopted these views. 

Such were some of the first outcroppings of a revulsion from 
Calvinism,* which soon became more general. In the Congrega- 
tional churches the revolt was in the direction of Unitarian and 
Universalist ideas ; in the Regular Baptist Church it took two 
directions — toward Universalism and the Free-Will Baptist move- 
ment, the latter denomination having its origin in 1780, in the 
midst of this revulsion. 

In 1770 Mr. Murray landed in this country and immediately 
made the doctrine of the final salvation of all men the special topic 
of his preaching, traveling extensively and organizing those who 
accepted these views. He thus gave to them the form of a denom- 
ination and acquired the title of the founder of Universalism. 

*AU of the first preachers of Universalism were i f Calvinistic antecedents. Murray himself was 
a Calvinistic Methodist, of the school of Whitefield and Lady Hunting-ton, and so was Rev. 
Thomas Jones, his successor, in Gloucester, Mass. Messrs. Streeter, Rich and Elhanan Win- 
chester were Regular Baptists. In later periods, Rev. Hosea Ballou, and his nephew, Hosea 
Ballou, second, D.D., Adin Ballou, Walter Balfour, Sylvanus Cobb, D.D., Abner Kneeland, and 
many others were Baptists, reared under strong Calvinistic influences. 



212 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 



CHAPTER IX. 



MORALS. 



Sec. i. The Drinking Habits. 
" 2. Sabbath Observance. 
" 3. Unchastity, Lotteries. 
" 4. Superstitions. 



Sec. 5. Indentured Servitude. 
" 6. African Slavery. 
" 7. Anti-Slavery. 



WE have noticed the influence of the licentious and debauched 
court of Charles II. among English people at home and 
abroad, and the infusion into the colonial population of new classes 
of immigrants, not actuated, like the first settlers, by high religious 
motives, but chiefly by secular aims, and also paupers and criminals 
from work-houses and jails. The corruption of manners, working 
downward through English society during the reigns of William 
III., Queen Anne and the first two Georges, extended to American 
shores, changing the moral aspects of the people. In the first third 
of the eighteenth century this deterioration was very apparent. 



Section 1.— The Drinking Habits 

in the first century were very moderate. Subsequently they were 
intensified, though they did not reach their greatest virulence until 
the opening of the nineteenth century. West India rum was intro- 
duced in connection with the trade with those islands; but the 
manufacture of rum in New England in 1700, reducing the price, led 
to its more general use. In the period preceding the Edwardian 
revival there was much hard drinking; but darker days followed. 

" It is easy to praise the fathers of New England," says Theodore Parker ; 
"easier to praise them for virtues they did not possess than to discriminate and fairly 
judge those remarkable men. . . . Let me mention a fact or two. It is recorded 
in the probate office that in 1678, at the funeral of Mrs. Mary Norton, widow of 
the celebrated John Norton, one of the ministers of the First Church, in Boston, 
fifty-one gallons and a half of the best Malaga wine were consumed by the mourn- 
ers. In 1685, at the funeral of Rev. Thomas Cobbett, minister of Ipswich, there 
were consumed one barrel of wine and two barrels of cider; and, 'as it was cold,' 



DRUNKENNESS PREVALENT. 213 

there were ' some spice and ginger for the cider.' You may easily judge of the 
drunkenness and riot on occasions less solemn than the funeral of an old beloved 
minister. Towns provided intoxicating drinks at the funeral of their paupers. In 
Salem, in 1728, at the funeral of a pauper, a gallon of wine and another of cider 
are charged as 'incidentals ; ' the next year six gallons of wine on a similar occa- 
sion. In Lynn, in 171 1, the town furnished * half a barrel of cider for the widow 
Despau's funeral.' Affairs had come to such a pass that in 1742 the General Court 
forbade the use of wine and rum at funerals."* 

Among the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who settled in London- 
derry, N. PL, about 1719, drinking habits became quite as bad as in 
other localities. In allusion to their inflexible adherence to their 
creed, and their social irregularities on festive occasions, it was com- 
monly said, "The Derry Presbyterians never gave up 'a pint of 
doctrine ' or a pint of rum." The " Derry Festival," introduced 
and kept up for many years, was "a sort of Protestant carnival," "a 
wild, drinking, horse-racing, frolicking merry-making, at which strong 
drink abounded." Those who good-naturedly wrestled and joked 
in the morning not infrequently closed the day with a fight. Will- 
iam Stack, in describing his ancestors, the first settlers of Amoskeag 
Falls, says ; 

Of the goodly men of old Derryfield, 

It was often said that their only care, 

And their only wish and their only prayer, 

For the present world and the world to come, 

Was a string of eels and a jug of rum. 

Rev. Mr. Wildman, of Southbury, Conn., was accustomed to 
sharp sparring with Rev. Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem. One day Mr. 
Wildman asked Dr. Bellamy what to do to get the people out to 
meeting: " Put a barrel of rum under your pulpit," said Belamy. 
11 I am afraid I should have half of the church of Bethlehem down 
here on Sunday," replied Wildman. An old minister, in a fast day 
sermon in 1775, said : 

Vast numbers, young and old, male and female, are given to intemperance, so 
that it is a common thing to see drunken women as well as drunken men, and I 
fear that many of our youth are training up for rank drunkards. 

The Consistory of Schenectady supplied their dominie liberally 
with wood, the parishioners making "a bee," on the occasion of cut- 
ting it up, which sometimes lasted two or three days. The old 
church records (January 16, 1748) show a charge for " five gallons of 
rum and a half gallon of wine for the Dominie s bee." These charges 

* Speeches, Addresses and Occasional Sermons, by Theodore Parker, pp. 341-397. Boston, 
Horace B. Fuller, publisher. 1871. 



214 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

are repeated year after year. On funeral occasions no woman 
attended the body to the grave, but after the corpse was carried 
out they remained to eat cakes and drink spiced wine. The women 
retired before the men returned, who resumed the feast and regaled 
themselves. Spiced wine, cakes and pies were provided, and wine 
and cakes were sent to the friends of the family. Wealthy citizens, 
in anticipation of a death in the family, were accustomed to procure 
a cask of wine during their lifetime and preserve it for this pur- 
pose. Whole pipes of wine and several hogsheads of beer were 
consumed at single funerals in New York. In Pennsylvania punch 
and cake in large quantities were provided on such occasions. The 
cost of wine for one funeral in Virginia exceeded 4,000 pounds of 
tobacco. These customs extended as far south as the Carolinas, and 
the dissipation was so great that here and there individuals pro- 
tested against it. 

The drinking habits of all classes, ministers included, hung" like a dead-weight 
upon the churches. Ordinations were seasons of festivity in which copious drink- 
ing had a large share, and an ordination ball often ended the occasion. Not very- 
far from the period of the Revolution, several councils were held in one of the 
towns of Massachusetts where the people were trying to be rid of a minister who 
was often the worse for liquor even in the pulpit, and once at least at the com- 
munion table ; but some of the neighboring ministers stood by him, and the people 
had to endure him till his death.* 



Section 2.— Sabbath. Observance. 

In the first century of colonial history the Sabbath laws were 
very stringent, many of which have reached our day and are so 
familiar that it is not necessary to relate them. There were also, 
for a time, many peculiarly strict customs of Sabbath observance in 
most of the colonies. In New England the Sabbath began at sun- 
set on Saturday, but labor usually ceased about three o'clock in the 
afternoon, and the time was generally spent in catechizing and pre- 
paring for the Sabbath. Little food was cooked on the Lord's day 
and no labor but the most necessary was done. A lunch of plain 
bread was the mid-day repast at the church on Sunday. But after 
the long day, two long walks to and from the sanctuary, and 
two long services, a more carefully prepared meal was deemed 
necessary. 

* Centennial Discourse by Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D.D. 1876. Minutes of General Association 
of Massachusetts, 1876, p. 42. 



SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 215 

When the master of a Dutch ship sailed into Boston Harbor, on 
Sunday, and fired four shots, he was fined forty shillings a shot. 
When it was found that none of his crew could speak English the 
penalty was remitted to forty shillings in all. The Indians hardly 
knew what to make of the Sunday laws, and when asked if they 
would refrain from working on the Sabbath in Christian towns they 
answered, "It is very easy for us ; we have not much to do any day, 
and we can well rest on that day." The punishment for violating 
the Sabbath was usually a fine of thirty shillings and to sit one hour 
in the stocks. 

An ancient document written in Danvers, Mass., in 171 3, gives 
an interesting case of Sabbath scruples, which were strangely com- 
mon in those days : 

When ye services at ye house were ended, ye Council and other dignitaries were 
entertained at ye House of Mr. Epes, on the hill near by, and we had a bountiful 
table, with Bear's meat and venison, the last of which was from a fine Buck shot in 
the woods near by. Ye bear was killed in Lynn Woods near Reading. After ye 
blessing was craved by Mr. Garrish, of Wentham, word came that ye Buck was 
shot on ye Lord's day by Pequot, an Indian. Like Ananias of old, ye council, 
therefore, refused to eat of ye venison, but it was afterward agreed that Pequot 
should receive 40 stripes save one for lying and profaning the Lord's day, restore 
Mr. Epes the cost of ye deer; and considering this a just and righteous sentence on 
ye sinful Heathen, and that a blessing had been craved on ye meat, ye council all 
partook ot it but Mr. Shepard, whose conscience was tender on ye point of 
venison. 

Work and recreation were forbidden on Thanksgiving and Fast 
days. Sabbath observance was under strict surveillance, and any 
one had a right to stop a traveler on the Sabbath. After bells 
came into use, the church bell, which on other evenings was rung 
at nine o'clock, was rung on Saturday evenings at eight o'clock, and 
persons out after that hour were liable to be arrested for Sabbath 
desecration. 

The reaction in morals after the great revival under Edwards has 
been mentioned. But before that awakening a strong and general 
downward tendency was very apparent, and the revival only slightly 
and temporarily checked it. Edwards, referring to the previous 
period, said, " The Sabbath was extensively profaned and the decorum 
of the sanctuary not unfrequently disturbed." In the Province of 
Maryland, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the Lord's 
day was generally profaned. In New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia the Sabbath was more seriously disregarded than 
in New England. 



216 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Attendance Upon Public Worship 

was rigidly enforced at first in the middle colonies, as well as in 
New England, the local laws being based upon current English 
statutes. 

The difference between the legislation of Massachusetts and England in this 
respect is illustrated by the statute of 1692, compared with that of the " 1st Eliz.," 
in England. By the first of these a man absenting himself from public worship 
on the Lord's day for a month was liable to a fine, to be imposed by the civil court. 
By that of Elizabeth he was forbidden to absent himself from church, " on pain 
of punishment by the censures of the Church, and also on pain of forfeiting " a 
certain sum of money. One was an injury and dishonor to the Church, whick the 
State punished conjointly with the Church ; the other was a violation of a State 
law, of which the State, by its officers, alone took cognizance. 

Very few were excused from attendance upon church. The 
family went to church " bodily," though one or more remained at 
home — the very aged and infirm, the sick and those caring for them, 
and not unfrequently some younger and active member, to see that 
the premises were protected, that the cattle and other animals did 
not break away nor harm growing crops. The stay-at-homes were 
few. Absentees from the sanctuary were looked after. In some sec- 
tions officers were appointed, each of whom had the inspection of 
ten families, to see that every one went to church. Sometimes two 
officials walked the fields in search of non-worshipers, who, if unable 
to give a satisfactory account of themselves, were reported to the 
magistrates. In the early part of the seventeenth century attend- 
ance upon public worship was so rigidly enforced, that persons stand- 
ing outside of the " meeting-house " during divine service were set 
in the stocks. Inn-keepers were obliged to clear their houses of all 
persons able to go to meeting, excepting strangers in town. All 
absentees without good excuse were fined. During the eighteenth 
century these customs lost much of their rigidity, especially in the 
larger towns and the new settlements. 

In comparing church attendance in these early times with that 
of the present day, as indicating the relative condition of morals 
in the two periods, it should not be overlooked that the attend- 
ance in our days is purely voluntary, and, therefore, a moral 
act ; but in the olden times it was enforced under heavy pen- 
alties, and consequently largely void of moral qualities. As 
late as 1740-1750, persons in Boston were fined for non-attend- 
ance upon public worship. This law continued on the statute- 
book of Massachusetts as late as 1820, and the habit of church 
attendance which had been inwrought in the communities by such 



ATTENDANCE AT CHURCH. 217 

protracted discipline conserved attendance upon worship long after 
the statute ceased to be enforced. It was, probably, not enforced 
after 1775, and very much neglected in large areas after 1750. 

In the year 1776 there were 353* churches of all denominations 
in Massachusetts, in a population of 295,080, or one church for 835 
inhabitants. In 1876 there were 1,884 churches, or one for 876 per- 
sons. But the churches of our day are, as a whole, several times 
larger than those of the former period. As to the apparent emp- 
tiness of the churches in these days, to which there is frequent 
allusion, it is a just query whether, if the audiences of 1776 were 
put into the churches of our day, there would not be as much empty 
space. And yet their churches were, relatively to the population, 
as numerous as ours. Such discrimination is necessary in forming a 
judgment in regard to church attendance in the two periods. 



Section 3.— Unchastity— Lotteries. 

The character of the early settlers and their first descendants in 
respect to chastity has doubtless been greatly overrated. We find 
Jonathan Edwards describing the moral condition of Northamp- 
ton, Mass., near the beginning of his ministry in that place, saying 
that " licentiousness for some years has greatly prevailed among the 
youth." This is believed to have been a fair sample of many New 
England towns ; while the average morality in Maryland, Virginia, 
and some other sections, was even lower, not having so many con- 
serving elements as New England. The clergy of the Virginia Col- 
ony, following the style of many in England, were morally low, and 
the people lower still. Bishop Meade said, " As to the unworthy 
hireling clergy of the colony, there was no ecclesiastical discipline 
to correct or punish their irregularities and vices." In the Province 
of Maryland, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and in 
the eighteenth century also, " all notorious vices were committed, 
so that it had become a Sodom of uncleanliness and a pest-house 
of iniquity." " The clergy were remarkable for their laxity of 
morals and scandalous behavior." In the forty years following the 
establishment of the Episcopal Church, as the State Church, in 
Maryland, in 1692, there was no improvement, but rather a decline, 
as letters to the Bishop of London, quoted by Rev. Dr. Hawks, 
fully show. 

* Congregational, 289 ; Baptist, 38 ; Episcopal, 12 ; Quaker, 10 ; Presbyterian, 4. 



2 18 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The Consociation of Litchfield County, Conn., in its address to 
the churches in 1752, deplored the low state of religion and morals, 
the want of family government, the neglect of family prayer, the 
profanation of the Sabbath, intemperance, licentiousness, rioting, 
wantoning, cheating, extortion, etc., which like a deluge overflowed 
the land. It called upon the churches to stop the abominations 
committed on ordination occasions, in the form of ordination balls, 
" frolicking at ordinations," etc. 

In other respects the morals in the churches were low. " A sen- 
tence," says Dr. I. N. Tarbox, " from the Andover Manual, (Mass.,) 
shows the real condition of the churches in the last century. We 
are told, as part of the history of that Church, that ' the chief causes 
of discipline, for 125 years, were fornication and drunkenness.' 
And the writer adds, ' He who investigates the records of this 
or any other church for the same period will be astonished at the 
prevalence of these vices as compared with the present time.' 
To find such items, however, we must, as a general rule, go to those 
records which yet remain in manuscript." 

The historian of a small town within twenty miles of Boston 
said, " I carefully examined the records of the parish church and 
found numerous instances of discipline on account of maternity too 
soon after matrimony. The usual course of discipline in the 
church was to require such persons to make a confession, 
before again receiving the communion. There were twenty-six 
cases in twelve years in that church." Such offenses were gen- 
erally more common then than now, as might be demonstrated by 
the citation of numerous testimonies. 

The mode of courtship known as "bundling" or "tarrying" 
then prevalent in certain portions of New England, and which deli- 
cacy forbids us to explain, doubtless promoted unchastity. It was 
brought over by some of the early emigrants, and strangely flour- 
ised side by side with Puritan morals through a considerable part 
of the colonial era. Such is the power of traditional custom. 
Rev. Jonathan Edwards boldly assailed it and met formidable 
opposition among his people. Besides the Connecticut valley, it 
prevailed in Pennsylvania among people of English and German 
extract, and in some sea-coast towns. 

Lotteries. 

It is difficult to realize that this form of gambling, now so 
strongly disapproved and so rapidly passing away under the ban 
of Christian sentiment, could have had so general and high recogni- 



LOTTERIES. 219 

tion a century and a half ago in New England. In March, 1744, 
lotteries were officially authorized in Massachusetts ; in 1757 the 
town of Boston instituted a lottery to raise money to pay for 
paving the streets ; in 1763 Faneuil Hall was repaired by the aid 
of a public lottery ; in June, 1771, there was an extensive drawing 
of lottery prizes in the same building; and in 1803 the sign of 
the horn of plenty was adopted as a symbol over the doors of 
houses where lotteries were held. 



Section 4.— Superstitions. 

Superstitions were rife. The witchcraft delusions have passed 
fully into history. They were not, however, peculiar to the Amer- 
ican colonies. Indeed, they only slightly existed here, as compared 
with the older countries across the Atlantic, where tens of thou- 
sands, during the century from 1620- 1 720 were put to death as 
witches. But the affair at Salem, Mass., was a grievous matter and 
the action of the civil powers a gross offense, though they treated the 
cases more leniently than they were treated by the best jurists in the 
Old World. All through the eighteenth century strange supersti- 
tions abounded. What stories have reached us of Captain Kidd's 
hidden treasures along the Atlantic coast, for which numerous 
deluded parties digged ! Mrs. H. B. Stowe's Old-Town Folks gives 
a clear view of some of the superstitions of the last century. Witch- 
hazel and sweet apple rods were supposed by many to have a mar- 
velous virtue; but these were only smaller specimens* of current 
delusions. 

In Boylston, Mass., about thirty persons from that and the adjoin- 
ing towns, on the impulse and authority of dreams, began to dig 
on the lands of Nathaniel Davenport, Esq., continuing their labors 
for several weeks, excavating to the depth of eight or ten feet, and 
forty feet in circumference. The labor was principally performed 

*The following- advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette (Sew Haven), October 1, 1757, 
will show the superstition of that period : 

To be Sold by the Printers Hereof. 

A True and Wonderful Relation of the appearance 

Of Three Angels 

(Clothed in white raiment) to a Young Man in Medford, in New England, at night : — together 

with the substance of the Discourse, delivered by one of the Angels, from the 3d Chapter of 

Colos. and the 4th Verse. 

The Public may depend that the above Narrative is no imposition, but that it is a true account 
as related by the young man himself to numbers of people, many of whom can attest he is a 
person of good character. 



220 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

in moonlight evenings, with a table on the ground, with an open 
Bible and a rusty sword upon it, one man sitting upon the bank, 
with sweet apple or witch-hazel rods in his hands, to inform the 
working men in what particular spot the money was. As it was 
believed the money had the power of locomotion it was uncertain 
whether it would remain stationary for any length of time. This 
money, for what reason is unknown, was supposed by these credu- 
lous and avaricious fortune-hunters to have been placed there by 
pirates, and that some person was murdered and buried there to 
take care of it. To appease the spirit of this person, a dove was 
one day procured and bled over the spot where the money was sup- 
posed to be, and the blood was sprinkled around the excavation. 
Profound silence was believed to be a sine qua non in obtaining the 
treasure. One man while at work alone in the evening struck the 
point of his bar, as he reported, under the bail of the kettle which 
contained the money, and heard very distinctly the sound of the 
specie, but unfortunately at that moment he heard the sound of 
musketry, looked up, and, in his excited imagination, saw on the 
brow of the hill an army firing upon him. The bail of the kettle 
took this opportunity to slip off the point of the bar and could be 
found no more. The writer* of this sketch said he recollected, 
when a youth, going to see the money-diggers operate. 



Section #.— Indentured Servitude. 

Human serfdom antedates reliable history. A system of villein- 
age of immemorial duration prevailed all over Europe at the time 
America was first settled. " The first Virginia tenants were little 
better than villein ; they were bound to remain seven years on the 
land, and to pay one half of the whole produce for rent." But this 
rigid system did not long continue. Under such severe conditions 
many emigrated from Virginia to Maryland, and from the New 
York Colony to New Jersey, to escape the exactions of the great 
proprietors, who held their thousands of acres. 

In the earliest traces of the tribes occupying the British Isles we 
find slaves or serfs. Under the beneficent influence of the princi- 
ples of the Magna Charta, the preaching of Wicliffe and the Lol- 
lards, and the later stages of the Reformation, English serfdom was 
greatly modified ; but some relics of this form of ancient villeinage, 



* Mathew Davenport's Sketch of the History of the Town of Boylston, Mass. 



INDENTURED SERVITUDE. 221 

which involved bondage to the soil, survived the Restoration. Long 
terms of service, with wages arbitrarily fixed by authority, took the 
place of the more ancient serfdom, and any resistance, shrinking or 
evasion was rigorously repressed by law. Many servants bound 
for long terms, and treated as property, were brought to the 
English colonies in America. Poor children, vagrants, unfortu- 
nates, criminals, debtors, etc., became stock in the colonial market 
and suffered monstrous abuses. A Dutch writer called the English 
11 a villanous people, who would sell their own fathers for servants." 
The victims of privateers were sold into bondage in the colonies. 
English laborers, despairing of bettering their condition at home, 
men in domestic troubles, runaway husbands, runaway wives, run- 
away children, prison-breakers, etc., bound themselves to serve a 
term of years and took their chances, hoping to find a better estate 
in the New World. Little lads were ' inveigled and by lewd sub- 
tleties ' enticed aboard vessels on the Thames and carried to the 
colonies. The furnishing of servants to the colonies became a specu- 
lation. The capturing and selling persons into servitude was a 
common traffic in English cities. 

In the most paradoxical scene in judicial history the worst of judges, Geor;e 
Jeffreys, himself reeking with corruptions and cruelties incredible, is found arraign- 
ing the aldermen of Bristol, England, for their share in this trade. Ordering the 
scarlet-robed mayor from his seat on the bench to a place in the prisoner's dock, he 
cried with brutal exultation, ''See how the kidnapping rogue looks! " He ranted 
at the aldermen in words too vile to be reprinted. Yet the selling of condemned 
men and the condemning of men that they might be sold were practiced openly in 
the court of James IT. at this very time. The ladies of the queen's bed-chamber, 
and the queen herself, eagerly snatched at the profits from the sale of the rebels 
of Monmouth's Rebellion, whom Jeffreys had just then condemned. Even William 
Penn begged for twenty of them for the Philadelphia market. 

To Philadelphia, in the later periods, were brought great numbers of Germans 
inveigled by artful agents to sell themselves through brokers at the Dutch ports. 
. . . Many hardy Germans, having money enough to pay their fare, preferred to 
sell themselves for a term of years, in order to learn the language and the ways of 
the country. Others paid half the fare and were sold for the remainder ; and some 
paid the passage of the family by selling one or two of their surplus children into 
bondage during minority. One reads in the Philadelphia papers, in 1729, of 
"choice maid-servants fit for town and country," to be had of a certain wine- 
cooper, and of " a parcel of likely servant-men and boys for sale " about the same 
time. The development of the back country produced the "soul-drivers," as they 
were contemptously called — men who peddled servants in droves of fifty or more. 
. . . The sending over the dissolute and criminal had begun in the reign of James 
I. The severity of English penal laws, by which sometimes " twenty were hanged 
up at a clap," occasioned evasions of all kind3. . . . The need for men in the 
colonies offered a new opportunity for mercifu' evasions of the death penalty in 



222 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STA TES. 

cases of minor felony. It became common to pardon thieves on condition of their 
accepting a seven-years' term of service in the colonies. . . . Franklin proposed 
to send a present of rattlesnakes for the king's garden as a fit return for the con- 
victs out of English jails. The number of bond servants even in New England 
seems to have been large, and the supply was much greater in the wheat and to- 
bacco countries. Every kind of business in Pennsylvania depended upon the labor 
of indentured servants. In 1670 Virginia had 6,000 English servants, while there 
were yet but 2,000 negroes. 

The treatment of servants was as various as the character of their masters. 
... It was an age of flogging ; criminals, soldiers, sailors, pupils, children, and 
now and then even wives, were thought the better for scourging. One ought 
hardly to be surprised, therefore, at the numerous and cruel whippings of English 
servants, women as well as men, who were scourged naked, with hickory rods, and 
washed with brine, the punishment continuing sometimes at intervals for hours or 
being renewed day after day. There were also in use, by masters and overseers, 
thumb-screws, sweatings, and other such devil's devices. The food allowed was 
sometimes a scant diet of Indian meal. The sick servant was neglected lest the 
doctor's charge should exceed the value of his remaining service ; and one thrifty 
master required a servant, sick of a mortal disease, to dig his own grave in ad- 
vance in order to save the other men's time. In 1705 Virginia prohibited the 
secret burial of servants and the whipping of " Christian white servants " naked 
without the consent, of a justice; and in 1715 Maryland made several protective 
provisions, one forbidding the giving of more than ten lashes for one offense, unless 
with approval of a magistrate. In New England, where servants were often re- 
garded as Christian brethren, and where settlements were more dense, care could 
be and was exercised to prevent injustice and cruelty ; but there were instances of 
brutal hardships notwithstanding, and even of a servant's dying from a master's 
cruelty.* 

The servile classes were a source of moral corruption, especially 
to the young. Many, however, were of excellent character and 
rose to good positions. Some bond-maids were married to those 
who purchased them. Through industry and frugality some serv- 
ants acquired wealth and founded families that rose to respecta- 
bility and honor ; but others were the basis of criminal and pauper 
classes of later years. 



Section #.— African Slavery. 

But a more radical form of personal bondage — human chattel- 
ship — was introduced at the very beginning of the colonial era. 
As early as about 1450, thousands of African negroes were annually 
brought into Europe, and as early as 1553 we find them in 
England. The Spaniards employed them in their colonies to work 
the mines. The English colonists in America followed, and four- 



* Edward Eggleston, in The Century, Oct., 1884, pp. 854-856. 



NEGRO SLAVERY IN NEW ENGLAND. 223 

teen u negroes " were introduced into the Jamestown Colony, in 
1619, by a Dutch frigate. Others were soon brought from the 
West Indies, and also many directly from Africa. " The Royal 
African Company " in England promoted the African slave traffic, 
and publicly advocated the business before Charles II., in 1663, as 
necessary to the development of the Anglo-American " planta- 
tions." All the American colonies shared in this form of servitude. 
In 1735 the Lords Commissioners of Trade said that without the 
advantage of slave labor the colonies " could not possibly subsist." 
In 1646 the General Court of Massachusetts, whose fundamental 
law prohibited villeinage and other feudal servitudes, undertook to 
send back to Africa negroes who had been kidnapped by a slaver, 
so flagrant in their eyes seemed the offense of " man-stealing." 
Nevertheless the Puritan conscience did not hesitate to sell Indians 
captured in war into chattel slavery, or to buy slaves who came 
into bondage otherwise than by stealing. Thousands of negro 
slaves were sold into New England. Boston merchants engaged 
in the Guinea trade, but Newport R. I., was the great center of this 
traffic. In 1700 the "free colored" and slaves in all the colonies 
were estimated at 32,000; in 1750, 220,000; in 1775, 500,000; or 
10 per cent., 16 per cent, and 19 per cent., respectively, of the whole 
population. 

In Massachusetts a few negro slaves were owned prior to 1639, 
but the African slave trade was never prosecuted by the inhabitants 
of this colony to any extent, and a degree of infamy attached to 
the character of those engaged in it. As early as 1700 there were 
few African slaves in the whole province. The official report of 
the governor to the Board of Trade states the whole number to be 
550, of which all but 150 were in Boston. In 1720 the official 
returns show 2,000 in the whole province; in 1765 the number 
was 5,779, which was never exceeded. Slaves were imported into 
Connecticut direct from Africa during the middle of the last cent- 
ury. The following advertisements taken from the Connecticut 
Gazette (New Haven) October I, 1757, will tell the story of the 
African slave trade in Connecticut at that time : 

To be Sold, several likely Negro Boys and Girls : arrived from Coast of Africa. 

Samuel Willis, at Middletown. 

A Likely Negro Wench and Child to be sold : — Inquire of the Printer. 

To BE Sold by the subscriber, of Branford, a likely Negro Wench, 18 years of 
age, is acquainted with all sorts of House work ; is sold for no fault. 



224 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Fresh from Africa, they were received and treated as untamed 
barbarians. Some, whose backs had been long " bent to the burden 
of their inheritance/' were patient and submissive ; others, unaccus- 
tomed to authority and warfare, captured in recent wars, were 
defiant, scorning obedience and despising toil. Savage dances 
constituted their amusement and strange mummeries their funeral 
ceremonies. Their fetich superstitions and sorceries linked them, 
in the alarmed imaginations of their masters, with evil spirits. 
The Salem witchcrafts grew out of the juggleries of African serv- 
ants domesticated in the households. Severe treatment and extra- 
ordinary penalties were inflicted under a legislation which in those 
times was full of harshness even toward white people. Death was 
a frequent penalty for offenses of slight criminality. Thirty lashes, 
and even more, cutting off an ear, ham-stringing, branding in the 
face, slitting the nose, and even worse mutilations were inflicted 
upon these children of the Dark Continent. 

Driven to desperation, negro insurrections and incendiary fires 
occurred. In the period from 1 730-1 740 there was general alarm 
in some sections, and many slaves were tortured and put to death. 
Few women were imported from Africa in the earlier period, and 
the men lived together in gangs, in brutal vice, with none of the 
ameliorations of family life. Some time elapsed before the slave 
women came to bear a fitting proportion to the slave men. Even 
then for a long time marriage and family life were only faint sem- 
blances. Gradually the negro became domesticated, more gentle 
and tractable, and the relations between the races more kindly. 

Efforts for the Improvement of the Slaves. 

Some efforts were made to convert the slaves to Christianity. 
James II. had his attention called to the pagan condition of the 
negroes, and resolved, in 1685, that all slaves on the English plan- 
tations should be christened ; but the purpose was never executed. 
William Penn, in 1700, had "a concern for the souls of the blacks." 
Elias Neau, a catechist for the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, 1704 to 1 718, labored among the negroes in New York 
city. About 1728 a widely extended but feeble movement, under 
the direction of the Bishop of London, for the Christian instruc- 
tion of the slaves, was attempted, in which the clergy and ladies of 
South Carolina were most successful. At the same time there was 
in Boston a negro school, and ministers preached to them special 
sermons. In 1743 a school for negroes was founded in Charleston, 



ANTISLAVERY PROTESTS. 225 

S. C. In Maryland they were sometimes taught with white chil- 
dren in the parish schools. Under the Whitefieldian revivals 
greater attention was given to the blacks. Rev. Samuel Davies, 
subsequently President of Princeton College, while pastor in Vir- 
ginia, in 1756, received forty or fifty to the communion and gave 
them Sabbath instruction. Gradually humane restrictions were 
imposed by legislation upon the master. 



Section 7.— Antislavery. 

It was with the common consent, and in accordance with the 
common practice, of Christian nations that African slavery was 
introduced and became domesticated in America. A half century 
passed in some of the colonies before any scruples in regard to it 
appeared. The negroes were " heathen," " infidels," and instruc- 
tion in the Christian religion was resisted by planters lest baptism 
should emancipate them. In process of time some colonies found 
themselves in danger of being overrun by the blacks, liable to insur- 
rection and other eviis. They, therefore, sought to check the 
importation of negroes. South Carolina placed a duty upon slaves. 
Bristol merchants protested against such laws. The crown sustained 
the complainants, and the royal governors were told that the col- 
onists must not "discourage a traffic so beneficial to the nation." 

In Massachusetts negro slavery came into existence without legis- 
lative action. As early as 1641 the General Court adopted this order ; 
" It is ordered by this court and the authority thereof that there 
shall never be any bond slavery, villeinage or captivity among us, 
unless it be lawful captives taken in just wars, as willingly sell them- 
selves or are sold to us." Subsequently the colonial legislature, 
finding the evil had gained a foothold, recognized and undertook to 
regulate it. 

Rev. John Eliot, the Quakers, etc., Protest. 

In 1675 Rev. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, memorial- 
ized the governor and council of Massachusetts against selling 
captured Indians into slavery, because " the selling of souls is dan- 
gerous merchandise." He also, " with a bleeding and burning pas- 
sion," says Cotton Mather, remonstrated against " the abject condi- 
tion of the enslaved Africans." As early as 1688 a body of Quakers 
in Germantown, Pa., presented to their Yearly Meeting a protest 
against " buying, selling and holding men in slavery ; " and five 



2^6 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

years later Mr. George Keith, also a Pennsylvania Quaker, denounced 
slavery as " contrary to the religion of Christ, the rights of man," 
etc. ; and, three years later still, the Yearly Meeting took formal 
action against the introduction of slaves. In the year 1700 Samuel 
Sewall, Esq., subsequently Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
Massachusetts, published a tract entitled, The Selling of Joseph, in 
which he characterized with singular boldness the system of slavery 
as an outrage, and enunciated " the primal truth of human equality 
and obligation." In the year 1700 the public mind was agitated in 
relation to slavery, and the next year the town of Boston instructed 
its representatives " to promote the encouraging and the bringing 
of white servants, and to put a period to negroes being slaves." 
In 1716 the Quakers in Dartmouth, Mass., memorialized the Rhode 
Island Quarterly Meeting on the evil of slavery, and the Nantucket 
Society of Friends declared it to be repugnant to the truth to pur- 
chase and hold slaves. In 1729 the same society sent a serious 
address on the subject of slavery to the Philadelphia Yearly Meet- 
ing. In the same year William Burling, in the Yearly Meeting on 
Long Island, bore faithful testimony against slavery, and Elihu 
Coleman and Ralph Standifred published pamphlets condemning 
the institution of slavery as " iniquitous and anti-Christian." Eight 
years later Benjamin Lay, another Quaker, pleaded the cause of 
the bondmen in a volume published in Philadelphia. 

Rev. John Wesley and Others Protest. 

In 1736 Rev. John Wesley, during his residence in Georgia, pro- 
tested against slavery ; and in 1739 Rev. George Whitefield addressed 
a letter to the Southern colonies, denouncing the system and its bar- 
barities. In the years 1755, '56, '57, a correspondence on the sub- 
ject of slavery was carried on between Rev. Samuel Davies, in Vir- 
ginia, and Rev. John Wesley, the latter donating books for the ben- 
efit of the colored people in Mr. Davies's parish. From 1746 to 1767 
Mr. John Woolman, a distinguished Friend in New Jersey, trav- 
eled extensively through the Middle and Southern colonies, preach- 
ing against the practice of holding men in bondage. 

In 1767 an attempt was made in the Massachusetts Legislature 
to abolish the slave trade, by introducing a bill u to prevent the 
unnatural and unwarrantable custom of enslaving mankind and the 
importation of slaves into the province." Owing to some disagree- 
ment between the two branches of the legislature, and the absolute 
certainty of a veto from the loyal governor, the measure was not 



AX TI SLAVERY LEGISLATION DESIRED. 227 

passed. The bill finally passed both houses in January, 1774, but 
Governor Hutchinson refused his assent, his " instructions," he said, 
" forbidding." His successor, Governor Gage, refused for the same 
reason. The blacks had better success in the judicial courts. Slaves 
brought action against their masters for detaining them in bondage. 
Between 1770 and the Revolution several of these suits were 
brought, and the juries invariably gave their verdict in favor of 
liberty. 

In the latter part of this period Anthony Benezet, of Huguenot 
parentage, a man of practical piety, appeared in the field toiling 
for the oppressed. 

During the ten years preceding the Revolution a desire for 
emancipation and the extinction of the slave trade became very 
general, and found frequent utterance in pulpits and pamphlets. 
Nor were these efforts without apparent fruit. Many towns passed 
resolutions praying the colonial legislatures to take action at once 
in the interest of humanity ; and many slave masters, who subse- 
quently aided in inaugurating the Revolution and fighting its bat- 
tles, became hostile to the slave trade, and even to the existence of 
slavery itself. The general agitation of questions relating to the 
rights of man, and particularly the colonial rights, aided this 
movement, and made the sinfulness and wrong of slavery more 
apparent. 

Benezet, Rush, Hopkins, etc. 

But this great work was not advanced chiefly by the efforts of 
statesmen and philanthropists. The prime impulse and support 
came from Christian laymen and divines, who furnished its pabulum 
and inspiration. In the six years from 1770 to 1776 the antislavery 
efforts of several Christian gentlemen attracted particular attention. 
In Pennsylvania that sterling Christian nobleman, Anthony Benezet, 
was still in the midst of his indefatigable labors — " few men," accord- 
ing to Dr. Benjamin Rush, " ever lived a more disinterested life ;" 
the supreme objects of his enthusiastic philanthropy were the aboli- 
tion of the slave trade and the emancipation and instruction of the 
negroes. He conducted evening schools in Philadelphia for their 
benefit, and wrote, published and distributed throughout the col- 
onies, at his own expense, tracts against slavery. In 1771 he pub- 
lished his Historical Account of Guinea, and an Inquiry into the 
Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, which enlightened and quick- 
ened the youthful mind of Hon. Thomas Clarkson, the great English 
antislavery reformer, and imparted the impulse to his great life-work. 



228 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In 1773 another eminent Philadelphian, Dr. Benjamin Rush, 
conspicuous as a Christian, a physician, a philanthropist and a states- 
man, in whose home Asbury and other early Wesleyan evangelists 
often received hospitality, published an address on the injustice and 
inhumanity of slavery. The following year, under his advocacy, 
the First Continental Congress determined'that the United Colonies 
should " neither import nor purchase any slaves, and would wholly 
discontinue the slave trade." Soon after the North Carolina, Vir- 
ginia and Georgia conventions pledged their " utmost endeavors 
for the manumission of the slaves in their colonies." April 6, 1776, 
Congress resolved, without opposition, that " no slaves be imported 
into the thirteen United Colonies." All these movements are largely 
credited to Dr. Rush. 

One of the most decided and resolute champions of abolition 
in this period was Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., of Newport, R. I., 
famous for the phase of theology which bore his name. A frequent 
witness of the landing of slaves from Africa, near his church and 
home, he became deeply stirred with the abominations of the sys- 
tem. As early as 1770 he boldly attacked the infamous trade in his 
own congregation (deeply involved in the guilt of slave trading and 
slave holding), sharply rebuked the sin, and pleaded the cause of its 
victims. Through his efforts in 1774 the further importation of 
negroes was prohibited in Rhode Island. In 1776 he published a 
famous pamphlet against slavery — the ablest document that had 
then appeared on the subject — dedicated to the Continental Con- 
gress, " urging the duty and interest of the American States to 
emancipate all the African slaves." 

At their Yearly Meeting in Philadelphia, in 1774, the Friends 
enacted regulations against slavery more stringent than any that 
had preceded, and in 1776 they resolved that " owners of slaves who 
refused to enact proper instruments for giving them their freedom 
shall be disowned." In 1774 Rev. John Wesley's celebrated tract, 
Thoughts on Slavery, subsequently sown broadcast throughout 
England, Scotland and Ireland during the great English emancipa- 
tion movement, was published and circulated among his societies in 
America. His first American itinerants were active disseminators 
of his antislavery views, suffering persecution in some quarters on 
account of them. 

The Revolution, with its exciting events, was at hand. In 
another place consideration of the antislavery movement will be 
resumed. 



EDUCATIONAL SURVEY. 229 



CHAPTER X. 



EDUCATION UNDER PROTESTANTISM. 



Sec. I. The Common School System. Sec. 3. Education of the Ministry. 

" 2. The Colleges. 

THE schools ofjudeaand Egypt were ecclesiastical, conven- 
ience and gratitude confirming the monopoly of the clergy. 
The schools of the Nile gave character and direction to those of 
Greece and Rome. Education became secular only in countries 
where the priesthood did not exist as a separate body. At Rome 
children were trained for the duties of life in the forum and the 
senate house. The literary education of the first Christians was 
obtained in pagan schools, which flourished down to the fourth cent- 
ury, in Southern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. The 
first attempt to provide a special education for Christians was made 
at Alexandria, under Clement and Origen. The education of the 
Middle Ages was either that of the cloister or the castle, the one 
aiming: to form a monk and the other a knight. Those illustrious 
monasteries, Monte Cassino, Fulda and Tours, kept the torch of 
learning ablaze during the Dark Ages, and should not be ungrate- 
fully forgotten, though the character and value of the teachings 
they imparted should not be exaggerated. Both of these forms 
of education disappeared under the brighter illuminations of the 
Renaissance and the Reformation. 

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed the rise of uni- 
versities and academies almost all over Europe. For one hundred 
years no part of Europe shone with brighter luster than the North- 
ern Netherlands. But even in this advanced era education was not 
dissociated from ecclesiastical influence. The name of Erasmus 
best represents the education of the Renaissance, and Luther and 
Melanchthon that of the Reformation. Luther introduced the 
school-master to the cottage, and laid the foundations of the system 
which is the chief honor and strength of modern Germany. 
Melanchthon, with his numerous editions of school-books and 



230 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

practical labors in education, earned the title of Preceptor Ger- 
manics. The purification and widening of education kept pace 
with the purification of religion. It would not be difficult to trace 
a picture of the education which the Reformation furnished to the 
middle classes of Europe, if the limits of this brief preliminary 
sketch allowed it. Suffice it to say that the Protestant schools 
became the best in Europe and the monkish institutions were left to 
decay, until the Jesuits arose and to some extent redeemed them 
for a season ; but the Jesuits were liable to the charge of taking 
too rigid possession of the pupils in body and soul. The great 
universities of England and Scotland, in which the founders of the 
Anglo-American colonies received their education, had their origin 
and growth in close relations with the Christian Church. 

Thus it appears that, in both ancient and modern times, educa- 
tion has been almost wholly an outgrowth from ecclesiastical life. 
Pre-eminently has this been true since the Christian era was inau- 
gurated. The educational beginnings and growth in the American 
colonies, we shall soon see, conspicuously illustrate this rule. 



Section 1.— The Common School System. 

It has already been noticed that the Protestant colonists in 
America were actuated primarily by religious aims, and that the first 
companies of settlers represented church organizations. 

Southern Colonies. 

Almost at the beginning of the settlement at Jamestown the 
Bishop of London raised £1,000 toward a college, and it was resolved 
that " each town, borough, and hundred, ought to procure by just 
means a certain number of children (natives) to be brought up; 
that the most towardly of these should be fitted for college." Ten 
thousand acres of land were laid off for the " University of Hen- 
rico," for the education of the English as well as the Indians. The 
minister of Henrico, Rev. Mr. Bargrave, gave his library. Prepar- 
atory to the college, an institution was about to be established at 
St. Charles City ; but the whole project received its death-blow 
from the terrible Indian massacre in March, 1622. Long and dis- 
astrous Indian wars followed, and the project of founding a college 
was deferred until the establishment of William and Mary Col- 
lege, in, 1692. We find no traces of common schools in the colony. 



FREE SCHOOLS IX THE COLONIES. 231 

In the South, the sons of the great planters were liberally edu- 
cated and polished in manners, while the scattered common people 
had no schools and were very rude and ignorant ; but the masses 
in New England, with few exceptions, had some rough schooling, 
besides the advantages for intellectual culture afforded by the 
meeting-house and the debates of the town meeting. Such advan- 
tages were not appreciated in Virginia. One of the governors of 
Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, in 1670, replying to inquiries 
addressed to him by the Lords of Plantations, said, " I thank God 
there are no schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have 
them these hundred years ; for learning has brought disobedience 
and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged 
them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from 
both ! " * 

In Maryland the Legislature made provisions for high schools in 
all the counties as early as 1723, and lands and money were 
appropriated in their aid. A poll tax for the aid of education was 
laid on negroes and Irish Catholic servants coming into the prov- 
ince. 

In the Carolinas no efficient system of education was provided 
for a long time" and meager results were therefore reached. The 
constitution of North Carolina in 1776 made it the duty of the 
Legislature " to establish schools for the convenient instruction of 
youth," and " one or more universities ; " but no adequate pecun- 
iary provision for the latter was furnished. South Carolina was some- 
what more alive to this work, and as early as 1700 the Legislature 
provided for a free school at Charleston, and gave aid to the country 
schools. It is said that, during the first three fourths of the 
eighteenth century, a larger number of students from South Caro- 
lina than from any other colony went to Europe for a university 
education. In 1769 a bill for founding a college was introduced 
into the Legislature, but it failed. The Constitution of Georgia 
adopted in 1777 provided that every county should "establish and 
keep a school at the public expense.'' The first school in Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1683, was private — tuition, eight shillings per annum. 

New York. 

Those three Protestant peoples, the Dutch, the Huguenots, 
and the Puritans, all brought the Church, the Bible and the school- 
master with them. In 1626 two school-masters arrived on Manhat- 

* Hening's Laws of Virginia. Appendix. 



232 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

tan Island to instruct the young, to comfort the sick, to read 
sermons on Sunday, and to teach the Heidelberg Catechism. The 
name of Adam Roelansen figures prominently as a pedagogue in 
the early history of that colony ; but the progress of education was 
slow, there being in 1656 only three schools in the whole province. 
In 1659 a Latin school was started which was soon resorted to by 
students as far south as Delaware and Virginia. After the province 
fell into the hands of the English, in 1664, a better impulse was 
given to education. In 1670 we find schools at Albany, and family 
schools sprang up elsewhere without any system of law. 

New England. 

Students of the genesis of the New England States are impressed 
with the intelligence, mental grasp and wise foresight of the founders 
of these colonies. They loved the State, the Church and the school, 
and by organized voluntary action in individual towns a school 
system was generated which was subsequently incorporated into 
law. The leading founders of the New England colonies were well 
educated men, who believed and asserted " that the good education 
of children is of singular behoof and benefit in any Common- 
wealth." 

In the year 1636 there w r ere living in Massachusetts between 
three thousand and four thousand emigrants, domiciled in log huts 
and wretched hovels often little better than Indian wigwams. Even 
their first house of worship in Boston was built with a thatched 
roof and mud walls. But no sooner had they built their rude 
dwellings and simple temples for divine worship than they began 
to instruct their children, first around their own firesides, but very 
soon in public schools, under a system in which the families of the 
poor and unlearned, as well as those of better circumstances, equally 
shared. 

The Plymouth Colony having a smaller population, the first 
schools were feeble, and came more slowly into a system. As early 
as 1623 the children of Plymouth were " catechised and learned to 
read," though they had " no common school or means to maintain 
one " till some years later. The Massachusetts Colony led the 
way. A Boston record of April 13, 1635, says: 

" It was generally agreed upon that our brother, Philemon Pormont, shall be 
entreated to become a school-master for ye teaching and nourishing of children 
with us." * 

* Snow's History of Boston, p. 348. 



BOSTOX LATIN SCHOOL. 233 

In August, 1636, Daniel Maude was chosen to the office of " free 
school-master," and a subscription was made k ' toward the mainte- 
nance of a free school-master, Mr. Daniel Maude being now chosen 
thereunto." Forty pounds were raised, a sum then equal to the sal- 
ary " of a Reverend Pastor." In 1641, Deer Island was set apart 
and rented " for the maintenance of a Free Schoole for the Tovvne." 
This island was thus leased for thirty-one years, after which Long 
Island and Spectacle Island were also leased for the same purpose. 
Thus was established, first by voluntary subscriptions, and after- 
ward by the action of the town, the first public school in Boston, 
and probably in New England, which abides to this day under the 
title of the " Public Latin School of Boston." This school was 
the only place of instruction in Boston for forty-seven years. In 
1682 two other schools were established, for instruction principally 
in writing and arithmetic. During this period the only reading- 
book used was the Bible. 

Next came the formation of a department since called " Gram- 
mar Schools." In 1686, £200 were expended for three public 
schools. The earliest record of a public school in Charlestown, 
Mass., is June 3, 1636; in Salem, 1637; in Beverly, 1656; in 
Roxbury, 1645; in Dorchester, 1639; in Watertown, 1649. In 
Salem, in 1641, when a subscription was raised for school expenses, 
it was ordered : 

" If any poor bodie hath children or a childe to be put to schoole, and is not able 
to pay for their schooling, that the town shall pay it Inj a rate." 

This is the seed from which sprang the public free schools of 
Massachusetts and America. 

In the records of the New Haven Colony, at a session of the 
General Court in 1641, it was ordered that 

" A free school be set up in this town, and our pastor, together with the magis- 
trates, shall consider what yearly allowance shall be given to it out of the com- 
mon stock of the town, and also what rule or laws are meet to be observed in 
and about the same." 

In 1642 the first school was established in Hartford, and an 
appropriation of £30 was settled upon it. Parents able to pay 
were required to pay " twenty shillings the year ; " others had their 
children instructed at the town's charge. 

In subsequent legislation the pastors are often referred to as 
superintending the school. In May, 1714, the General Court recom- 
mended the general association of the churches to inquire into the 



234 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

state of religion and education, in accordance with which an act 
was passed designed to secure the due execution of the law for the 
education of children. After the establishment of the parish socie- 
ties within the limits of incorporated towns the common schools 
were under the supervision of officers appointed by school socie- 
ties coterminous with the parishes.* The minister was almost 
always one of these officers. As early as 1701, the year of the found- 
ing of Yale College, the General Court established " a grammar 
school, in the four chief counties, to fit pupils for college," and also 
granted an annual appropriation for their benefit. 

The author of New England's First Fruits^ after giving an 
account of Harvard College and its " appointment to be at Cam- 
bridge (a place very pleasant and accommodate)," says, " And by 
the side of the colledge a faire grammar schoole for the training up 
of young schollars and fitting of them for academical learning," etc. 
In this school, besides English scholars, several Indians were fitted 
for college. This was the origin of the present Cambridge High 
School. By the will of Governor Edward Hopkins (d. 1657) £500 
was given to the college and school at Cambridge, in order k ' To 
give some encouragement to those foreign plantations for the breed- 
ing up of hopeful youths in a way of learning, both at the grammar 
school and college, for the service of the country in future timesT 
The original agreement at the founding of the school in Roxbury 
shows the convictions under which the work of education was under- 
taken. It was " in consideration of a relligeous care of posteritie," 
and " how necessarie the education of theire children in literature 
will be to fitt them for public service, both in churche and common- 
wealth, in succeeding ages." They therefore agreed " to erect a 
free schoole." May 30, 1639, the town of Dorchester, by vote, 
imposed a rent of .£20 a year upon Thompson's Island, to be paid 
u by every person who hath proprietie in said island," " towards the 
mayntenance of a schoole in Dorchester," and "to such a school- 
master as shall undertake to teach English, Latine and other tongues, 
and also writing, the said school-master to be chosen from tyme to 
tyme by the freemen ; and it is left to the discretion of the elders 
and the ' seven men' for the time being, whether maydes% shall be 

* David N. Camp in Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut \ p. 249, etc. 

t Published in London, in 1643. 

+ " It is a curious fact in the history of our schools that not until 1789 were girls admitted, and 
then only on account of a peculiar circumstance, which also shows us the primitive character of 
the times. From the middle of April to the middle of October so large a number of boys were 
engaged in agricultural or industrial labor that the schools became greatly deserted ; and to occupy 
in some way this incidental vacancy girls were allowed during the interval to attend the schools. 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 235 

taught witJi the boycs or not." The town of Dorchester is claimed 
by those who have closely investigated the matter to have been 
two years ahead of similar action in Boston, which is "the first pub- 
lic provision in the world for a free school supported by a direct 
taxation on the inhabitants of the town." 

The Common School System Begun. 

Inasmuch as we have here, in the action of the people of Dor- 
chester, the beginning of the common school system which has 
characterized New England, and has spread throughout so vast an 
area beyond her borders, it will be a matter of interest and profit 
to reproduce in this place some of " the rules and orders " adopted 
March 14, 1645, for the regulation of these schools. They com- 
prise seven articles. Article first provided for the election of the 
44 school committee ; " the second gave the power to collect and raise 
money ; the third authorized and directed them in employing 
teachers ; the fourth instructed them to pay the teachers ; the fifth 
required them to keep the school-house in repair and instructed 
them how to provide for such expenses ; the sixth required them "to 
take care that every yeare, at or before the end of the 9th month, there 
bee brought to the school-howse 12 sufficient cart or wayne loads 
for fewell," the cost to be borne by the scholars. The seventh 
article pertains to the mode of conducting the school and is too 
precious a curiosity to be omitted : * 

Lastly. — The sayd Wardens shall take care that the Schoolm r fo r the tyme 
beeing doe faythfully p 1 lorme hisdutys in his place, as schoolm 1 " ought to doe, as 
well in other things as in these wh ch are hereafte 1 " expressed, viz., First, That the 
Schoolm 1 " shall dilligently attend his Schoole, and doe his vtmost indeavo 1 " fo r Ben- 
efitting his scholle r s according to his best discretion, w ,h out vnnecessaryly absent- 
ing himself to the p'iudice of his scholle rs and hindering their learning. 

2'y. That from the beginning of the first moneth vntill the end of the 7 th , he 
shall eu r y day beginn to teach at seaven of the Clock in the morning and clis- 
misse his schole rs atfyuein the afternoon e . And for the othe r fyue months, that 
is, from the begins of the 8 th moneth vntill the end of the 12 th month he shall 
eu r y day beginn at 8 of the Clock in the morning, and [end] at 4 in the afternoon. 

3'y. Eu r y day in the yeere the vsuall tyme of dismissing at noon shall be at 
1 1, to beginn agnyne at one, except that 

This summer privilege for girls was continued for thirty years, when it was found to be so satis- 
factory in its results that the time was extended to eight months ; but not until thirty-nine years 
after they were first admitted to the schools, and not until ninety-three years after the earliest 
public school for boys was established, were the girls admitted to a full and equal share in all the 
privileges of the public schools." — Annual Report of Massachusetts Board of Education for 
1868, p 15. 

* See Fortieth Annual report of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, 1875, J 876, pp. 
114. etc. 



236 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

4 ] y . Eu r y second day in the weeke he shall call his scholle r s togeithe 1- betweene 
12 and one of the Clock to examine them what they haue learned on the saboath 
day p r ceding at w c h tyme also he shall take notice of any misdemeano 1 " or outrage 
that any of his scholle rs shall have committed on the saboath, to the end that at 
somme convenient tyme due Admonition and Correction may be administe red by 
him according as the nature and qualitie of the offence shall require, at w ch sayd 
examination any of the Elde rs or othe r Inhabitants that please may bee present, 
to behold his religious care herein, and to give ther e Countenance and app r bation 
of the same. 

5'y. Hee shall equally and impartially receive and instruct such as shal be 
sent and committed to him fo r that end, whithe r there parents bee poore or rich, 
not refusing any who have Right and Interest in the schoole. 

6 1 ?. Such as shall be committed to him he shall diligently instruct, as they 
shalbe able to learne, both in humane learning and good litterature, and lykewyse 
in poynt of good marine r s and dutifull behaviou r towards all, specially their supio r ? 
as they shall have occasion to bee in their p r esence, whithe 1 ' by meeting them in 
the streete or otherwyse. 

7 J y. Every six day of the weeke at 2 of the Clock in the afternoone, he shall 
catechise his scholle rs in the principles of Christian religion, eithe r in some cat- 
echisme w ch the Wardens shall p r vide and p r sent, or in defect thereof in some 
othe r . 

8'y. And because all man's indeavo r w ' b out the blessing of God must needs 
bee fruitlesse and vnsuccessfull, theirfore. It is to be a chief p r te of the school- 
m rs religious care to commend his scholle 1 " 3 and his Labours amongst them vnto 
God by praye r morning and evening, taking Care that his scholle r s doe reu r endly 
attend during the same. 

9'y. And because the Rodd of Correction is an ordinance of God, neces- 
sary sometymes to be dispensed vnto Children, but such as may easily be abused 
by oue r much seu r itie and rigou 1 " on the one hand, or by one r much indulgence and 
lenitye on the othe r ; It is therefore ordered and agreed that the schoolemaste 1 " for 
the tyme beeing shall have full po\ve r to ministe r Correction to all or any of his 
scholle rs w th out respect of pe r sons, according as the nature and qualitie of the 
offence shall require ; whereto all his scholle rs must bee duely subject ; and no 
parent or othe r of the Inhabitants shall hinde 1 " or go about to hinde 1 " the maste r 
ther e in: neu r theless yf any parent or othe r shall think there is iust cause of Com- 
playnt agaynst the maste r for too much seue r itie such shall have liberty friendly and 
louingly to expostulate w l b such.maste 1 " about the same; and yf they shall not attayne 
to satisfaction, the matte 1 " is then to be referred to the wardens, who shall imp r tially 
Judge betwixt the maste r and such Complaynants. And yf yt shall appeare to 
them that any parent shall make causelesse Complaynt against the m r in his behalfe, 
and shall p r sist in and Continue so doeing, in such case the wardens shall have 
po\ve r to discharge the m r of the care and charge of the Children of such parents. 

But yf the thing Complayned of be true, and that the m r have indeed bene 
guiltie of ministering excessive Correction, and shall appeere to them to continue 
therein, notwithstanding that they have advised him otherwise, in such case, as 
also in the case too much lenitye or any othe r great neglect of dutye in his place 
pe r sisted in, It shall be in the powe r of the Wardens to call the Inhabitants 
together to conside 1 " whithe 1 " it be not meet to discharge the m r of his place, that 
so somme other 1 " more desirable may be p r ovid( j d. And because it is difficult, yf 



GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 237 

not Impossible, to give p' ticula r rules yt shall reach all cases \v ch may fail out. 
therefore, fo r a Conclusion, It is ordered and agreed in generall, that, where 
p r ticula r rules are wanting, there it shall be a p r te of the office and dutye of the 
Wardens to orde r and dispose of all things that Concerne the schoole, in such sort 
as in thei r wisdome and discretion they shall Judge most Conducible fo r the glory 
of God and the trayningup of the Children of the Towne in religion, learning and 
Civilitie :— And these orde r s to bee continued till the maio r p r teof the Town shall 
see cause to alte r any p r te thereof. 

The foregoing facts show what were the methods of the fathers 
in founding the common schools of this country. The example of 
these towns was followed by others, and in all cases we see the 
schools growing up out of the influence of the churches and fos- 
tered by them. These schools were grammar schools, in some of 
which " the Greek and Latin tongues " were taught, and in all of 
which there was instruction in reading, writing and keeping of 
accounts and a careful training in the principles of Christianity, as 
the only sure foundation of public and private morality. The 
teachers were often continued in the same school twenty, thirty 
and even fifty years, laying broad and deep the foundations of the 
Commonwealth. Hence Cotton Mather, alluding to some of these 
old teachers, wrote : 

'Tis Corlet's pains, and Cheever's we must own, 
That thou, New England, art not Sythia grown. 

The management of the schools was confided by the towns to a 
body of men known under different titles, " Prudentials," " War- 
dens," " Foeffees," and, later, the " School Committee." Other 
schools sometimes existed, of lower grades, kept by private persons, 
those by elderly women being called " dame schools." It was not 
until twelve years after Philemon Pormont was engaged for the 
11 nurturing of ye youth of Boston," that the General Court, in 
November, 1647, recognized and gave the sanction of public law to 
the schools and made the support of them compulsory upon every 
town having fifty householders. This famous order deserves a place 
here: 

It is therefore ordered, that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord 
hath increased them to the number of 50 householders, shall then forthwith 
appoint one within their towne to teach all children as shall resort to him to write 
and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such chil- 
dren, or by the inhabitants in general by way of supply, as the major part of those 
that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint ; provided those that send 
their children be not oppressed by paying much more than in other towns. 

And it is further ordered, that where any towne shall increase to the number of 
100 families or householders, they shall set up a grammar schoole, the master 
10 



238 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the University ; 
provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one yeare, every 
such towne shall pay five shillings to the next schoole till they shall perform this order. 

"This notable law," says Hon. Joseph White, * "giving voice as it did to the 
convictions of the people, was every-where cheerfully obeyed. On every side, ss 
the ancient forests gave way before the hardy pioneers, in their slow but sure 
advance from the seaboard into the interior, the meeting-house and the school- 
house arose side by side with the log huts of the settlers, thus converting the des- 
olate places of the wilderness into the homes of a Christian people — the 'seed- 
plots ' of a higher and purer life, for ages yet to come. 

" No grander spectacle is presented in the history of any people than that of 
these ancient men thus struggling for a scanty subsistence amid the privations and 
dangers of border life, and often for life itself, against the attacks of a stealthy and 
relentless foe, and yet, as if with a prophetic prevision of the future, sparing no 
effort, and in their deep poverty shrinking from no sacrifice of time or money 
needful to plant the pillars of the new Commonwealth — their beloved 'New En- 
gland,' as they were wont to call it — on the everlasting foundations of universal 
intelligence and virtue. 

"Thus, within a single score of years from the landing on the shores of the 
bay, the new State is successfully launched, fully equipped for the voyage, we trust, 
of all the ages, with a good array of towns, each with a government wisely adapted 
to its needs, and all bound together by the strong bonds of a vigorous central gov- 
ernment of their own creation, and administered for the common good, while the 
meeting-house and the school-house in every township, and ' y e Universitie' at 
Cambridge, were all working together ' for the building up of hopeful youths in a 
way of learning, ... for the service of the country in future times.' " 

From our present stand-point the school system of New England 
in the colonial era seems very crude and rude, but it was far in 
advance of other sections of the country'. In Pennsylvania and 
New York in those times there were no school-houses outside of 
villages or town centers, and the children walked to school for 
miles through regions infested with savage beasts.f In the south- 
ern States, and especially in South Carolina, according to Ramsay, 
education, outside of some wealthy families, was almost wholly neg- 
lected, no grammar school existing prior to 1730, and from 1731 
and 1776 only five. 

The number of newspapers published in any community is 
supposed to be no mean gauge of the education of the people. 
We find in 1775, in the entire country, thirty-seven papers in circu- 
lation. Fourteen of them were in New England, four in New York, 
nine in Pennsylvania, two each in Virginia and North Carolina, one 
in Georgia, and three in South Carolina. % 

* Report of Massachusetts Board of Education, 1875, 1876, p. 119. For fuller information 
see also the Twenty-ninth Report, 1866, pp. 70-87. 

\ See Life of Dr. Charles Alexander, pp. it, 12. See Life of Charles Caldwell, p. 64. 

% McMaster's History of the People of the United States. D. Appleton & Co. 1884. P. 27 



ACADEMIES. 239 

Down to the close of the Revolution only three States — Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire — had town schools. * 

Academies. 

The grammar schools in Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Cam- 
bridge, Salem, New Haven, Hartford, etc., soon rose to the grade 
of more advanced schools. Mather says : 

When scholars had so far profited at the grammar schools that they could read 
any classical author into English, and readily make and speak true Latin, and write it 
in verse as well as in prose, and perfectly decline the paradigms of nouns and 
verbs in the Greek tongue, they were judged capable of admission into Harvard 
College.? 

Such was the standard of scholarship of this period. But no 
institutions under the distinctive title of academies arose in Mas- 
sachusetts till a later date : 

Dummer Academy, at South Byfield, Mass., in 1763. 
Phillips Academy, at Andover, Mass., in 1778. 
Leicester Academy, at Leicester, Mass., in 1784. 
Derby Academy, at Hingham, Mass., in 1785. 
New Salem Academy, at New Salem, Mass., in 1795. 
Bristol Academy, at Taunton, Mass., in 1796. 
Westford Academy, at Westford, Mass., in 1792. 
Deerfield Academy, at Deerfield, Mass., in 1799. 
Westfield Academy, at Westfield, Mass,, in 1800. 

Of the academies;): founded in Massachusetts prior to 1800, six 
were given, as an endowment, a township of land each ; one 15,000 
acres, and others a half of a township each. These lands were 
located in Maine, then a province of Massachusetts. " The term 
'academy,' which in the mother country had been applied to semi- 
naries of learning established by non-conformists, to distinguish them 
from the schools and colleges of the Church of England, seems to 
have been applied very naturally by the sons of the Puritans to 
similar institutions in this country, and though not confined to 
schools founded by Congregationalists, was very generally applied 
to such." § 

Dr. Magoun || sums up as follows the secondary institutions of the 
colonial period. : " Aside from those which preceded or grew into 
colleges — Moor's Charity School ; Liberty Hall, Pennsylvania ; 



* Rev. Dr. Magoun in New Englandei\ 1877, p. 483. 

t Mather's Magnalia. Vol. II, p. 64, Sec. 4. 

\ See Fortieth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Appendix, pp. 174-347,, 

§ David N. Camp, Esq. f Neiv Englander, 1877, PP- 483, 484. 



240 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Prince Edward University Grammar School, Rhode Island — there 
were Kingston (1774), Rutgers Grammar (1770, coeval with the col- 
lege), Columbia and Dunmore (1763), Germantown (1760), Hope- 
well (1756), the three Hopkins schools at New Haven, Hartford, 
and Hadley (1660, 1665, 1669), and the Boston Latin (1635) — all 
before the Revolution. But there were private Latin schools ear- 
lier than these ; and it was common for clergymen to take academic 
pupils. Mr. Chauncy did so at Scituate. Before Manning and 
and Stelle, in Warsaw and Providence, Roger Williams did so in 
1654. No public school then existed in Rhode Island, an attempt 
at Newport, in 1640, having failed. Dorchester had a Latin 
school, mixed in its support, in 1639, and Hartford in 1638. The 
year before this Ezekiel Cheever had arrived at New Haven, and 
his school there for twelve years — preparing students for Harvard 
— was of the same mixed character. That of Daniel Maude, at 
Boston, two years earlier still (1636) seems to have been altogether 
private, supported by contributions of Winthrop, Vane, and Bel- 
lingham." 



Section 2.— The Colleges. 
Harvard College 

was founded by the Puritans, or Congregationalists. The propor- 
tion of the first New England colonists who had received a classical 
education exceeded that in England. Not less than twenty of the 
4,000 who came to Massachusetts Bay in the first five years 
had been educated at the English universities, most of whom 
were clergymen not inferior in culture to those of the mother 
country. It is not strange, therefore, that even while struggling for 
an existence in new and scattered settlements, under the heavy 
expenses incident to laying the foundation of the colony, they 
should entertain a purpose of establishing a college. " It is an 
object near our hearts," they said " to have an able and learned 
ministry when those of the present age are laid in their graves." 

The first step toward founding Harvard College was a grant of 
£400 by the magistrates and deputies of Massachusetts, in 1636, 
for a " school or college " at Cambridge, with an order that ,£200 
more* should soon be added. An able committee was designated 

* Equivalent to a tax of half a dollar to every person in the colony. Governor Winthrop said, 
"It \vas equal to a year's rate of the whole colony." Such a tax in Massachusetts at the 
present time would yield $900,000. 



HARVARD COLLEGE. 24-1 

to carry out the plan. In 1637, it was denominated a college ; 
Nathaniel Eaton was appointed principal, and on the bequest of 
nearly ^800 from Rev. John Harvard of Charlestovvn it received the 
name of Harvard College. In 1639, the Legislature granted five 
hundred acres of land to Mr. Eaton, on condition that he should 
continue his labors, and ordered the income from the Charles- 
town ferry G630 to £50 yearly) to be appropriated to the institu- 
tion. 

Mr. Harvard also bequeathed his library of 320 volumes, which 
example was followed by many other clergymen of that time, and 
other grants of land were made by the General Court. All the 
towns in the colony also contributed funds, which soon reached 
^"2,000, in addition to the first donations of the Legislature and that 
of Mr. Harvard. 

In the year 1640 Rev. Henry Dunster, a very estimable and 
learned man, came over from England and was installed president 
of the college. He had been educated at one of the English uni- 
versities, and had served as a regular clergyman of the Church of 
England. He was at the head of Harvard College from 1640 to 
1654, during which time many young men were educated who 
became eminent for learning and piety. The first printing estab- 
lishment in America was founded at Cambridge, in 1638. 

Presidents of Harvard College from 1640 to 1775. 



When 
indircted. 

164O 

1654 
1672 
1675 
1683 
1686 
1 70I 
1707 
1725 
1737 
T770 
1774 



NAMES. 



Rev. Henry Dunsler, A.M 

Rev. Charles Chauncy, D.D 

Rev. Leonard Hoar. M.D 

Rev. Urian Oakes ? A.M 

Hon. John Rogers, A.M 

Rev. Increase Mather. D.D* 

Rev. Samuel Willard, A. M 

Hon. John Leverett, A.M., F.R.S. 

Rev. Benj. Wadsworth, A.M 

Rev. Edward Holyoke, A.M 

Rev. Samuel Locke, LL. D 

Rev. Samuel Lan"don, D.D 



Resigned. 


Died. 


ID54 


1659 




1672 


1675 


1675 




1681 




1684 


I70I 


1723 




1707 




1724 




1737 




1769 


1773 


1777 


I780 


1797 



Age. 



45 
SO 
53 
84 
67 
62 
68 
80 
44 
75 



In 1652 the Legislature of Massachusetts granted to the college 
800 acres of land ; in 1653, 2,000 acres ; in 1658, 2,100 acres ; in 1683, 
1, coo acres. f In the course of the colonial and provincial periods, 
the Legislature made no less than one hundred and three distinct 
grants to this college. \ President Quincy declares f that, during 



* First President of American birth. + Hist, of Harvard University. By Quincy. Vol. I, p. 40. 
X Report of Visiting Committee, 1849, P- 2 4- 



242 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the first seventy years of its history u its officers were dependent 
for daily bread upon the bounty of the General Court." Numerous 
presents and legacies were given to the college, "toward establish- 
ing for learning a resting-place, and for science a fixed habitation, 
on the borders of the wilderness." Between 1636 and 1786 the 
colony gave Harvard College $116,000 in small sums, being an 
average of $773 a year. 

The foundation and growth of the venerable seat of learning at 
Cambridge show the high intellectual and religious* character of the 
New England colonists. The mottos upon two of its ancient seals 
are "In gloriam Christi" and " Christo et Ecclesiae" Pre-eminent 
among its benefactors was Thomas Hollis, who sent numerous 
installments of books from England for the library. In 1766 he 
wrote to Rev. Dr. Mayhevv, " More books, especially on govern- 
ment, are going to New England. Should these go safe it is hoped 
that no principal books on this first subject will be wanting in 
Harvard College, from the days of Moses to these times. Men of 
New England, brethren, use them for yourselves and for others, 
•and God bless you ! " f 

Again, after expressing great affection for the people of New 
England and his confidence in them as good and brave, he says, 
" Long may they continue such, and the spirit of luxury, now con- 
suming us to the very marrow here at home, be kept out from 
them ! Our likeliest means to that end will be to watch well over 
their youth by bestowing on them a reasonable, manly education ; 
and securing thereto the wisest, ablest, most accomplished of men 
that art or wealth can obtain ; for nations rise and fall by individ- 
uals, not numbers, as I think all history proveth. With ideas of 
this kind have I worked for the public library at Cambridge, in 
New England." The writings of Milton, Sidney, Marvell, Lock, 
and Harrington, almost all tinctured with republican notions, were 
included in Mr. Hollis's collections, and doubtless contributed 
largely to the spread of the spirit of republicanism among the 
young men of New England. 

The College of William and Mary- 
was founded by the Episcopalians. As early as 1660 the Colonial 
Assembly of Virginia passed an act " for the establishment 
and endowment of a college." Twenty-eight years passed in 
inaction. After Rev. James Blair, D.D.. came to the colony, in 

* See pp. 130-132 of this volume. \ New Englander, July, 1877, p. 454. 



WILLIAM AXD MARY COLLEGE. 243 

1685. the subject was again agitated. This eminent divine " was 
deeply affected with the low state of both learning and piety 
in the colon}-, and, as the most effective means of elevating both, 
resolved, if possible, to secure the establishment of a college. With 
a view to this he set on foot a subscription which, being headed by 
the governor and his council, soon amounted to £2,500. In the 
first Assembly held by Nicholson, in 1691, the project of the college 
was warmly seconded, and recommended to the patronage of their 
Majesties. Mr. Blair, being appointed to present the address, 
crossed the ocean to execute the trust ; and both William and Mary 
received the plan with marked favor." * The crown gave him 
" £2,000 and twenty thousand acres of land, and a penny a pound on 
tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland." f On the 14th of 
February, 1692, a charter for the college was granted, the Bishop of 
London being appointed chancellor, Mr. Blair president, and the 
college was named William and Mary. The Assembly gave " a duty 
on skins and furs for its plentiful endowment." % Jefferson says § 
the Assembly also gave the college " a duty on liquors imported," 
and that " from these sources it received upward of £3,000 com- 
munibus annis." Among the most liberal contributors to the col- 
lege in Great Britain was Robert Boyle, who was particularly anx- 
ious for the education of Indians. The care of the college was in 
the hands of a close corporation, all of the Church of England. The 
professors were required to subscribe to the Church of England, 
and the students to learn and recite the catechism. At the out- 
break of the Revolution it is said || to have become the richest col- 
lege in America, but it subsequently declined in funds and 
influence. 

In Virginia " the son of the great landed proprietor usually grew 
up to manhood on his father's plantation, rode every morning 
attended by his servant to the school kept in the neighboring parish 
by a clergyman of the English Church, passed thence to William 
and Mary College, spent a winter at Richmond, and came back 
to the old hall an aspirant for a seat in the House of Deputies. 
His opinions respecting forms of government and forms of creed 
were not the result of long study or of deep meditation, but were 
inherited with his estate, which passed from father to son by the 
strictest laws of entail." 1" 

* Annals of the American Episcopal Pulpit. By Rev. William B. Sprague, D.D. P. 8. 
t Berk's History of Virginia. Vol. II, pp. 312-314. % Burk. Vol. II, p. 316. 

§ Notes on Virginia. fl Kiddle and Schem, p. 853, 

Tl History of the People of the United States. By M'Master. Vol. I, p. 74. 



244 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Yale College 

was founded by the Congregationalists. Rev. John Davenport, of 
New Haven, as early as 1652 made a proposition to the govern- 
ment of that colony respecting the establishment of a college 
within their jurisdiction. The project was delayed for a while. 
" We should not, however, infer," says President Dwight,* '* that the 
colonists of Connecticut and New Haven were less friendly to 
learning than those of Massachusetts. The project of establishing 
a college in each of these colonies was very early taken up, but 
was checked by well-founded remonstrances from Massachusetts. 
It was very justly observed, that the whole population of New 
England was scarcely sufficient to support one institution of this 
kind, and that the establishment of the second would, in the end, 
be a sacrifice of both. These objections put a stop to the design 
for a considerable time." The number of students who resorted to 
Cambridge, Mass., for collegiate training, from the Hartford and 
New Haven colonies, bore a fair proportion to the students from 
the territory of Massachusetts ; and among them were a considerable 
number who became eminent ministers in Massachusetts, Connec- 
ticut and New Jersey. But the distance by the inconvenient 
methods of travel in those days was an urgent reason for a college 
nearer home. 

In 1698 a synod of the churches devised a plan for erecting a 
college in Connecticut, and appointed eleven trustees, who met in 
New Haven, in i/OO, and resolved to establish a college. Subse- 
quently each one brought books from his library and formally 
devoted them to the founding of the college. This act has been 
regarded as the beginning of the institution. Rev. Messrs. Pier- 
pont of New Haven, Andrew, of Milford, and Russell, of Branford. 
were the most active in the project. Hon. James Fitch, of Nor- 
wich, donated six hundred acres of land, in the town of Killingly, 
to the college, with glass and nails for the buildings ; and on the 
9th day of October, 1701, the Colonial Legislature granted a char- 
ter. Rev. Abram Pierson, of Killingly, was chosen president, and 
Saybrook was designated as the location. Disputes arose, and 
though the institution was commenced, yet it remained in an 
unsettled condition until 1716, when it was removed to New 
Haven, where a wooden edifice was completed in 171 8. Elihu 
Yale, Esq., of London, Governor of the East India Company, made 



Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight's Travels in New Euglajid and Neiv York. Vol. I, p. 168. 



YALE AND PRINCETON. 



liberal donations of books, goods and money, in honor of vvl 
generosity the institution was called Yale College.* 



iose 



Presidents of Yale College. 



When 
inducted 

I70I 
1719 
1726 

1739 
1766 

1777 
1795 



NAMES. 



i Rev. Abram Pierson, A.M 

I Rev. Timothy Cutler, D.D 

! Rev. Elisha Williams, A.M 

; Rev. Thomas Clapp, A.M 

j Rev. Naphtali Daggett, D.D 

Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., LL.D.... 

I Rev. Timothy Dwight. D.D., LL 



Resigned. 



1722 

1739 
1766 

1777 



Died. 



1707 
1765 
1755 
1767 
17S0 
1795 
I8I7 



Age. 



60 

82 
60 
63 
53 
68 
65 



Princeton College 

was founded by the Presbyterians. Down to 1746, in the vast 
area between Connecticut and Virginia, there was no educational 
institution authorized to confer degrees. What was termed the 
" Log College," at Neshamany, near Philadelphia, had existed 
since 1726, under the care and patronage of the Presbyterians. 
Students were taught the classics and divinity, but degrees were 
not conferred. It was the germ of Princeton College. In 1746 the 
charter of the College of New Jersey, as it was first called, was 
obtained under the auspices of the Presbyterian Synod of New 
York, and Rev. Jonathan Dickinson of Elizabethtown, N. J., was 
the first president. Mr. Dickinson died the following year. In 
the first year there were about twenty students, boarding in the 

* The following are some of the rules of Yale College, in 1720, which the students were 
obliged to copy, so that they could not plead ignorance of them : 

"All students shall be slow to speak, and avoid (and as much as in them lies take care that 
others may avoid) prophane swearing, lying and needless asseverations, foolish garrulity, chiding, 
strife, railing, reproaching, abusive jesting, uncomely noise, spreading ill rumors, divulging 
secrets, and all manner of troublesome and offensive behaviour." 

" No student shall, under any pretence whatsoever, use familiar acquaintance of persons of 
unquiet and dissolute lives, nor intermeddle with other men's business, nor intrude himself into 
the chambers of other students, * * * or go a fowling or hunting without the leave of his Proc- 
tor or tutor, nor shall any student be absent from his chamber after nine of the clock at night, 
nor watch after eleven, nor have a light before four in the morning, except of extraordinary 
occasions." 

" Every undergradute shall be called by his surname unless he be the son of a nobleman or a 
knight's eldest son." 

" Seeing God is the giver of all wisdome, every scholar, besides private or secret prayer, wherein 
all we are bound to ask wisdome, shall be present morning and evening at publick prayer in the 
hall at the accustomed hour, which is to be ordinarily at six of the clock in the morning, from the 
tenth of March to the tenth of September, and then again to the tenth of March, at sunrising, at 
between four and five of the clock, all the year long." 

" No scholar shall use the English tongue in the collegiate school with his fellow scholars 
unless he be called to public exercises proper to be attended in the tongue, but scholars in their 
chambers and when they are together shall talk latine." 



246 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

family of the president and other neighboring families, no public 
buildings then existing. After the death of Mr. Dickinson the 
students were removed to Newark and placed under the care of 
Rev. Aaron Burr, who succeeded in the presidency. The first 
commencement was held November 9, 1748, when six young men 
received the degree A. B. To this time the institution was with- 
out funds. Small contributions were gathered in America during 
several following years; and in 1753 two agents, Revs. Gilbert 
Tennent and Samuel Davies, solicited benefactions in Great 
Britain, which were bestowed beyond the most sanguine expecta- 
tions. The inhabitants of Princeton having provided for the insti- 
tution two hundred acres of wood-land, ten acres of cleared land, 
and £1,000 of " proclamation money," it was resolved, in 1753, to 
establish the college in that place. The buildings were at once 
erected, the principal one receiving the name of Nassau Hall, in 
honor of William III., Prince of Orange and Nassau. The build- 
ings were ready for occupancy in 1756. Two days before the com- 
mencement, in 1756, President Burr died; and Rev. Jonathan 
Edwards D.D., of Stockbridge, Mass., father-in-law of Mr. Burr, 
was subsequently elected his successor. Mr. Edwards arrived at 
Princeton in January, 1758, and on the 22d day of the following 
March died of small-pox. 

August 16, 1758, Rev. Samuel Davies, D.D., of Virginia, was 
chosen president, and entered upon his duties in 1759. In Febru- 
ary, 1761, Mr Davies died. In June, 1761, Rev. Samuel Finlay, 
D.D., was chosen president, and died in 1766. Rev. John Wither- 
spoon, D.D., LL.D., of Scotland, succeeded Mr. Finlay, in 1768. 
All the men prominently connected with Princeton College, as 
founders and presidents, except Dr. Witherspoon, were actively 
associated with the great Whitefieldian and Edwardian revivals of 
religion. 



'&>' 



Columbia College 

was founded and governed chiefly by the Episcopalians. From its 
founding until 1784 it was called King's College. The earliest 
mention of this institution is in the records of Trinity Church, in 
1703, when some preliminary inquiries looking toward its establish- 
ment were made. Its founding was, however, delayed until 
1746, when by a public lottery, " for the encouragement of learning," 
£2,250 was raised for this purpose. In 175 1 the fund had 
increased to £3,443 18s; and in 1754 the charter was granted. 
Its first president, Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D., a native of Guil- 



COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 247 

ford, Conn., a graduate of Yale College, and the first tutor in that 
institution on its removal from Saybrook to New Haven, was an 
eminent man in the ranks of scholarship and literature. Originally 
a member of a Puritan Church in Connecticut, he early exhibited 
a predilection for the Episcopal Church, and in 1723 was received 
into that communion. 

Eight young men constituted the first class entering this col- 
lege. Among its first governors were ministers of the Reformed 
Dutch, the Lutheran, the French Protestant, and the Presbyterian 
churches. The charter provided that no laws should be adopted 
11 to exclude any person of any religious denomination whatever 
from equal liberty, advantages," etc. The annual charge for 
tuition was equivalent to about $17 of our money, and the salary 
of the president was £250. Trinity Church made the president an 
assistant minister, with a yearly compensation of £150. In 1755, 
Trinity Church " granted to the college a piece of ground in ' the 
West Ward,' bounded by Church, Barclay and Murray streets, and 
running down to the North River, on condition that the president 
should always be a member of the Episcopal Church, and that the 
college prayers should be drawn from the Prayer Book. The con- 
sideration was the sum of ten shillings and an annual rental of a 
pepper corn." The corporation held its first meeting May 17, 1755. 
A building was soon erected. The corner-stone was laid August 
23, 1756, by the governor, Sir Charles Hardy, who presented the 
college £500. 

In 1760 the building was completed, and President Johnson " set 
up house-keeping and tuition there." The officers and students 
" messed " in the institution. In 1762, Dr. James Jay, of England, 
solicited funds for the college, collecting nearly £6,000, including a 
special donation of £600 from George III. An estate of £9,000 
was bequeathed to the institution by Mr. Joseph Murray, and Dr. 
Bristovve, of England, gave a library of 1,500 volumes. In 1763 Dr. 
Johnston resigned the presidency and was succeeded by Rev. Myles 
Cooper, Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. At this time a gram- 
mar school was established, in connection with the college, under 
Mr. Matthew Cushing, from Charlestown, Mass. In 1767, twenty- 
four thousand acres of land were granted to the college by the prov- 
ince ; but the grant was unfortunately located, so that ultimately it 
was included in the lands ceded to Vermont, without any compen- 
sation to the college. In 1769 a medical department was founded. 
Alexander Hamilton was matriculated in 1774. In 1776 the insti- 
tution was broken up, and British troops occupied it until the 



248 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

English evacuated New York, in November, 1783. Prior to 1773 
one hundred students were educated within the walls of King's 
College, many of whom attained the highest distinction in their 
professions. 

Dartmouth College 

was founded by Congregationalists. Elsewhere * the origin of the 
Moor school, kept in Lebanon, Conn., by Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, 
D.D., for fourteen or fifteen years, was sketched. To increase its 
usefulness Dr. Wheelock resolved to remove it to a new locality, 
and have it incorporated as an academy. Offers were received from 
three towns in Berkshire County, Mass., and from Albany, N. Y. 
In New Hampshire several thousand acres of land were offered. 
Finally the western part of New Hampshire was fixed upon, and a 
charter, dated December 13, 1769, was obtained for a college, endowed 
partly by Governor Wentworth, and partly by private individuals, 
with about 40,000 acres of land. In all these steps Dr. Wheelock 
was the leading spirit, and in the charter he is called " the founder 
of the college." 

In August, 1770, Dr. Wheelock took leave of Lebanon, Conn., 
and proceeded to Hanover, N. H., to make preparation for his family 
and pupils in the wilderness. Pine-trees were felled, and without 
nails or glass he built a log-cabin. Then with the aid of forty or fifty 
laborers other buildings were erected, a well dug, and about the first 
of November the institution was ready to commence operations. 
The first commencement was held in August, 1771, when four young 
men were graduated, one of whom, John Wheelock, son of Dr. 
Wheelock, became his successor in the presidency of the school and 
of the college ; and another, Mr. Ripley, was the first professor of 
theology in the college. Dr. Wheelock lived to preside at seven 
other commencements, and conferred the usual college degrees upon 
seventy-two young men, of whom thirty-nine became ministers of 
the Gospel. Revivals of religion were enjoyed in the college in 
1 77 1 and in the winter of 1774-75. It should be added, that the 
Moor school, which was removed from Lebanon, Conn., was not 
blended with Dartmouth College, but was kept separate and dis- 
tinct, though located at the same place, and it was to this school 
that the Earl of Dartmouth was benefactor, and not to the college. 
The Indian college did not succeed. 

Dartmouth College was amply endowed, the State of New Hamp- 
shire giving it 78,000 acres in successive grants, and the Legislature 



See pp. 144, 191, 192. 



OTHER COLLEGES. 249 

of Vermont the town of Wheelock This liberality made it the 
best endowed of any college in New England at that time. Sub- 
sequently, however, it became penniless through bad management. 

Brown University, 

the first Baptist college in America, was founded in 1764. It 
existed originally at Warren, R. I., where, in 1769, its first com- 
mencement was held. The following year it was removed to Prov- 
idence. It took its name from Nicholas Brown, its most distin- 
guished benefactor. In the disturbed condition of the country 
during the American Revolution its operations were suspended. 
This institution was projected by the Philadelphia Association of 
Baptists, who sent James Manning to Newport, R. I., to start it. 
Providence raised for it ^4,280, and other towns £4,000, as early 
as 1770. 

Rutgers College, 

originally Queen's, was established at New Brunswick, N. J., in 1770, 
by the Dutch Reformed Church. 

Hampden Sidney College, 
in Prince Edward County, Va., was founded in 1775. 

The University of Pennsylvania 

was founded in 1747, and received its charter in 1755, in Philadel- 
phia. Its resources were gathered by subscription in England, 
South Carolina, Jamaica and Philadelphia. Thomas Penn, one of 
the proprietaries, was the largest contributor. 

The Washington and Lee University 

was founded at Lexington, Va., in 1782. The first steps for its 
founding were taken in 1749, under the name of Augusta, and sub- 
sequently Liberty Hall, Academy, under the control of the Hanover 
Presbytery, which secured subscriptions and appointed trustees, 
attracting to it a gift from General Washington, from whom it was 
subsequently named. 

As to the character of the studies pursued in these colleges, they 
were for theological as well as secular education. " At Harvard, 
Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriac, as well as New Testament Greek and 
catechetical theology, were taught. ... In Yale, from the first, the 
Hebrew of the Old Testament was translated into Greek, and the 
Latin New Testament into Greek at the beginning of every recita- 



2SO 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



tion. The Assembly's Catechism in Latin was recited every Satur- 
day evening; Ames's Medulla Theologies Saturday mornings, and 
his Cases of Conscience Sunday mornings. Thirty years after Wolle- 
biers's Theology was taught. Every student was required to study 
these things. There were also, from an early day, college lectures 
in ecclesiastical history, and a professorship of divinity. Harvard 
had the latter twenty-five years earlier. At Harvard, if any scholar 
transgressed the laws of God, or of the school, he was to be cor- 
rected or publicly admonished. One must be able ' to render the 
orignals of the Old and New Testaments into Latin and resolve 
them logically, withal being of godly life and conversation,' in order 
to receive the first degree." * 

Graduates from Colleges in the Colonial Period. 



periods. 



1638 
1700 
1711 
1721 

1731 
1741 

1751 
1761 
1771 



to 1700. 
to 1710. 
to 1720. 
to 1730. 
to 1740. 
to 1750. 
to 1760. 
to 1770. 
to 1776. 

Total... 





■§ 1 




a 








E 


> 


.2 ^ 






rt 




X 


£S 


446 


8 3 


122 


5 • 1 


151 

365 


gradi 
Deriod 
jlishec 


312 


c .£a 


239 


t5-S £ 


27O 
422 


~" be jo 


278 


41 


2,605 





a 



32 




56 


1 .. 


141 


1 ■• 


179 




219 


19 


290 


1 142 


325 


1 192 


176 


137 



1,418 j 49O 



II 

42 



53 



43 



43 



£ = 



NOTE.— The data for the above table have been collected from valuable articles in the American 
Quarterly Register, by John Farmer Esq. Vol. VII, pp. 341, 342, and Vol. IX, p. 440. 

Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., LL.D., President of Yale College, in his 
famous Election Sermon, in 1783, said, " There are ten colleges in the 
United States, from New England to Virginia, inclusive, besides 
two intended ones in the Carolinas. The number of under-graduates 
in the most considerable are estimated as follows: Harvard Col- 
lege, 150; William and Mary, 100; Jersey, 60; Philadelphia, 30; 
Dartmouth, 80." 



Section 3.— Education of the Ministry. 

The ministers of the churches in the colonial period were almost 
altogether educated men — graduates either from the European or 
the early American colleges. Of the fifty-two settled ministers in 



*Dr. Magoun in New Englaiider, 1877, p. 465. 



STUDENTS OF THEOLOGY. 251 

the Province of New Hampshire in 1764, forty-eight were grad- 
uates of colleges. Of thirty-two in one county twenty-nine were 
graduates from Harvard College, one from Yale, and one from the 
University of Scotland.* In all New England the educated min- 
istry bore about the same proportion to the whole number as in New 
Hampshire ; and in the other colonies the uneducated ministers were 
a small minority. But there were no theological seminaries in those 
days, and the young men, after graduation, pursued the study of 
theology for several years in the families of the leading divines. 
Some of them were amply qualified as theological teachers and 
attracted many young men around them, training fifty and more, 
each, for the ministry, in their long lives. 

They thus gave character to New England theology. Most of 
them were of the Edwardian type. Soon after the Great Awaken- 
ing of 1740 Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Conn., whose pastorate 
extended from 1737 to 1790, began to receive theological students, 
and was a distinguished pioneer in this department. Dr. Smalley, 
of New Britain, Conn., 1757-1820; Dr. Charles Backus, of Somers, 
Conn., 1773-1803 ; Dr. Levi Hart, of Griswold, 1761-1808, and Rev. 
Asahel Hooker, of Goshen and Norwich, Conn., 1790-1813, were 
noted for this work. There were also Rev. Jedediah Mills, of Hunt- 
ington, Conn., 1724-1776, the instructor of David Brainerd ; Dr. 
Wheelock, of Lebanon, a trainer of missionaries ; Dr. Stephen West, 
of Stockbridge, Mass., 1756-1819; Dr. Samuel Hopkins, of New- 
port, R. I., 1742-1803, and Dr. Nathaniel Emmons, of Franklin, 
Mass., 1769-1840, all eminent teachers of theological students, who 
did much to mold New England theology. 

Dr. Asahel Hooker taught thirty-three students for the ministry ; Dr. Charles 
Backus instructed about fifty; Dr. Asa Burton about sixty; Dr. Bellamy still 
more, and Dr. Emmons one hundred. Dr. Smalley had in his home only some 
twenty-five or thirty, but among them was Dr. Emmons himself. Hon. Oliver 
Ellsworth, third Chief Justice of the United States, and Jeremiah Mason, United 
States Senator from New Hampshire, both, on leaving Yale College, studied for a 
time with Dr. Smalley. The former was in the cabinet of Washington and among 
the foremost statesmen of his time. For the latter, Webster had great admiration, 
and to him acknowledged large indebtedness. Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., Pres- 
ident of Andover Theological Seminary, was trained for the ministry by Dr. 
Smalley ; also Rev. Andrew Rawson, the great revival preacher, who led Titus 
Coan to Christ, afterward the missionary to Sandwich Islands, who baptized sev- 
enteen hundred converts in one day. Through his mark on these distinguished 
men Dr. Smalley 's influence reached to the high places of the land and touched 
almost every important interest. Dr. Bellamy studied with Jonathan Edwards ; 

* Congregationl Quarterly, July, 1873, p. 370. 



252 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Dr. Smalley studied with Dr. Bellamy ; Dr. Emmons studied with Dr. Smalley. 
What an illustrious line ! The ministerial lives of the three last were, respectively, 
fifty, sixty-two and seventy-one years, after licensure. Their combined ages were 
two hundred and fifty-three years. They preached the Gospel one hundred and 
sixty-five years. They were active pastors, without colleagues, one hundred and 
fifty-five years. They trained two hundred students at least for the ministry, and 
gave to the press several hundred publications. But the length of the labors of 
these men, wonderful as it seems in these days, is not altogether exceptional. 
There have been two hundred and forty Congregational ministers reared in Con- 
necticut who have had a ministry of half a century and over. Dr. Smalley was 
surrounded by men of this class. On the south-west, in Southington, Rev. William 
Robinson was settled forty-one years. On the south, in the parish of Kensington, 
Rev. Benjamin Upson, D.D , forty-seven years, followed by Rev. Royal Rohbins, 
forty-five years. On the east, in Newington, Rev. Joshua Belden was settled sixty- 
six years, and an active pastor fifty-eight years ; and Rev. Joab Brace, D.D., sixty- 
one years, and an active pastor fifty-one years. These two ministers also followed 
each other. In Farmington, on the north, Rev. Noah Porter was settled sixty one 
years, and was an active pastor fifty-five years. Then, in the bordering towns, and 
a little further away in the same Association, were many other half-century pas- 
torates — Rev. Dr. Chapin , of Rocky Hill, sixty years, and Dr. Perkins, of West 
Hartford, sixty-six years, and so on. 

Dr. Smalley exercised his commanding influence through his preaching, his 
students and his books. In 1769 he published two sermons on Natural and Moral 
Inability, which widely circulated in this country and in Great Britain. In this 
treatise he made a substantial contribution to the theological thinking of his age, 
and one which will always remain. It was a position which brought upon 
him furious charges from the older Calvinists, who held to the moral ruin of 
man's entire nature, but the " new light " made its way. Dr. Emmons has 
preserved an amusing record of his , first experience with this new-divinity man : 
" When I first went as a pupil to Dr. Smalley I was full of old Calvinism, and 
thought I was prepared to meet the doctor on all points of his new divinity. For 
some time all things went on smoothly. At length he began to advance some sen- 
timents which were new to me, or opposed to my former views. I contended with 
him, but he quietly tripped up my heels and there I lay at his mercy. But I had 
no thought of giving up so. I arose and commenced the struggle anew, but before 
I was aware of it I was floored again. Thus matters proceeded for some time — he 
gradually leading me along to the place of light and I struggling to remain in dark- 
ness. At length he gained the victory : I began to see a little light ; it was a new 
point and seemed distant; by degrees it grew and came nearer. From that time 
to this the light has been increasing, and I feel assured that the great doctrines of 
grace which I have preached for fifty years are in strict accordance with the law 
and the testimony." 

* Congregational Qtdarter/y, July, 1873. 



NEW EXGLAXD STATISTICS. 253 



CHAPTER XI. 



GENERAL SUMMARIES,, 



IT is impossible at the present time to set forth a full statis- 
tical exhibit of either the churches, the communicants, or the 
clergy connected with them, at the close of the colonial period. 
The necessary data do not now exist. A few fragmentary items 
have, however, b^en gathered, after considerable research, which 
will afford tolerable satisfaction. They are statements in regard to 
particular sections. 

New England. 

From a discourse preached by Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., before the 
Congregational clergy of Rhode Island, April 23, 1760, a number of 
interesting particulars have been collected respecting the ecclesias- 
tical condition of New England. * The following, as he supposed, 
was the condition of the different sects. Jews, 70 persons ; Mora- 
vians, 70 persons; Episcopalians, 2,100 families, or 12,600 souls. 
There were 27 Episcopal missions, including two " itinerances." 
The 27 missionaries, with three other ministers, officiated in 47 
churches and places of divine worship. Six or seven of the con- 
gregations were large, others were small, some not exceeding 
fifteen or twenty families each. Friends, 16,000 — a large estimate ; 
Baptists, 22,000. 

" At present," said Dr. Styles, " the Congregationalists have 
about 530 churches, which double in less than thirty years. The 
aged ministers now living have in their day seen 130 churches 
increase to 530. In 1643 the 15,000 souls in New England were 
cantoned into 34 churches. In 1650 there were 40 churches and 
7,750 communicants. Perhaps there may now be (1760) 60,000 to 
70,000 communicants. In 1696 there were 130 churches, of which 
35 were in Connecticut. Now there are 530 churches, of which 170 
are in Connecticut, hence the period of doubling for the churches 
is thirty years at furthest. In 115 years we have increased 500 
churches upon 34 churches." 

* See American Quarterly Register, August, 1834, pp. 20-26. 



264 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Accompanying this discourse there is a list of the clergy of New 
England, each given by name with his residence and denomina- 
tional relations, from which the following table has been compiled. 

Clergy in New England in 1760. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Congregational. 
Presbyterian. . . 

Episcopal 

Baptist 

Friends 



Maine N. H. Mass. 



24 



Total 



27 



39 
4 

2 



291 
2 

16 
20 
15 



48 i 344 



R. I. 

II 

'o 
19 
14 



50 



Conn. 

165 

2 

24 

3 

1 



195 



Total. 

"8 
48 
42 
39 



664 



Note. — Vermont had but a few scattered inhabitants in 1760. 

Province of New York in 1771 * 

The number of inhabitants in the colony was estimated at 
130,000. 

Dutch Reformed. — There were 23 Dutch Reformed ministers, who 
had congregations all of which were considerably large. Most of 
the ministers had two, and some three churches. There were 
besides 24 vacant congregations, some of which Avere of respectable 
size, and were able to support the Gospel if they could have 
obtained ministers. 

Presbyterians. — There were 45 Presbyterian clergymen in the 
province, most of whom had fixed charges, and three of whom had 
none. Many of the congregations were large. There were 15 
vacant congregations. Considerable numbers of Presbyterians were 
scattered in the new settlements who were not collected into con- 
gregations. 

Episcopalians. — There were 21 clergymen in the colony, some of 
whom had large congregations. The churches in New York City, 
" as a corporation, had a very large estate in lands in and adjoin- 
ing the city, granted them by Lord Cornbury," the greater part of 
which, however, some persons for a time claimed as their right ; 
besides a large tract of land in Gloucester County, which they held 
free of encumberance. This tract consisted of 25,000 acres, and 
was granted March 31, 1770. 

LiitJierans. — There were 3 Lutheran ministers in the colon}-, 
and 10 vacant congregations. 

Anabaptists. — There were 12 Anabaptist ministers in the 
^province, and 4 vacant congregations. 



American Quarter/y Register, August, 1834, pp. 26, 27. 



STATISTICS OF THE MIDDLE STATES. 



256 



There were also 2- French Protestant congregations, 3 Moravian, 
17 Quaker meeting houses, 1 congregation of Jews^ and a number 
of separate or lay preachers. There were no Roman Catholics, as 
the public exercise of their religion in the province was prohibited 
by law. 

The Middle States, in 1759.* 

Presbyterians. — This body previously consisted of two synods, 
the New York and Philadelphia; but in May, 1758, they were 
united in one, and called the New York and Philadelphia Synod. 
The following were the presbyteries and the number of ministers in 
each : 



Hanover, Va 14 

Donegal, Md n 

Lewistown, Pa 6 

Newcastle, Pa 11 

Total — 8 presbyters and 99 ministers. 



Philadelphia, Pa 12 

New Brunswick, N.J 11 

New York. N. Y 21 

Suffolk, L. I 13 



Dutch Reformed. — One coetus, or synod, with 20 ministers. 

Lutherans. — In New York, 2 ministers; in Philadephia, 4. 

French Protestants. — Two ministers, in New York City. 

Independents. — On Long Island, three ministers. 

Baptists. — In New York, 3; New Jersey, 5; Pennsylvania, 4 
ministers. 

Episcopalians. — In New York, 7 ministers ; New Jersey, 5 ; 
Pennsylvania, 4 ministers. 

English Missionaries in America, in 1762.* 

The Society for Propagating the Gospel employed the following 
number of missionaries in this country ; 



Massachusetts 8 

New Hampshire 1 

Connecticut 16 

Rhode Island 4 

New York 10 



New Jersey 8 

Pennsylvania 9 

North Carolina 5 

South Carolina 4 

Georgia and Bahama. ....... 2 



Total, 68 missionaries, besides about a dozen school-masters. 

In 1775 all the foregoing denominations had considerably 
increased. Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., who devoted very close atten- 
tion to this subject, gave the following statistics of the number of 
ministers and churches at that time as the result of his investiga- 



* American Quarterly Register, August, 1834, p. 26. 



256 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



tions. It is doubtful whether any thing more satisfactory can now 
be found : 



Statistics of Churches and Ministers in the United States, 

DENOMINATIONS. Ministers. Churches 

Episcopalians 250 300 

Baptists . 350 380 

Congregationalists 575 700 

Presbyterians 140 300 

Lutherans 25 60 

German Reformed 25 60 

Reformed Dutch 25 60 

Associate.. 13 20 

Moravians.. . 12 8 

f Methodists 20 30 

Roman Catholics 26 52 

Total 1,461 1,970 

Population in the Colonial Era. { 



I775-' 



COLONIES. 



Maine 

New Hampshire. 

Vermont 

Massachusetts... . 

Plymouth 

Rhode Island. . . , 

Connecticut , 

New York 

New Jersey.,. . . , 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia 

North Carolina. . . 
South Carolina.. . 
Georgia 



1637. 



7,9*2 
549 



Total White 

Free Colored and Slaves. 



Aggregate . 



400 
20,000 



1654. 



16,026 
2,941 
1,959 
3,186 



1665. 



23,467 
5,320 



16,000 
30,000 



1700. 



4,000 
10,000 

66,000 

10,000 

30,000 

18,000 

15,000 

15,000 

5,000 

25,000 

75,000 

8,000 

7,000 



288,000 
32,000 



320,000 



1750. 



16,000 

30,000 

10,000 

190,000 

32,000 

110,000 

72,000 

60,000 

130.000 

20,000 

90,000 

200,000 

80,000 

50,000 

10,000 



1,100,000 
220,000 



1,320,000 



1775. 



45,000 

90,000 

40,000 

280,000 

50,000 
195,000 
175,000 
120,000 
275,000 

35,000 
160,000 
360,000 
200,000 

90,000 

25,000 



2,140,000 
500,000 



2,640,000 



Note. — The number of Indians in New England in 1675, according to Mr. Bancroft,! was 
about 30,000 ; but the white population, according to the above estimates, was not much less than 
70,000 at that time. The foreign increment for eighty years before the Revolution was not 
large. Savage (Introduction to his Genealogical Dictionary) says : " I suppose that nineteen 
twentieths of the people of these New England colonies in 1775 were descendants of those 
found here in 1692." The proportion was probably not much larger in other colonies. Dr. 
Franklin thought that of the one million English souls in North America in 1751 not eighty 
thousand had been brought over the sea. 



'-Religion in America. By Rev. Robert Baud, D.D. New York: Harper & Brothers. 
1856. P. 210. t Added by the author of this volume. 

% From Seaman's Essays on the Progress 0/ Nations. New York : Charles Scribner. 1852. 
Pp. 570-583., i History 0/ fie United States. Vol. II, p. 93. 



icoo 

11. Gustavus Adolphus the Great. 

Grotius. 
Galileo. 18. The Thirty Years' War begins. 

Kepler. 48. Peace of Westphalia. 

24-42. Richelieu. 43 Louis XIV. 



89. Pet* 



Shakespeare. 
Bacon. 

3. James VI. ) 
James I. J 



Milton. 

49. Cromwell. 

25. Charles I. 42. The Revolution, 



85. Eevocation 
87. Habeas i 

Locke. 

88. Secoi 

88. Willia 

of Mary, 94. W 

60. The Restoration. 

60. Charles II. 85. James 1 



9. Second Charter granted. 42. Berkeley's administration. 

12. The Third Charter. 44. Indian massacre. 

19. House of Burgesses established. 
VIRGINIA colonized by the London 
Company at Jamestown. 

24. Dissolution of the 50 
London Company. 



76. Bacon's Bebellion 
77. Virginia becomes 
51. First Navigation Act. 84. Boyal gove 



19. Introduction of Slavery. 
John Smith, governor. 



83. Seth Sothe 
NORTH CAROLINA settled by the Englis 
63. Grant made to Lord Clarendon. 
85. Sir Johi 
65. Sir John Yeamans, governo 
77. Culpepper's rebe 



34. 



MARYLAND settled by the Catho- 91. Ma 

lies under Lord Baltimore. 75. Charles Calvert. 

39. Bepresentative government established. 92. L 



: 38. Governor Kief. 64. Taken by the English. 91. Sl< 

14. : NEW YORE settled by the Dutch. Berkeley and Carteret. 92. J 

: 47. Stuyvesant. 70. Lovelace. 9 

56. New York City founded. 74. Edm nr 

: 25. Minuits, governor. : 

38. Wilmington settled by the Swedes. 82. :DELA¥AR 



23.: NEW JERSEY settled by the Dutch. 



81. First General i 



29. NEW HAMPSHIRE settled. 
30. Boston founded. 



79, : New Hampshire 

: as a distinct colony. 



30. : MAINE settled. 



76. King Philip's defea 



20. : MASSACHUSETTS settled by the Puritans at Plymouth. 
: 30. Winthrop, governor. 

38. Harvard College founded. 
39. First printing-press set up at Cambridge. 



84. Massach 
90. First 
90. Kim 

92. Wit* 

exci 



36. : RHODE ISLAND settled by Roger Williams. 

: 39. Newport founded. 87. Bh ode I 



30. 



37. Pequod War. 

CONNECTICUT granted to the earl of Warwick. 
35. Saybrook founded. 
33. Hartford founded. 62. New charter granted. 



89. The h 




70. : SOUTH CAROLINA 

: Locke's Constitution adoj 
: 86. Arrival oi 



82. 



PENNSY] 

the Qua 

92. Penri 



700 



he Great. 

iarles XII. 

ar of the Spanish Succession, 
eibnitz. 

13. Peace of Utrecht. 

ct of Nantes. 

15. Louis XV. 

'volution. 

id 3Iary, and after the death 

im III. 



Anne. 14. George I. 27. George II 



62. Catharine II. 

40. Frederick the Great. 

40. War of the Austrian Succession terminated 

by 48. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 89. French 

Revolution. 
93. Reign 

Voltaire. 74. Louis XVI. of Ter- 

ror. 
Dr. Johnson. Burke. 

65. The Rockingham Ministry. 

Newton, Chatham. ***"• 

55. War between France and England. Fox. 
65. The Stamp Act. 
60. George III. 



roprietary government. 
nt re-established. 



32. Birth of Washington. 65. The Virginia: Resolutions. 



ivernor. 

:'. Arrival of the German immigrants. 

rchdale, governor. 

11. The Coree War. 

2! i. Final separation of the Carolinas. 



d becomes a royal government. 
I Copley. 



ter, governor. 
•her. 1. Cornbury. 
llamont. 
ndros. 



44. Negro plot. 58. Fall of Louisburg. 
32. Cosby, governor. 65. Declaration: of Rights. 

54. French and Indian : War. 

65. First Colonial Congress assembles at New York. 



parated from New York. 



lion of East and West Jersey. 
iblv. 



Dr. Benjamin : Franklin. 

38. Royal government established. : 



ited with Massachusetts. 41. : New Hampshire finally sepa- : 

20. Introduction of tea. : rated from Mass. 67. The tea tax. 



death. 
4. First newspaper. 

loses her charter. 

of paper money 
iliam's War. " 

Queen Anne's War. 
10. First post-office. 
it. 



61. Writs of Assistance. 

73. The Boston " Tea Party." 

44. Kin g Georse's War. 75. f^ Lexicon. 

45. [fci*A Louisburg taken. 74. Boston Port Bill. 

r" v * >J 68. General Gage arrives in Boston. 

Quebec 75 
^- taken. 70. 



59. 



ffljfi Bunker Hill. 
I *^ g ^ Tumult in Boston. 



joined to New York. 



of the charter, 
ale College founded. 



led by the English. 

2. Expedition against St. Augustine. 
Huguenots. 29. Roval government established. 



KEA settled by 
under Penn. * 
his commission. 



55. 



te 76. Independence. 

_£j Braddock's defeat. 

74. Second Congress assem- 
bles at Philadelphia. 



33. : GEOKGIA settled by the English : 

: under Oglethorpe. : 

52. Royal government established. 



II. 
THE NATIONAL ERA 



PERIOD I -From 1776 to 1800. 



THE REVOLUTION FORESEEN. 



259 



CHAPTER I. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CHURCHES. 



Sec. I. Union Through Suffering. 

2. Patriotism of the Clergy. 

3. Unfavorable Effects. 

4. Civil Troubles. 



Sec. 5. Sundering of Ecclesiastical Ties. 
" 6. The Churches After the War. 
" 7. Revivals of Religion Rare. 



THE colonial planting and training had its natural consumma- 
tion in the American Revolution. Wise European states- 
men had foreseen it. The colonies of Jamestown and Massa- 
chusetts possessed the genius and daring which ushered in the tedi- 
ous ordeal, and sustained it from Lexington to Yorktown. In the 
Colonial, the Revolutionary, and the National eras the American peo- 
ple bear the same impress and exhibit an essential unity of drift and 
character. The problems of free conscience and free citizenship 
have struggled for solution, with improving phases, from the first 
settlements until now. What an arena for working out these high 
aspirations of humanity ! Struggles which had convulsed the con- 
servative institutions of the Old World were renewed amid the semi- 
conservative conditions of the New World. But, even here, only 
by the throes of a mighty revolution could the better conditions 
intended by Providence for humanity be attained. 



Section 1.— Union Through Suffering. 

A union of the colonies was a condition precedent to American 
nationality. The seed-thought germinated in the mind of Rev. 
Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., of Boston, and was by him first cast into 
the mind of Samuel Adams. In Dr. Mayhew's church there had 
been a communion of the churches. The next day, on the streets 
of Boston, Mayhew met Adams, and, placing his hand upon his 
shoulder, exclaimed, " We have just had a communion of the 
churches, now let us have a union of States." Such was the gene- 
sis, first, of the Colonial, and, later, of the Federal Union. 



260 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

One nationality was essential to constitutional liberty in North 
America. The alternative was petty divisions, waste, and wars — the 
story of continental Europe repeated. France and England had 
competed for the possession of the North American Continent — the 
former the champion of intellectual and political subserviency to the 
papacy, and the latter the asserter of enlightened freedom. The 
contest of these two great powers ended in 1763, when France ceded 
her Canadian possessions to England, abandoned her long military 
cordon along the northern and western frontiers, and thus left the 
Atlantic colonies in assured fealty to the English crown. A great 
impulse was at once given to emigration, and the country rapidly 
filled. 

But no sooner were the colonies relieved from the harassing 
presence of the French-Indian hostilities than they became restless 
under the restraints of dependency and sighed for relief from for- 
eign taxation and dominion. Disputes arose, the most prominent, 
in reference to " The Stamp Act," continuing eighteen years. En- 
gland's right to regulate the foreign commerce was not questioned, 
but "The Stamp Act " violated domestic independence. Claiming 
that Parliament had no jurisdiction within their territory, the colo- 
nies refused to submit. Common interests impelled them to a 
league of domestic amity and fraternal resistance to foreign dicta- 
tion. Gradually they became fused and united ; but time was re- 
quired. 

The organization of the scattered and disjointed American col- 
onies under a general government was brought about by a long 
series of agitations, struggles, and triumphs, extending through a 
period of about forty years — from the French and Indian wars to 
the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The central event of 
this period was the war of the Revolution, a movement, which, con- 
sidered either in respect to its immediate or its more remote conse- 
quences, Americans have proudly regarded as the greatest event of 
modern times. When it occurred it attracted universal attention, 
taxing the sagacity and the energies of the greatest English states- 
men. In the colonies resources unknown before were developed, 
surprising even the most sanguine and determined champions of 
independence, and resulting in the establishment of a new West- 
ern Empire on the principles of freedom and progress. In both 
hemispheres it inaugurated a long* series of progressive movements 
and revolutions, emancipating and elevating society, establishing law 
and authority on a new basis, and investing it with an ever-increas- 
ing importance. 



SUFFERING CAUSED BY THE WAR. 261 

To sketch in detail the manifold calamities of the war, the rav 
aging of the country, the burning of towns, the spirit of fury, vin- 
dictiveness and hatred which fired the hearts of multitudes, with 
many other features of this great contest, does not come within the 
scope of this volume. And yet these things require some allusion 
because of their influence upon the cause of religion. Indeed, the 
war was an event of great religious as well as political significance. 
It was detrimental to morals and religion, opening the door for 
French infidelity by intimate affiliation with that people during the 
struggle, and seriously crippling and enfeebling the churches for more 
than a generation. 

There was no department of society, public, private, social, sec- 
ular, or religious, which did not suffer. The country was impover- 
ished and exhausted. The pecuniary expenses of the war amounted 
to not less than §170,000,000 — a greater outlay, in proportion to the 
wealth of the country, than twenty times that sum would be at the 
present time.* A very considerable portion of this amount re- 
mained in the form of a debt. The sacrifice of human life was also 
great, not less than eighty thousand Americans perishing, or one for 
every forty of the inhabitants. Twelve or fifteen cities and numerous 
villages were burned to ashes. f Industry was fatally crippled, and de- 
mands were made upon the resources of the country which but few 
families could afford to sustain. The virtuous sons of many house- 
holds were transformed into dissipated, discontented, ruined men. 
Numerous houses of worship were either destroyed or so seriously 
desecrated and injured as to be unfit for future use. These were 
the common sufferings of the people. 



Section £.— Patriotism of the Clergy. 

The parish ministers in those days commanded unbounded influ- 
ence and profound respect, and effectively molded thought in civil 

* Massachusetts, with about 240,000 inhabitants, expended in the war about .£818,000; for 
,£490,000 of it she received no reimbursement. Connecticut, with a population of 146,000, ex- 
pended upward of £400,000. Massachusetts annually, according to Dr. Trumbull, sent into the 
field 5,500 men, and in one year 7,000 men. Connecticut had about 3 000 men in the field, and 
for some time 6,000. In some years these two colonies alone had 1 0,000 men in actual service. 

fThe city of New York was nearly ruined by the war. The very week of the capture of the 
city five hundred houses were destroyed by fire, and three years later three hundred more. Dur- 
ing the seven years of the war there was little building, and the burnt districts were blackened 
heaps. The commerce was gone ; the treasury, what was it ? and her citizens were starving in 
the wilds whither they had fled. 



262 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

as well as ecclesiastical matters. The reverential regard for the clergy* 
of the early colonial times had not much waned in New England at 
the time of the Revolution. 

Politico-religious sermons were early introduced into New En- 
gland. As early as 1633 the governor and council of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony began to appoint one of the clergy to preach 
on the day of election — which was the first of the long list of 
" Election Sermons.'' Governor Winthrop's critical notice of the 
discourse of Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, in June, 1641, is the 
earliest sketch of an Election Sermon now extant. By the charter 
of William and Mary, October 7, 1691, the last Wednesday in May 
was established as " election day," and it remained so until the Revo- 
lution. This was the date on which the new General Court, as the 
Legislature of Massachusetts has ever been called, assembled, and 
the election sermon was at the opening of the session. Another 
sermon was also delivered, a little time after, on what was called the 
artillery election day. The sermons on these occasions discussed 
politico-religious topics, were printed, and widely circulated. They 
reasoned, instructed, and discussed speculative questions of govern- 
ment, " when there was nothing in practice which could give any 
grounds for forming parties." 

These discourses were a remarkable feature in the opening of 
the war of the Revolution. In his speech on conciliating the colo- 
nies; March 22, 1775, Edmund Burke referred to the effects of this 
custom. He said : 

It contributed no mean part toward the growth of the untraceable spirit, of the 
colonies — I mean their education. In no country in the world, perhaps, is the law 
so general a study. . . . All who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain 
some smattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent book-seller, that 
in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books 
as those on law transported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen 
into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have sold nearly 
as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in England. General Gage 
marks this disposition very particularly. He states that all the people in his gov- 
ernment are lawyers, or smatterers in law. 

The annual election sermons widely promoted the study of 
political ethics, which had become a prominent feature in New En- 
gland history in the middle of the last century, and laid the founda- 
tion for that " earnestness which consciousness of right begets, and 
those appeals to principle which distinguished the colonies." The 
highest glory of the American Revolution, in the estimation of Hon. 

* See pp. 153-156. 



PATRIOTISM OF THE CLERGY. 263 

John Quincy Adams, was the ripe fruitage of this old custom: "It 
connected, with one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil gov- 
ernment with the principles of Christianity." 

Occupying a position of such eminent respect and influence in 
society, it is not strange that the clergy shared the sympathy of the 
people in the civil struggles through which they were passing, and 
that "The Pulpit of the Revolution" came to be one of the great 
factors of the times in the Middle and the New England colonies. 
God was invoked in the civil assemblies, and the teachers of religion 
were called upon for counsel from the Bible. Sermons were preached, 
religion and politics were closely united, and with Bibles and bayo- 
nets they entered into the struggle. " This was the secret of that 
moral energy which sustained the Republic in its material weakness 
against superior numbers and discipline, and all the power of En- 
gland. To these sermons the State fixed its imprimatur, and thus 
they were handed down to future generations with a twofold claim 
to respect."" 

The first sermon bearing directly upon the new era dates back to 
the inception of the pre-Revolutionary struggle. In 1750, Rev. 
Jonathan Mayhew, D.D., the foremost minister of Boston, preached 
" A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance 
to the Higher Powers" In 1766 Rev. Charles Chauncy, D.D., of 
Boston, preached a thanksgiving sermon on the repeal of the Stamp 
Act, in which political matters were ably handled. In 1770 Rev. 
Samuel Cook, D.D., of Cambridge, preached an election sermon 
upon "Civil Government for the Good of the People." In 1774 Rev. 
William Gaden, of Roxbury, preached upon the " Christian Duty 
of Resistance to Tyrants ; Prepare for War; Appeal to Heaven.'''' 
In 1775 Rev. Samuel Langdon, D.D., of Watertown, Mass., preached 
upon "Government, Corrupted by Vice; Recovered by Righteousness." 
In 1778 Rev. Phillips Paxson, of Chelsea, preached a sermon upon 
"Popular Government, the True Spirit of Liberty." 

These are typical specimens of the numerous sermons by the 
New England clergy. Those of the Middle States were not back- 
ward. While all classes of citizens entered heartily into the war, 
the clergy, as a body, were pre-eminent for their attachment to lib- 
erty, sharing in the patriotic and self-denying spirit of the struggle, 
encouraging and stimulating the hearts of the people. The pulpits 
of the land rang with the notes of freedom. Thanksgiving, fast- 
day and election sermons abounded in pointed, patriotic appeals, in 

* The Pulpit of the American Revolution. Preface by J. W. Thornton. Boston: Gould & 
Lincoln, i860. 



264 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES, 

clear expositions of Divine law and its application to civil govern- 
ments and to rulers. 

The Martial Spirit. 

Interesting examples may be cited. The town of Sturbridge, 
in Massachusetts, " voted to provide four half-barrels of powder. 
five hundredweight of lead, and five hundred flints," as a donation 
to the public service. At another meeting, held a month later, the 
selectmen were instructed to furnish still more. On this occasion 
the pastor of the Congregational Church " came forward and pro- 
posed to pay for one cask of powder himself," at a cost of about one- 
fifth part of his salary, and a Baptist deacon, in the absence of his 
minister, became responsible " for bullets to match," In Danvers, 
Mass., the deacon of the parish was elected captain of the minute- 
men, and the minister his lieutenant. The company, it is said, 
after its field exercise, would sometimes repair to the "'meeting- 
house " to hear a patriotic sermon, or would partake of an enter- 
tainment at the town-house, where the zealous " sons of liberty" 
would exhort them to fight bravely for God and their country. 
At Lunenburg. Mass., the minute company, after drill, marched to 
a public house for an entertainment, honored by the presence of pa- 
triotic clergy from adjacent towns, and then marched in procession to 
the " meeting-house/' where a sermon was delivered. Xor was the 
First Church, Boston, at all behind in patriotism. It voted to melt 
up the lead weights upon the church clock for bullets and use other 
metal in their stead. The parish kept up its stated worship during 
all the troublous period. 

It was said that the great revivalist. Rev. William Tennent, who, 
like Enoch, " walked with God." was a most strenuous asserter of 
the liberties of his country, both in council and in the field. Rev. 
Dr. Witherspoon. of New Jersey, preached a sermon in May, 1776, 
in which he entered fully into the great political questions of the 
day. Rev. Mr. Miller, of Dover, N. J., preached from these words: 
" We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son 
of Jesse ; every man to his tent, O Israel." Rev. Robert Davidson, 
of Philadelphia, at the commencement of the war preached before 
several military companies from these words: "For there fell down 
many slain ; because the war was of God."' 

Xor was their zeal in word only. In numerous instances the 
younger ministers girded on their country's armor and fought with 
carnal weapons, while others served as chaplains, and others still per- 
formed the best practical service at home. 



INVENTION OF THE BLUE LAWS. 265 

Of Rev. John Craighead it is said that " he fought and preached 
alternately." Rev. Dr. Cooper was captain of a military company. 
Rev. John Blair Smith, president of Hampden-Sidney College, 
was captain of a company that rallied to support the retreating 
Americans after the battle of Cowpens. Rev. James Hall com- 
manded a company that armed against Cornwallis. Rev. Wm. 
Graham rallied his own neighbors to dispute the passage of Rock- 
fish Gap with Tarleton and his British dragoons. Rev. Dr. Ashbel 
Green was an orderly sergeant. Rev. Dr. Moses Hodge served in 
the army of the Revolution. Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, of Sharon, 
Conn., entered the army as chaplain, where his conduct was so ex- 
emplary that he won the special confidence of his commander, Gen- 
eral Schuyler. 

Many of the clergy suffered for their patriotism. Rev. John 
Rodgers, D.D., was forced to absent himself from New York until 
after the close of the war; Rev. Mr. McKnight, of Shrewsbury, N. 
J., was carried off a captive ; Richards, of Rah way, N. J., took warn- 
ing and left ; McCalla was confined for months in a loathsome prison 
ship, near Quebec; Azel Roe, of Woodbridge, N. J., was confined, 
a prisoner, in the old Sugar House; Rev. John Bosborugh, of Al- 
lentown, N. J., was shot down in cold blood by a party of Hessians 
to whom he had surrendered ; and Rev. Samuel Mills, of Saybrook, 
Conn., was wounded and taken prisoner. 

Peters, of Blue Law Notoriety. 

In Connecticut the war spirit ran high, and every body took sides. 
Rev. Samuel Andrew Peters, an Episcopal minister, of Hebron, 
used his Tory pen and influence in a way very offensive to " the 
Sons of Liberty." They determined he should be stopped. General 
Peters often minutely described the mobs which he witnessed. He 
was a nephew of the victim, though not a Tory. Men came on 
horseback from the neighboring towns, and the reverend gentleman 
was marched down to the central green, where a pot of tar was 
simmering, with a bag of feathers close at hand. These articles, 
however, were not used, because from the horse-block, under the 
pressure, Rev. Mr. Peters read a recantation. The recantation, 
however, did not hold, and after three repetitions Mr. Peters fled to 
England, where he revenged himself by writing a History of Connecti- 
vity by a Gentleman of the Province. It was indeed a revenge, for, 
says an eminent divine, " It has been impossible to squelch the 
lies of that book." His tales of the Blue Laws — base fabrica- 



266 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

tions * — have been repeatedly disproved and as often re-asserted.f 
" Even annihilation seems to have had no effect upon them." 



Prayer in Congress. 

The voice of the clergy was also heard, as chaplains, in halls of 
legislation. By the request of the first Congress, Rev. Jacob Duche, 
D.D., of Philadelphia, offered prayer at the opening of its deliber- 
ations, a copy of which has been transmitted to our day. 

Dr. Duche preached a sermon on the death of Hon. Peyton 
Randolph, first president of the Congress, and also on the occasion 
of a public fast, both of which, says Bishop White, were strongly 
imbued with a patriotic spirit, and led to his appointment as chap- 
lain to Congress. Dr. Duche subsequently vacillated, however, 
when the British took possession of Philadelphia, and left the 
country. 

It must be confessed that the preaching of the Gospel and the 
influence of the ministry, in those days, were "rather martial than 
sanctifying and spiritual." It seems, however, to have been una- 
voidable. The cause of the country was believed to be a just one 
and divinely sanctioned. The resources of the country, in men and 
means, were felt to be small. In some of the colonies there was 
great hesitation, in others the royalist party was numerous and con- 
fident, and their enemy had been long accustomed to victory on sea 
and land. The odds were fearful indeed, and every influence was 
needed to support the cause of independence. The colonial pulpit, 
having always wielded immense power, improved their opportuni- 
ties to address the people, thinly scattered over a large territory, 
and accustomed to assemble only on the Sabbath. As a natural 
result, in the course of such exciting scenes, every-where engrossing 
the attention of all, ecclesiastical matters received little attention. 
In some cases, however, and probably not a few, the more devout 
members of the churches were drawn nearer to God in prayer, and 
days of fasting and prayer were numerous and well observed. But 
in many localities the means of grace were wholly suspended for a 
long time and the religious safeguards were broken down. In cities 
occupied by the enemy the pastors fled. Out of nineteen church 
edifices in New York city only nine were fit for worship when the 
war closed. 

*Hon. J. S. Peters, M.D., LL.D., ex-Governor of Connecticut, says of them, that they are 
" apochryphal and ludicrous," and never should be quoted as of " historical authority." 
+ See pp. 115, 116. 



RELIGIOUS BODIES AFTER THE WAR. 267 



Section 3.— Unfavorable Effects. 

The unfavorable influence of the war upon the different relig- 
ious bodies deserves more extended notice. 

The Congregational churches, being confined almost wholly to 
New England, suffered chiefly in Boston during the possession of 
the city by the English. All their pastors except two, Drs. Samuel 
Mather and Andrew Eliot, left during the siege. In a few other 
localities pastors supposed to be favorable to the royal cause were 
dismissed from their churches. 



The Episcopal Church 

was the greatest sufferer. All its pastors in Boston left, with Gen- 
eral Howe, on the memorable 17th of March, 1776. The colonial 
clergy of the English Church, being almost wholly foreigners and 
loyal to the British Crown, mostly deserted the country. In Vir- 
ginia this denomination suffered most seriously. No statesmen were 
more forward in the cause of the Revolution than those of Virginia, 
notwithstanding a majority of its people were Episcopalians. A 
part of the Episcopal clergy, among whom may be mentioned Rev. 
Messrs. Bracken, Belmaine, Buchanan, Jarratt, Griffith and Davis, 
were assured friends of the colonies. Rev. Mr. Muhlenburg became 
a colonel in the American Army, served through the war and retired 
with the rank of brigadier. But most of the clergy fled to England. 
The celebrated Virginia rector of those times, the Rev. Devereux 
Jarratt, in a letter to Rev. John Wesley, in 1773, said that within 
the limits of the Virginia Colony there were ninety-five parishes, 
all of which except one were supplied with clergymen. At a later 
period the historian of the Episcopal Church in Virginia gave the 
following statistical statement : 

When the colonists first resorted to arms Virginia in her 61 counties contained 
95 parishes, 164 churches and chapels, and 91 clergymen. When the contest was 
over, she came out of the war with a large number of her churches destroyed or 
injured irreparably, with 23 of her 95 parishes extinct or forsaken-, and of the 
remaining 72, 34 were destitute of ministerial services, while of her 91 clergymen 
28 only remained who had lived through the storm ; and these with eight others, 
who came into the State soon after the struggle terminated, supplied 36 of the par- 
ishes. Of these 28, 15 only had been enabled to continue in the churches which 
they supplied prior to the commencement of hostilities, and 13 had been driven 
from their cures by violence or want.* 

* Hawks's Contributions, pp. 153, 154. 



268 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The Methodist Church. 

Methodism was scarcely ten years old in America when national 
independence was declared, and it was not organized as the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church until eight years later ; but it was already 
an active, earnest and growing power. The first Methodist mission- 
aries coming from England, and ecclesiastically under the direction 
of Rev. John Wesley, public suspicion was, naturally, provoked 
against them, occasioning in some cases severe suffering. All but 
three of those who came from England — Asbury, Dempster and 
Whatcoat — left the country at the outbreak of the Revolution. But 
the imputation of disloyalty was unfounded. Wesley, however, 
gave some occasion to this suspicion by his "Calm Address to the 
American Colonies" — an abridgment of his friend Dr. Johnson's 
" Taxation No Tyranny " — breathing a spirit of devout loyalty. 
This was before the war, and it is due to Wesley to say that when 
the war really began he was on the side of the colonists. The day 
after the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord came to 
England, Wesley wrote to Lord North and the Earl of Dartmouth, 
saying: 

1 am a High Churchman, bred up in my childhood in the highest notions of 
passive obedience and non-resistance; and yet, in spite of my long-rooted prej- 
udices, I cannot avoid thinking these an oppressed people, asking for nothing more 
than their legal rights, and that in the most modest and inoffensive manner that 
the nature of the thing would allow. But, waiving this, I ask, is it common sense 
to use force toward the Americans ? 

Nevertheless the Methodists came to be regarded as a danger- 
ous people. The remarkable prudence and caution of Rev. Francis 
Asbury,*" the chief minister of the denomination in America, only 
for a short time shielded him. He was compelled to remain com- 
paratively quiet during a considerable portion of that long and ter- 
rible struggle. 

In some sections of the country American-born Methodist 
preachers, such as Waters, Garrettson, Cooper, Hartley, Boyer, Gatch, 
Abbott and others, in the midst of many embarrassments and stern 
conflicts, pursued their itinerant rounds, zealously exhorting, preach- 
ing and building up societies. 

In Maryland, where the Methodist preachers were the most 
numerous, the civil magistrates seemed to be disposed to construe every 

* Mr. Asbury was arrested near Baltimore, and fined, not because he had been guilty of any 
overt act against the new government, but because he, in common with his brethren, was suspected 
of loving the Church of England, and, therefore, of entertaining dangerous political views. He 
afterward was released and discontinued preaching, living in Delaware two years in retirement. 



SUSPICIONS AND PERSECUTIONS. 269 

legal restriction vigorously against them. <k Some of the preachers were 
mulcted or fined, and others were imprisoned, for no other offense 
than traveling and preaching the Gospel ; and others were bound 
over in bonds and heavy penalties and sureties not to preach in this 
or that county. Several were arrested and committed to the com- 
mon jail ; others were personally insulted or badly abused ; some 
were beaten with stripes and blows nigh unto death and carried 
their scars down to the grave." Freeborn Garrettson was one of 
the sufferers, being committed to prison several times in different 
counties, and also beaten and wounded, to the shedding of blood, 
nigh unto death. Nathan Forest and William Wren were com- 
mitted to jail ; another was treated to a coat of tar and feathers ; 
Joseph Hartley was but under penal bonds of five hundred 
pounds not to preach again in Queen Ann's County; and in Talbot 
County the same preacher was whipped by a young lawyer and 
imprisoned ; Caleb Pedicord was whipped and badly injured on the 
public road.* In the midst of these indignities and sufferings they 
toiled and triumphed. 

At the close of the war it was found that the number of Meth- 
odist preachers had more than doubled, and the communicants had 
increased two and a half fold. But it was the result of an unsur- 
passed zeal and prudence in formidable difficulties. Probably no 
other religious body can show such a record of progress during this 
trying period. 

The German Reformed Church 

was well represented in the Revolutionary struggle. There were 
German regiments and generals of " the line," like De Kalb, De 
Woedtke and Baron Steuben, the latter of this communion. Some 
German ministers were ardent advocates of Independence, as Rev. 
John H. Weikel, of Montgomery County, Pa., and Rev. C. D. Wey- 
berg, D.D., of Philadelphia, who was imprisoned for his patriotism, 
and his church occupied by British soldiers. He had not only 
preached patriotic sermons to the American soldiers, but had sub- 
sequently addressed the Hessians on the justice of the American 
cause ; and it was said that had he not been silenced the whole body 
of those mercenaries would have left the British service. On^the first 
Sunday after his liberation he suggestively addressed his congrega- 

* The Assembly of Maryland at last became satisfied that these preachers had no treasonable 
aims, and allowed them to exercise their functions without taking the oath of allegiance. Dur- 
ing the remainder of the war the few Methodist preachers who remained in the country preached 
freely in Maryland. 

13 



270 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

tion on the words, " O God, the heathen have come into thine 
inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled." Psa. 79. 1. 
Schlatter was imprisoned for his sympathy with the American cause. 
Hendel was accompanied by armed men, when he preached at 
Lykens Valley, to protect him from the Indians made hostile by 
British influence. Rev. John Conrad Buckner, a military officer 
during the French and Indian war, had become a minister of the 
Gospel, and rendered great service to the Revolutionary army. 
Rev. J. C. A. Helffenstein, pastor at Lancaster, when the captive 
Hessians were kept there preached to them on, " For thus saith 
the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be 
redeemed without money." * 

The Presbyterian Church. 

" The influence of the war upon the condition and prospects of 
the Presbyterian Church throughout the country was most disas- 
trous. Its members were almost all decided patriots, and its minis- 
ters almost to a man were accounted arch-rebels. Their well-known 
views and sympathies made them especially obnoxious to the enemy, 
and to be known as a Presbyterian was to incur all the odium of a 
'•Whig.' It is not strange, therefore, that they should have been 
the marked victims of hostility, or that they should have been in 
many cases mercilessly molested in property and person. In initiat- 
ing the Revolution and in sustaining the patriotic resistance of their 
countrymen to illegal tyranny the ministers of the Presbyterian Church 
bore a conspicuous and even a foremost part. . . . They preached the 
duty of resisting tyrants. They cheered their people in the dreary 
periods of the conflict by inspiring lofty trust in the God of nations. 
Some of them were engaged personally in the army ; some occupied a 
place in the civil councils ; others were personal sufferers from the 
vengeance of an exasperated foe ; and others still sealed their devo- 
tion to their country by their blood." f 

" The church edifices were often taken possession of by an insolent 
soldiery and turned into hospitals or prisons, or perverted to still 
baser uses, as stables or riding-schools. The church at Newtown, 
N. J., had its steeple sawed off, and was used as a prison and guard- 
house till it was torn down, and its siding was used for the soldiers' 
huts. The church at Crumpond was burned to save it from being 

* Historic Manual of the Reformed Church. By Rev. Joseph Henry Dubbs, D.D. Lan- 
caster, Pa. 1885. Pp. 229-232. 

\ History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 
Vol. I, p. i£So. 



AFTER THE WAR. 271 

occupied by the enemy. That of Mount Holly was burned by 
accident or design. The one at Princeton was taken possession of 
by the Hessian soldiers and stripped of its pews and gallery for fuel. 
A fire-place was built in it and a chimney carried up through its 
roof. . . . The church at Westfield was injured by the enemy and 
its bell carried off to New York." Similar facts might be given 
concerning the churches at Babylon, L. I., New Windsor, Morris- 
town, Elizabethtown, N. J., etc. We have previously stated that the 
enemy took possession of the churches in New York. They were 
used for prisons and as stables for horses. Ethan Allen said that the 
filth which accumulated in one of which he knew " was intolerable." 
" The loathsome victims of disease, foul with their own excrements, 
lay stretched upon the floor." 

Even where church edifices were unmolested the congregations 
were often scattered, the ordinances oi religion ceased ; and, in 
numerous instances after the war, churches had to be reorganized. 
Such pastors as Rodgers, of New York ; Richards, of Railway ; 
Prime, of Huntington; Duffield, of Philadelphia, etc., were com- 
pelled to flee for their lives, while Caldwell, of Elizabethtown ; Allen, 
of Midway, Ga., and others fell victims of the fierce conflict. Schools 
and colleges were broken up or suspended. Young men who should 
have entered the ministry were turned aside from their purpose. 
Religion suffered serious decay, and the churches presented a wide 
scene of desolation. The church at Newtown, N. J., is said to have 
numbered only five members at the close of the war, and many 
others were in the same condition. The session of the Synod of 
Philadelphia and New York, in 1780, was held with only fifteen min- 
isters and four elders, and in 1781 with only twenty-one ministers 
and four elders. 

At the close of the war the country was impoverished, the cur- 
rency had depreciated, and the churches were in a state of profound 
religious apathy, from which, for some years, it seemed impossible 
to arouse them. Other denominations passed through similar priva- 
tions, especially the Baptists, who were stanch supporters of the 
rebellion against Great Britain. 



Section 4.— Civil Troubles After the War. 

But the war itself was not the only cause of embarrassment to 
the churches. A long series of national difficulties, dissensions and 
distractions followed. The condition of the country was not one 



272 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of entire quiet and repose, even after the peace of 1783, notwith- 
standing the relief from the tumult and vexations of war. The 
achievement of national independence brought with it new and more 
difficult responsibilities as well as greater advantages. Relief from 
external enemies was followed by internal clamors and animosities, 
which sprang out of complications in adjusting the civil polity. The 
task of harmonizing the foreign relations was not an easy one, but it 
was even more difficult to satisfactorily arrange the internal affairs — 
questions of trade, of finance, and the relations of the States both 
to each other and to the general government. Difficulties soon 
arose with Great Britain in regard to the treaty, taxing the wisdom 
and firmness of the best statesmen. The financial distress, too, 
which grew out of the impoverished condition of the country, the 
paper currency and its depreciation, and the enforcement of the 
taxes upon a people who had been reduced to such sad extremes, 
kept the nation in a state of constant irritation and despondency. 

Several local rebellions broke out ; the affair at King's Mount- 
ain, Virginia, and soon after another in Washington County, Vir- 
ginia (1785) ; the insurrection against the Pennsylvania authorities 
by the Connecticut settlers in Wyoming (1786) ; the armed mob at 
Exeter, surrounding the New Hampshire Legislature and demand- 
ing a remission of the taxes, etc. (1786), and the Shay's rebellion in 
Massachusetts, originating from a similar cause (1786-87). Con- 
tentions also sprang up with Spain in regard to boundaries and the 
navigation of the Mississippi (1786). 

The National Constitution. 

In all these troubles the weakness of Congress, under the old 
articles of confederation, was seen and deeply felt — a want of 
power to act strongly and effectively. The confederation produced 
no security against foreign invasion, Congress not being permitted 
to prevent a war nor to support it by its own authority. The 
Federal Government could not check a quarrel between States nor 
a rebellion in any, not having the constitutional power nor the 
means to interpose; nor could it defend itself against the encroach- 
ments of the States,* not even being paramount to the State con- 
stitutions. These defects in the articles of confederation became 
increasingly apparent each year, and the embarrassments which 
grew out of them were becoming so serious as to threaten the dis- 

* Speech of Hon. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, in the convention that framed the Consti- 
tution of the United States. Madison" 1 s Works. Vol. II, p. 730. 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 273 

solution of the national government. Hon. James Madison, in a 
letter to Hon. Edmund Randolph (Feb. 25, 1787), said: 

Our situation is becoming every day more and more critical. No money comes 
into the Federal treasury, no respect is paid to the Federal authority, and people 
of reflection unanimously agree that the existing Confederacy is tottering to its 
foundation. Many individuals of weight, particularly in the Eastern District, are 
suspected of leaning toward monarchy. Other individuals predict a division of 
the States into two or more confederacies. It is pretty certain that if some radi- 
cal amendment of the single one cannot be devised and introduced, one or other 
of these revolutions, the latter, no doubt, will take place. I hope you are bending 
your thoughts seriously to the great work of guarding against both.* 

Such was the condition of things which called for the framing 
of the Federal Constitution in 1787. But after its completion great 
agitations attended its adoption in some of the States. The Jacobin 
intrigue followed in 1793-94, with numerous " Democratic societies," 
or politico-infidel clubs, organized in all parts of the land under the 
instigation of M. Genet, minister of the Jacobin Government in 
Paris, for the purpose of involving our nation in another war with 
England. Then came the Whisky Rebellion in Pennsylvania, in 1794. 
Near the close of this decade a powerful party called the " State 
Rights Party " sprang up in several States, threatening serious mis- 
chief by their radical theories antagonistic to the central principles 
of the Federal Constitution. Such were the Kentucky resolutions 
of 1798, and those of Virginia in 1799, which agitated and disturbed 
the public mind. 

The last thirteen years of the last century have been character- 
ized as " an era of bad feeling." There was much political excite- 
ment growing out of questions connected with the organization of 
the government, together with the wild, reckless, revolutionary 
spirit with which the French Revolution and French infidelity had 
fired many minds. Parties grew out of the issues, Federalism and 
Democracy ran high, separating families and churches. In the 
midst of such distractions it was difficult to accomplish very much 
in the more quiet sphere of religious efforts. It was the dark age 
of American Christianity. 



Section 5.— Sundering of Ecclesiastico-CiYil Ties. 

But the influence of this great contest was not altogether disad- 
vantageous. The great struggles and sacrifices were followed by 
great gains. The scattered colonies, united by fellow-sufferings in 

* Papers of James Madison. Vol. II, p. 620. 



274 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

a common cause, became an independent nation, a condition for 
which they were clearly destined by Providence. In respect to 
territory and material resources it was already an empire of no 
mean proportions, located apart from the rest of the world, with 
distinctly marked natural boundaries. Thus situated civil in- 
dependence started the country upon a grand national career 
with great advantages, in which the churches must inevitably par- 
ticipate. 

Among these advantages, particular prominence should be given 
to the liberation of the churches from the trammels of the civil 
power. Freedom of thought and action had come to be regarded 
as essential conditions for the unrestrained operation of the religious 
motives. In the exercise of such inalienable rights no civil power 
should interfere. Where they are untrammeled, a congenial soil is 
found for the growth of deep religious convictions and the quick 
propagation of religious impulses. Such guarantees also invest the 
personal religious convictions with peculiar dignity and sanctity. 
During the Revolutionary struggle the idea of religious liberty 
gained a fuller development than ever before, and the popular cur- 
rent, setting so strongly against both monarchical and hierarchical 
assumptions, afforded an opportunity for numerous bodies of dis- 
senters from the established churches in the various colonies to cast 
off the yoke which had long oppressed them. Two results, there- 
fore, followed the achievement of national independence : the sun- 
dering of the ecclesiastico-civil relations at home, and separation 
from European ecclesiasticisms. 

Prior to the Revolution several religiousdenominations had been 
dependent upon official bodies in the mother countries for ecclesi- 
astical prerogatives and the sacraments. The Protestant Episcopal 
and the Roman Catholic churches were subject to their respective 
bishops in London. Similar relations were sustained by the Meth- 
odist societies, the German Reformed, and some other bodies. On 
account of these foreign relations, many embarrassments and re- 
ligious privations were suffered. Immediately after the Revolution 
these relations were dissolved and national organizations were 
formed. The first that effected a national organization was the 
Methodist Episcopal Church ; then the Roman Catholic in part, 
receiving American bishops but still remaining subject to the 
Roman Pontiff; then the Protestant Episcopal Church, etc. Each 
also, in nearly the same order, recognized the Federal Government, 
and tendered their congratulations to General Washington on his 
elevation to the Presidency of the United States. 



RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 275 

In the Several States. 

The sundering of the civil relations in the several States was 
also inevitable, although not very easily effected, and not so com- 
plete at first as at a subsequent period. On the eve of the Revo- 
lution the equality of all Protestant sects had been acknowledged 
in Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania, and only in the two 
latter colonies did toleration extend to the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion. In New York and Massachusetts Roman Catholic priests 
were liable to imprisonment and even death. It has been noticed 
that in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire Congre- 
gationalism was the established religion.* In all the southern col- 
onies the Church of England had a similar civil support, and, with 
some slight modifications, it sustained such relations in New Jersey 
and New York. But after the Revolution there was a general 
breaking up of these ecclesiastico-civil unions, in some instances 
immediate and complete, while in others it was only begun. 

The Church of England, the great majority of whose members were Loyalists, 
lost by the Revolution the establishment it had possessed in the southern colo- 
nies, and the official countenance and the privileges it had enjoyed in New York 
and New Jersey. But it retained its parsonages, glebe-lands and other endow- 
ments, which in some of the States, and especially in the city of New York, were 
by no means inconsiderable.! 

But " there were not wanting those who cast a lingering look on the care of 
the State for public worship." The conservative convention of Maryland declared 
that "the Legislature may, in their discretion, lay a general and equal tax for trie 
support of the Christian religion, leaving to each individual the apportioning the 
money collected from him to the support of any particular place of public worship 
or minister ; " but the power granted was never exercised. For a time Massa- 
chusetts required of towns or religious societies " the support of public Protest- 
ant teachers of piety, religion and morality " of their own election ; but as each 
man chose his own religious society the requisition had no effect in large towns, 
and was hardly felt elsewhere as a grievance. % In Connecticut the Puritan wor- 
ship was still closely interwoven with the State, and had molded the manners, 
habits and faith of the people; but the complete disentanglement was gradually 
brought about by inevitable processes of legislation. § 

The Second Constitution of South Carolina declared " the Chris- 
tian Protestant religion " to be the established religion of that 
State. Persons assenting to certain doctrinal tests were allowed to 
form churches and elect their own ministers, but pecuniary contri- 
butions were to be voluntary. 

* See chapter on Church and State, pp. 82-124. 
t Hildreth's History of the United States. Vol. Ill, p. 383. 

% This provision was not wholly amended until 1833. The grievance was greater, however, 
than here acknowledged. § Bancroft's History of the United States. Vol. IX, p. 277. 



276 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In New England, in the early modifications of the relation of 
the Church to the State, the Puritan principle was not at once wholly 
eliminated ; but provision was still retained that every man, as a 
good citizen, was in duty bound not only to " attend meeting," but 
he must " support the minister ; " voluntarily, if he would, otherwise, 
from necessity. Between 1780 and 1795, the law was so amended 
in the New England States that a person in order to be exempt 
from taxation must be a member of some other than the Congre- 
gational denomination, and must prove by certificate that he regu- 
larly attended religious services elsewhere on the Lord's day. If 
satisfactory evidence was not produced, he was assessed and taxed. 
In default of payment, the parish collector often entered the dwell- 
ing of honest poverty, took away platters, tables, chairs and andirons, 
and even sold at auction " the cow of the poor laborer." Appeals 
were made to higher tribunals, but only to the disadvantage and 
perhaps ruin of the plaintiff. Men were thus compelled to build 
" meeting-houses " they never entered, and to support ministers they 
never heard. After the commencement of this century men were 
exempted from taxation at their express request, and finally '• Tol- 
eration Acts" swept from the statute-books the last vestige of these 
obnoxious laws. 

In Virginia, by the " Religious Freedom Act " of 1785 all parish 
rates and doctrinal tests were abolished. The constitutions of New 
York, Delaware and Maryland excluded priests and ministers of re- 
ligion from all public offices. In Georgia they could not become 
members of the Assembly. In Maryland all gifts for pious uses 
were absolutely prohibited by the Constitution, except grants of 
land, not exceeding two acres each, for churches and church-yards. 
The constitutions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, North 
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia expressly repudiated all com- 
pulsion in church attendance and church rates. 

A Few Religious Tests Remained 

for a short time, in some of the States, which excluded Roman Cath- 
olics and Jews from citizenship, but 

They were eliminated almost as soon as their inconvenience attracted atten- 
tion. The great result was accomplished from the beginning ; the Church no 
longer formed a part of the State, and religion, ceasing to be a servant of the gov- 
ernment or an instrument of dominion, asserted its independence and became a 
life in the soul. Public worship was voluntarily sustained. The Church, no longer 
subordinate to a temporal power, regained its unity by having no visible head and 
becoming an affair of the conscience of each individual. Nowhere was persecu- 



THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. 211 

tion for religious opinion so nearly at an end as in America. ... In this universal 
freedom of conscience and worship, America, composed as it was of emigrants 
from many countries, formed its nationality ; for nationality is not an artificial prod- 
uct, and can neither be imported nor taken away.* 

Early Pecuniary Disadvantages. 

The sundering of these relations to the civil power was attended 
with some pecuniary disadvantages at first. The pastor's salary, 
which had been promptly paid out of the town treasury in New 
England, and by some similar arrangement elsewhere, was thence- 
forth often delayed and sometimes paid in barter. His home was 
sometimes turned into a seminary for a half dozen boys whom he 
fitted for college. Rev. Elihu Goodrich, D.D., of Durham, Conn., 
had usually from fifteen to thirty young students under his care at 
once. In this way, with his small salary of $333 34 per year, and a 
few acres of parsonage land, he was enabled to educate his five sons 
at college and prepare them for public life. A hundred years ago, 
outside of large towns the minister's salary was a mere pittance. 
Even the highly-esteemed Joseph Buckminster's "settlement was 
upon the value of wheat and Indian corn, and varied extremely in 
different years; but never did the amount exceed six or seven hun- 
dred dollars." f In some sections the pastor was allowed " $130, 
with glebe-lands and parsonage, and the donations from strangers," or 
money put upon "the plate " which was kept in a conspicuous place 
in the meeting-house to receive the offerings of transient attendants. 

The union of Church and State, and the paying of Church ex- 
penses out of State or town funds for so long a period, largely sus- 
pended voluntary giving. Dandled in this profane lap and schooled 
under this profane tuition, it is not strange that prejudice against 
voluntary pecuniary offerings should have become strongly in- 
trenched in the natural selfishness of the human heart, and that for 
some time the churches should have suffered. Giving and worship, 
in all the earlier ages, and in the letter and spirit of Christianity, 
had been blended. Under the Church and State regimen they were 
divorced. After the Revolution the banns, long discarded, were pro- 
claimed anew. But the affinities had been seriously deranged, and the 
reunion was slowly consummated. Poverty, inconvenience and shame 
were for a while experienced in the churches under the new voluntary 
system, but in the subsequent periods we shall record its triumph. 

After the Revolution, too, the language of the people and the 

* History of the United States. By Hon. George Bancroft. Vol. IX, p. 275. 
t Memoir of Joseph Btickminster, D.D., p. 69. 



278 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

language of the Church services, which had in some localities been 
foreign, became Anglicised. The Dutch peculiarities became less 
distinctive in New York. The signs over the stores showed the 
change. Along the slips of the Hudson the Dutch language was 
no longer the media of commerce. The three great Dutch churches, 
in which none of the services had ever been heard in English, soon 
surrendered the language of the Stuyvesants, though the pastor was 
still styled " the dominie," and preached in the high pulpit in a 
black silk gown, with the hour-glass at his right and the sounding- 
board over his head. 



Section 6.— The Clmrclies After tlie War. 

The orthodox Congregational churches, the direct lineage of 
the Puritan churches, being almost entirely confined to New 
England, suffered less from the ravages of war than those in the 
portions of the country overrun by the contending armies. From 
1773 to 1780 there was an increase of ten churches in Massachu- 
setts alone; and from 1780 to 1800 thirty more churches were 
organized, making 344 Congregational churches in that State. In 
Maine, in 1800, there were 63 ; in New Hampshire, 96 ; in Vermont, 
75; in Rhode Island, 6; in Connecticut, 196; total in New 
England, 780 churches of this denorriination. Outside of New 
England they had about thirty churches, twenty-four of which were 
in New York.* f 

* Historical Sketches of the Co?igregational Churches of Massachusetts. By Rev. Joseph 
S. Clark, D.D., Boston, 1858. 

tThe Congregational ministers of this period were : Nathan Peikins, D.D., 1771-1838 ; David 
Ely, D.D., 1771-1816; David M'Clure, D.D., 1771-1820 ; Joseph Lyman, D.D., 1771-1828 ; 
Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., 1771-1823 ; Joseph Willard, D.D., LL.D., 1 772-1804 ; Benjamin 
Wadsworth, D.D., 1772-1826; Nathan Strong, D.D., 1772-1816; Nathaniel Porter, D.D., 1772- 
1837; William Hollings'ied, D.D., 1772-1817 ; Charles Backus, D.D., 1 773-1803 ; David 
Osgood, D.D., 1 773-1822 ; Samuel Spring, D.D., 1774-1819 ; John Smith, D.D., 1774-1809 ; 
Mathias Burnett, D.D.. 1774-1806 ; David Tappan D.D., 1 774-1803 ; Elihu Thayer, D.D., 
1775-1812 ; Joseph Buckminster, D.D., 1775-1812 ; David Parsons D.D., 1775-1823 ; Eliphalet 
Pearson, LL.D., 1775-1826 ; Joseph Eckley, D.D., 1 776-181 1 ; Asa Burton, D.D., 1777-1836 ; 
Daniel Chaplin, D.D., 1777-1831 ; Timothy Dwight, D.D., 1777-1817 ; Isaac S. Keith, D.D., 
1778-1813 ; Samuel Wood, D.D., 1 779-^836 ; Jonathan Homer, D.D., 1 780-1 843 ; Lemuel 
Haynes, 1780-1834; Samuel Nott, D.D., 1 781-1852 ; David Austin, 1781-1831 ; Seth Payson, 
D.D., 1 782-1820; John Crane, D.D., 1 782-1836 ; Joseph McKeen, D.D., 1 784-1807 ; Samuel 
Austin, D.D., 1 784-1 830 ; Moses Cook Welch. D.D., 1784-1824; Abiel Holmes, D.D., 1784- 
1837 ; Jedediah Morse, D.D., 1 785-1826 ; Richard S. Storrs, 1785-1819 ; Jacob Catlin, D.D., 
1786-1826; Elijah Parish, D.D., 1787-1825 ; Abel Flint, D.D., 1 788-1825 ; Jonathan Strong, 
D.D.. 1788-1814; Walter Harris, D.D., 1789-1843; Azel Backus, D.D., 1 789-181 7 ; Chauncy 
Lee, D.D., 1 789-1 842 ; Alvan Hyde, D.D., 1 790-1833 ; Asahel Hooker, 1790-1813; John Elliot. 
D.D , 1791-1824; Calvin Chapin, D.D.. 1791-1851 ; Giles H. Cowles, D.D., 1791-1835 ; Asahel 
S. Norton, D.D., 1 792-1 853 ; William Jackson, D.D. , 1 793-1842 ; Ebenezer Porter, D.D., 1794- 
1834; Daniel Dow, D.D., 1795-1849. 



CONSECRATION OF AMERICAN BISHOPS. 279 

Prior to the Revolution the Protestant Episcopal Church was 
under the oversight of the Bishop of London. During the Revo- 
lution that jurisdiction could not be exercised. At. the close of the 
Revolution this bond, though not formally sundered, was 
superseded or in abeyance, and it became necessary to combine on 
some new plan of association. Organization Was undertaken by 
two methods, the conventional and the Episcopal, the former in 
the Middle States and the latter in Connecticut. In May, 1784, 
a few clergymen of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania met 
at New Brunswick, N. J., for consultation. Again in October, in 
New York city, they reassembled, and agreed upon a basis for 
future ecclesiastical organization. In September, 1785, another 
meeting was held in Philadelphia, in which seven States between 
the Hudson River and the Savannah were represented. The book 
of Common Prayer was accommodated to the recent changes. In 
the meantime in Connecticut the Episcopal method was under- 
taken. Rev. Dr. Seabury, of Connecticut, a little in advance of his 
brethren in the Middle States, applied to the English bishops for 
Episcopal ordination. Discouraged by delay, he transferred his appli- 
cation to the non-juring bishops of Scotland, received ordination 
November 14, 1784, and returned to America on the 3d of August, 
1785. The first exercise of his Episcopal functions was in August, 
1785, in Connecticut. The members of the Philadelphia Conven- 
tion at first looked with disfavor upon the Scotch episcopacy, and 
pressed an application for ordination directly from England. On 
the 4th of February, 1787, Revs. William White, D.D., of Philadel- 
phia, and Samuel Provost, D.D., of New York, were consecrated 
bishops in Lambeth Palace, London. At a general convention 
held in September, 1789, the clergy from New England were 
present, the union became general and complete, and Bishop Sea- 
bury's ordination was recognized. Five other bishops were conse- 
crated prior to 1800, and seven of the eight bishops were living at 
that date. In the year 1800 this denomination had 264 clergymen 
and 1 1,978 communicants,* and the following dioceses had been con- 
stituted : Connecticut and Maryland, 1783; Massachusetts and 
Pennsylvania, 1784; New York, New Jersey, and South Carolina 
and Virginia, 1785; Vermont and Rhode Island, 1790; Delaware, 
179 i.f 

* Episcopal Record for i860. 

fThe Episcopal ministers of this period were, James Madison. D.D., 1775-1812; John 
Buchannan, D.D., 1775-1822; Nathaniel Fisher, 1777-1812 ; Charles H. Wharton. D.D., 1784- 
*833; Collin Ferguson, D.D., 1785-1806; William Smith. D.D., 1785-1821 ; Philo Shelton, 
1785-18,25 ; Joseph G. J. Bend, D.D., 1787-1812 ; Slater Clay, 1787-1821 ; Tillotson Bronson, 



280 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The Episcopal Church in its organized form was reluctantly 
recognized by many in New England. The propriety of admitting 
bishops into Massachusetts was gravely questioned and discussed in 
the Boston Gazette (January 1785). When the news came of the 
ordination of Bishop Seabury the Gazette exclaimed, " Two Won- 
ders of the World — a stamp act in Boston and a Bishop in Connec- 
ticut." 

The Presbyterian Church was located principally in the Middle 
States, where the ravages of the war were most severely felt, but 
the Synod of New York and Philadelphia kept up its annual meet- 
ings, although the attendance was generally small. After the par- 
alyzing effects of the Revolution had begun to pass away, this 
denomination gradually extended itself,* and, in view of its prospec- 
tive growth, it was felt that measures must be taken for perfecting 
its organization and a fuller declaration of its principles. The 
question was considered and matured during several years (1785- 
1788), resulting in the organization of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States, which held its first ses- 
sion in the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in May, 
1789, Rev. Dr. John Rodgers moderator. At this session an address 
of recognition and congratulation to the President of the United 
States was adopted. A Committee on Home Missions was also 
appointed, f which is believed to have been the earliest action of 
this kind, except that of the Congregationalists. 

Pre-eminent among the Presbyterian clergy of this period was 
Dr. John Witherspoon, Professor of Divinity in Princeton College. 
A native of Scotland, called to this position in 1769, he was a man 
of varied and profound scholarship, an elegant and powerful preacher, 
with a vigorous physical constitution, a statesmanlike mind, 
and possessed a personal " presence second only to that of Wash- 
ington." He was for several years a member of the Continental 
Congress, where his sagacity and discernment were highly esteemed, 
and his pen was brought into frequent requisition upon important 
state papers, involving intricate subjects of political economy. 

Rev. John Ewing, D.D., for thirty years pastor of the First 
Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and for twenty years Provost 

D.D., 1787-1826; John S. J. Gardner, D.D.,1787-1830 ; Richard Channing Moore, D. D.,1787- 
1841; James Kemp, D.D., 1789-1827; John Croes, D.D., 1 700-1 832 ; William Harris, D.D., 
1791-1829; David Butler, D.D., 1 792-1 842 ; James Abercrombie, D.D., 1 793-1841 ; Charles 
Seabury, 1 793-1844 ; Walter D. Addison, 1793-1848; Daniel Burhans, D.D., i793" l8 53 \ 
Alexander V. Griswold, D.D., 1795-1843. 

* In 1788 it numbered 419 congregations, about one half of which were destitute of pastors. 

t Minutes of, the Synod of Philadelphia and New York, 1788,1789. 



DISTINGUISHED MINISTERS. 281 

of the University of Pennsylvania, was eminent for his knowledge 
in classical and scientific studies, and also for his ability as a preacher. 
The pastor of the Second Church for nearly half a century, Rev. Dr. 
Jarnes Sproatt, was also a distinguished minister, pre-eminent for per- 
sonal piety and for his mastery of the art of persuasion. He fell a vic- 
tim to the yellow fever in 1793. The pastor of the Third Church, 
Rev. Dr. George Duffield, in whose veins mingled Irish, English and 
Huguenot blood, was an earnest, ardent, and fearless man, and a 
powerful champion of civil and religious liberty. The celebrated 
John Adams was one of his hearers and admirers. Revs. John 
Blair Smith, D.D., President of Hampden-Sidney College, and 
subsequently of Union College, and his brother, Samuel Stanhope 
Smith, D.D., President of Nassau Hall, were leading men of 
this period. The former has been styled " a model preacher, 
whose soul glowed with evangelical fervor and love of souls." Dr. 
William M. Tennent also is worthy of special mention as a man of 
devoted piety, of great sweetness of temper and politeness of man- 
ner. Rev. James Grier, of Delaware, was an effective preacher, of 
deep sonorous voice, earnest, and often deeply impassioned. " The 
patriarch of the Presbytery of Carlisle " was Rev. John Elder, who 
for more than fifty most eventful years discharged the duties of 
the pastoral relation in the towns of Paxton and Derry, Pa. He 
was a man for the times, with a robust constitution, large stature, 
commanding presence, and indomitable courage and energy. Dr. 
Charles Nisbet, first president of Dickinson College, was a Scotch- 
man by birth, an able debater, abounding in ready wit, brilliant in 
conversation, and so extensively read that he was proverbially 
called a walking library. Dr. Patrick Allison, pastor of the First 
Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, was a man of impressive personal 
appearance, in a remarkable degree graceful and dignified in his 
demeanor, of irreproachable character, and possessed intellectual 
gifts of a high order. Rev. Dr. Isaac S. Keith, of Alexander, and 
subsequently of Castleton, S. C, is a name noted for the honorable 
memories of usefulness and devotion associated with it. To these 
might be added numerous other names of distinction and great per- 
sonal worth. There was the Rev. James Waddell, of Virginia, the 
preacher of unrivaled eloquence, and Thomas Moore, of Western 
Pennsylvania, called ' the scourge of Arminianism ; ' Dr. John 
Anderson, the zealous pioneer missionary preacher ; John Watson, 
of Canonsburg, the youthful genius ; the venerable John Clark, of 
the Redstone Presbytery; Dr. John King, the elaborate thinker; 
Dr. Rodgers and his colleague, Dr. J. McKnight, of New York ; Dr. 



282 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Stephen B. Balch, of Georgetown ; Dr. Samuel Buel, of East Hamp- 
ton, L. L, the friend of Brainerd, Whitefield, Belamy, and the elder 
Edwards ; Dr. Phillip Milledoler, of Philadelphia, and subsequently 
of New York city, the- faithful preacher and successful pastor in 
Connecticut about fifteen years previous. 

The extent of this denomination, at the close of the century, 
will be seen from the following data for 1798:* 

Congregations. Ministers. Licentiates. 

Synod of New York and New Jersey 1 15 72 5 

Synod of Philadelphia 129 38 12 

Synod of Virginia 69 41 10 

Synod of the Carolinas 93 58 10 

Number of Presbyteries 19 

In Ohio there was one presbytery, with 9 ministers. 3 licenciates, and 15 
congregations. In Kentucky there were 5 ministers. The above statistics are 
supposed to be not quite complete. Rev. Dr. Baird gave the statistics of the 
Presbyterian Church in 1800 as follows : 500 churches, 300 ministers, and 40,000 
communicants. 

The Associate and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian churches 
both prospered after the Revolution. The New York Synod of the 
latter branch was organized in 1782. Among the distinguished 
ministers of this body were Revs. John M. Mason, D.D., Thomas 
Clark, Robert Arnan and James Proudfit, D.D. 

" The Associate Presbyterians!' a secession from the Presbyterian 
Church, under the leadership of Rev. Jacob Green, originally con- 
sisted of four ministers, who quietly withdrew and organized the 
''Presbytery of Morris County," at Hanover, May 3, 1780. Their 
platform has been characterized as " Presbyterian in form, but Con- 
gregational in fact." This new body received sympathy in regions 
where Congregational influence was felt, in the counties of Dutchess 
and Westchester, N. Y., along the New England line, and in course 
of time five Presbyteries were organized. This movement started 
under a vigorous impulse of growth, which was felt for almost 
twenty years. It subsequently, however, declined, and before 1830 
its presbyteries had been disbanded, its churches had all been 
absorbed into Presbyterian or Congregational organizations, and all 
its memorials passed away.f 

Dr. Crooks, in his history of the one hundred years of Dickin- 
son College, says : 

* Minutes of the General Assembly, 1798. 

t History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 
Vol. I, p. 218. . 



BAPTIST GROWTH. 283 

The debt which this country owes to the Scotch and Irish Presbyterians has 
not been understood, much less acknowledged. They, in their Synod which met 
at Philadelphia, in 1775, were tne nrst religious body to declare themselves in favor 
of open resistance to the king. They issued the first Declaration of Independence, 
that of Mecklenberg, May 2u, 1775. They were the founders of the schools of 
learning in the Middle States, and notably the founders of Dickinson College. 

Their history has as yet been but imperfectly told, but the time will come when 
the Scotch and Irish Presbyterian of Pennsylvania will take his place alongside the 
New England Puritan as one of the founders of liberty and learning in the New 
World. The race which has given to the country John Witherspoon, Alexander 
Hamilton, James Wilson, Andrew Jackson, Robert Fulton, Horace Greeley, and 
others of equal or lesser fame, is one whose memory men cannot willingly let die. 

At the time of the Revolution the Baptists were few in number, 
suffering pitiless persecution in the chief colonies — fines, mobs, 
imprisonment, scourging. Against terrible odds they strove to 
realize their ideal of a Church of regenerated persons, baptized 
on a profession of personal faith, and exercising absolute freedom of 
conscience. They numbered about fifteen thousand communicants. 
They entered into the Revolution with great zeal, hoping for relig- 
ious as well as political liberty. In the triumph of the Revolution 
they, therefore, doubly rejoiced, and rapidly won upon popular favor 
on account of their conspicuous advocacy of freedom of conscience. 
They grew rapidly,* in 1792 numbering 891 churches, 1,1 56 ministers, f 
and 65,345 members. These were distributed as follows: in New 
England, 266 churches, 342 ministers, and 17,174 members; in the 
Middle States, 126 churches, 155 ministers, and 8,025 members; in 
the Southern States, 437 churches, 565 ministers, and 36,100 mem- 
bers; in Kentucky and Tennessee, 60 churches, 82 ministers, and 
3,984 members ; in Ohio there were 2 churches, 2 ministers, and 62 
members. In Virginia alone there were 261 Baptist churches and 
20,443 members. Exact data for 1800 have not been compiled, but 
it has been estimated that this denomination had at that time about 
100,000 members. 

After the Revolution the Mctlwdist preachers, relieved from their 

* Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D., in American Quarterly Register, 1840, 1841, p. 185. 

t The Baptist ministers of this period were Joseph Cook, 1776-1790; Benjamin Foster, D.D., 
1776-1798; Caleb Blood, 1776-1814; John Pitman, 1777-1822 ; Lewis Richards, 1777-1832; 
Ambrose Dudley, 1778-1823; Isaac Case, 1780-1852 ; Thomas Baldwin, D.D., 1782-1826; Henry 
Holcomb, D.D., 1784 -1824; Joseph Grafton, 1784-1836 ; Stephen Gano, 1 786-1 828 ; William 
Elliot, 1786-T830; Aaron Leland, 1 786-1 833 ; John Stanford, 1 786-1 834 ; Andrew Marshall, 
1786-1856; Thomas B. Montanye, 1 787-1 829 ; Elisha Andrews, 1 787-1840 ; John Tripp, 1787- 
1847 ; Henry Smalley, 1788-1839 ; Jesse Mercer, D.D., 1788-1841 ; Andrew Broaddus, 1789-1818 ; 
Jonathan Maxcy, D.D., 1790-1820; Robert B. Semple, 1 790-1 83 1 ; Abel Woods, 1790-1850; 
Daniel Wildman, 1791-1849; William Bachelder, 1 792-1818 ; Asa Messer, D.D., LL.D., 1792- 
1836; William Staughton, D.D , 1793-1829; Morgan J. Rhees, 1794-1804; Zenas L. Leonard, 
1794-1841 ; John Healey, 1794-1848 ; John Williams, 1795-1825. 



284 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

embarrassments, went freely forth in every direction, accomplishing 
their heroic mission. In 1784, having increased to 83 preachers and 
14,988 members, the Methodist societies were formally organized, 
by Constitution and Discipline, into the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and Revs. Francis Asbury and Richard Whatcoat were elected and 
ordained bishops. Although then one of the youngest of the 
American religious denominations, it was the first in the United 
States to effect a national organization. In the year 1800 it num- 
bered 3 bishops, 287 preachers and 64,894 members, and had 
extended itself as far eastward as the St. John's River, and south- 
ward to Georgia, to the west as far as Natchez, and into Indiana 
and Illinois. Methodism did not enter New England until 1789; 
but in 1800 it had 5,828 members in those States, notwithstanding 
the region was largely preoccupied by other denominations. At 
its organization, in 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church was the 
first religious body to formally recognize the new civil government, 
in its constitutional law,* enforcing loyalty and patriotism upon its 
communicants. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in advance of any other relig- 
ious body recognized the organization of the National Government 
and the presidency of Washington. In behalf of the Conference in 
session in New York, Bishops Coke and Asbury waited on Wash- 
inton, then just inaugurated, May 29, 1789, and Bishop Asbury 
read to him the Address of the Conference, to which Washington 
appropriately replied, f 

The first schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church occurred in 
1792, under the leadership of Rev. James O'Kelley, and organized 
under the name of " Republican Methodists." This division pre- 
vailed chiefly in Virginia and North Carolina; but it was not long 
before this body was subdivided several times, and the only portion 

* See Centenary of Methodism. By Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D. Pp. 203, 204. 

t The Methodist ministers of this period were, Robert Strawbridge, 1 766-1781 ; Thomas 
Webb, 1766-1782; Francis Asbury, 1771-1816 ; Thomas Rankin, 1773-1778; George Shad- 
ford, 1773-1778; Benjamin Abbott, 1773-1796; William Watters, 1773-1833 ; Philip Gatch, 
1 773-1835; Freeborn Garrettson, 1776-1827 ; John Dickins, 1 777-1 798; John Haggerty, 1779- 
1823; Nelson Reed, 1779-1840; Joseph Everett, 1781-1809; Philip Bruce, 1781-1826; Peter 
Moriarty, 1782-1813; Jesse Lee, 1783-1816; William Phoebus, 1 783-1831 ; Wilson Lee, 1784- 
1804; Richard Whatcoat, 1784-1806; Isaac Smith, 1784-1834; Ezekiel Cooper, 1 784-1 847 ; Hope 
Hull, 1785-1818 ; Thomas Ware, 1785-1842; John McClaskey, 1786-1814 ; Daniel Asbury, 1786- 
1825; Thomas C"ke, 1787-1804; Barnabas McHenry, 1 787-1833 ; Thomas Morrell, 1787-1838; 
Valentine Cook, 1788-1820; William McKendree, 1788-1835; Daniel Smith, 1789-1815; George 
Roberts, 1789-1827 ; Stephen G. Roszel, 1789-1841 ; John Kobler, 1789-1843 ; Daniel Hitt, 1790- 
1825; En^ch George, 1790-1828; George Pickering, 1790-1846; Shadrach Bostwick, 1791-1805 ; 
Laurence McCombs, 1792-1836; Daniel Ostrander, 1793-1843; John B. Matthias, 1793-1848; 
En- ch Mudge, 1793-1850; John Bnadhead, 1794-1838 ; Nicholas Snethen, 1794-1845; Thomas 
F. Sargent, ,1795-1833; John Collins, 1795-1845. 



DIVERS DENOMINATIONS. 285 

that remained in 1810 blended with two other factions from the 
Presbyterian and Baptist Churches, and constituted the " Inde- 
pendent Christian Baptist Church," more recently called the 
44 Christians." 

The German Reformed Church was dependent upon the Dutch 
Church in Europe until 1792, when an independent constitution was 
adopted. The statistics for 1800 are unknown. 

The Revolutionary war proved very disastrous to the Reformed 
Dutch Church, particularly in the city and vicinity of New York, 
where their church edifices had been freely used by the British for 
cavalry and hospital purposes. In 1784 they had been reduced to 
82 congregations and 30 ministers. In 1800 they had 137 congre- 
gations and 60 ministers. 

The Lutherans had become widely extended throughout the 
Middle States before the Revolution, but during its progress they 
suffered severely. In 1784 they had 25 ministers, and about 5,000 
members in the United States. After that time they gained rapidly. 

The Friends numbered about 50,000 communicants in 1800. 

The Free Will Baptist Church is purely of American origin. 
Elder Benjamin Randall, * of New Hampshire, a convert of White- 
field, is regarded as its founder, and # the date of its organization is 
June 30, 1780. The first Yearly Meeting was held in New Durham, 
N. H., in 1792. Elder Randall was an eminently pious and success- 
ful minister, very extensive in his labors, a powerful promoter of 
revivals, for which this denomination was long noted. In the year 
1800 they numbered 2,000 communicants, with one yearly meeting, 
six quarterly meetings, 51 churches, 28 ordained ministers and 22 
unordained. About the year 1800 they received the name Free 
Will Baptists. They were opprobiously called " General Provis- 
ioned, " " Randallites," " Free Willers," <; New Lights," " Open 
Communionists," At this date they had no churches outside of 
New Hampshire and Maine. 

The German Seventh-Day Baptists were a small body in 1800. 

The Dunkers keep no registry of their members. 

The Mennonitcs in 1800 had spread quite extensively in Penn- 
sylvania and Maryland. 

The Moravians had about 20 churches in the United States 
in 1800. 

The Seventh-Day Baptist Church had 1,648 communicants in 
1807. 

* Besides Elder Randall, Joseph Boody, Daniel Hibbard, James McCorsen, Nathan Merrill, 
Samuel Weeks and John Whitney, were ministers in this period. 
19 



286 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The origin of the United Brethren has been already traced to 
Rev.. Messrs. Ottenbein and Boehm, in the latter part of the colonial 
period. The first Conference of this body of Christians was held 
in Baltimore in 1789, consisting of seven preachers; but their or- 
ganization was more fully constituted by the ordination of the gen- 
tlemen just mentioned to the office of Bishop in the year 1800. 

The Evangelical Association, formerly called Albrights and Ger- 
man Methodists, had their origin with Rev. Jacob Albright, in Penn- 
sylvania. He experienced religion in connection with the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, about 1790, and was licensed as a local 
preacher. Actuated by an ardent desire to do good, he went forth 
and zealously labored for the salvation of the German people, preach- 
ing somewhat irregularly wherever opportunity was found. About 
1 800 he began to organize classes, which was the beginning of what has 
since been known as the Albright or Evangelical Association Church. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Church had its inception in 
this period, in difficulties arising in St. George Methodist Episcopal 
Church, Philadelphia. The colored members withdrew from the 
church in 1786, and united in a provisional association. Under the 
leadership of Richard Allen, who subsequently became bishop, a sep- 
arate place of worship was erected and dedicated by Bishop Francis 
Asbury, June 29, 1794. They styled their church Bethel, Mr. Allen 
serving as pastor. In 1799 he was formally ordained bishop by 
Bishop Asbury — the first colored person ordained to the ministry 
in the United States. The denomination was more fully organized 
in 1816. 

The jews came to America, as did the Puritans and the Hugue- 
nots, to escape religious persecution ; but they were not tolerated in 
some of the colonies. Gaining a foothold in a few places they 
slowly increased in numbers, some of them became wealthy and 
contributed liberally to the cause of the Revolution. They estab- 
lished synagogues 

In New York city, in 1650. In Savannah, Ga., in 1733. 

In Newport, R. I., in 1658. In Charleston, S. C, in 1750. 

In Richmond, Va., in 1719. In Philadelphia, Pa., in 1782. 

In New York city, in 1793, in a population of 41,000 there were 
22 ministers of the Gospel: Episcopal 4, Dutch 3, Methodist 3, 
German Calvinists 1, Lutheran 1, Associate Congregationalist 1, 
Independents 1, Moravians 1, Baptist 1, Roman Catholic I, Jews 1, 
Scotch Presbyterian 1, Presbyterian 3.* 

* Life of Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller. Vol. I, p. 81 



PREVALENCE OF INFIDELITY. 287 

Section 7.— Revivals of Religion Rare. 

Not many revivals of religion can be cited from the records of 
this period. A few seasons of refreshing were enjoyed in two of the 
colleges. In Dartmouth College in 1781, extending into the towns 
twenty miles around, and again in 1788, but not so extensive and 
powerful. After the latter date a season of declension followed, 
continuing seventeen years. In 1783 a revival occurred in Yale 
College, which swelled the membership of the college church larger 
than it had ever been before : but twelve years later the college was 
wholly pervaded with French infidelity, and only four or five students 
were professedly pious. * From 1770 to 18 10 no revival of religion 
occurred in Princeton College. During the Revolution the college 
was broken up. Its exercises were wholly suspended for three 
years, and the edifice served as barracks for both British and Ameri- 
can troops in turn. When it was reopened, in 1780, for college pur- 
poses it was found that there had been a great change in the moral 
and religious atmosphere. Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, who entered the 
institution in 1782, has said: 

While I was a member of the college there were but two professors of religion 
among the students, and not more than five or six who scrupled to use profane 
language in common conversation ; and sometimes it was of a very shocking kind. 
. . . Dr. Smith, the president of the college at that time, used to complain grievously, 
and justly, of the mischievous and fatal effects which the prevalent infidelity had 
on the minds of his pupils. ' 

The condition of things was not much better in the churches. 
A few revivals have been reported in the closing portion of the last 
century. At Elizabethtown, N. J., in 1784, the Holy Spirit was 
poured out in a special manner, and the gracious influence was felt 
about two years. In 1790 there was a revival in Hanover, N. J. In 
1778 a revival occurred in " Vance's Fort," in western Pennsylvania, 
growing out of the labors of one man, Joseph Patterson, a layman. 
From this revival the Cross Creek Presbyterian Church was formed. 
From 1 78 1 to 1787 the work of reformation was carried extensively 
forward in the churches of Cross Creek, Upper Buffalo, Chartiers, 
Pigeon Creek, Bethel, Lebanon, Ten Mile, Cross Roads and Mill 
Creek, during which more than one thousand persons professed con- 
version. In the year 1795 a quickening influence descended upon the 
congregation at Chartiers, in which the academy at Canonsburg 
shared largely. The winter of 1798 was marked by a great revival 
of religion in the Presbyterian churches in western New York. 

* Professor Goodrich in American Quarterly Register. 



28 8 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

Palmyra, Canandaigua, and several of the large towns along the 
southern border of the State were first visited. The gracious influ- 
ence then extended through the counties of Delaware, Otsego, 
Oneida, and also further to the west, and laid the foundation for 
many churches in those regions. 

In 1788-89, there was considerable attention to religion in the 
upper part of Georgia. The Baptist churches shared largely in it 
through the ministry of Revs. Silas Mercer and Abram Marshall. 
The Methodist churches were also much increased under the labors 
of Rev. Hope Hull and others. The Presbyterian churches in that 
region were then few, but they were considerably increased in num- 
ber by the exertions of Revs. Daniel Thatcher and John Springer. 
Just before this there was a great religious interest in North Caro- 
lina, in connection with the labors of Rev. Dr. James Hall. Rev. 
Richard Furman, D.D., an eminent Baptist divine of Charleston, 
S. C, was a very successful minister of Christ. In a few other places 
in the Middle States the Presbyterians were favored with revivals 
during the last decade of the century, and the Methodist and Baptist 
churches throughout the whole country were gradually laying and 
extending their foundations. In 1796-98 a few revivals occurred 
in the western part of Connecticut and Massachusetts, most of 
which had had no spiritual refreshing for long periods — from twenty 
to sixty years. Almost all of Eastern New England, beyond the 
Berkshire and Green Mountain ranges, was exempt from revival in- 
fluences from 1745 until long after 1800. The same condition existed 
in eastern New York and the remainder of the Middle States, except 
in the portions already referred to. The state of religion and morals * 
was lower than at any other time in the nation's history, and thou- 
sands of minds were paralyzed by the fatal influence of infidelity.! 

* See chapter on Morals in this period. 

t See chapter on French-American infidelity in this period. 



RECAPITULATION. 289 



CHAPTER II 



PROTESTANT BEGINNINGS BEYOND THE ALLEGHANIES. 



Sec. i. Roman Catholic Preoccupancy. Sec. 3. Evangelizing Efforts. 

2. Anglo-American Settlements. I " 4. E .rly Privations, etc. 

THE valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries became an ob- 
ject of increasing interest and desire to the Anglo-American 
people in this period. During the last thirty years of the last cent- 
ury the foundations of the great States, Tennessee, Kentucky and 
Ohio, were laid, and the principal religious bodies had their begin- 
nings within their borders. The area of this great valley has been 
calculated at about 1,200,000 square miles -equal to that of Great 
Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Bel- 
gium, Norway and Sweden. 



Section 1.— Roman Catholic Preoccupancy. 

In sketches of the colonial era* it was noticed that on the 15th of 
June, 1673, the Mississippi River was discovered by two French 
Catholic missionary explorers, Marquette and Joliet. In 1680 Fa- 
ther Hennepin explored the Illinois river to the Mississippi, and, 
taken a prisoner by the Sioux Indians, was carried up the stream as 
far as the Falls of St. Anthony. In 1682 La Salle descended the 
Mississippi to its mouth, and formally took possession of the vast 
valley region in the name of his king, Louis XIV., from whom he 
named it Louisiana. In 1683 Cahokia and Kaskaskia, in Illinois, were 
founded — another step in the execution of the plan for insulating all 
the English settlements, by establishing an unbroken line of forts and 
papal missions from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1699 and 
1700 D'Iberville and Bienville explored the lower Mississippi and 
founded a colony, which in 1 71 3 had a population of 400 whites and 
20 blacks. New Orleans was founded by the French in 171 7, and 

*For a fuller view of the movements of the Roman Catholic Church in the Mississippi Valley 
see pp. 68-80. 



290 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the Spanish colony at Pensacola was taken by the French two years 
later. About this time emigrants began to come in considerable 
numbers from Europe into Lower Louisiana. The colony was divided 
into nine districts, with New Orleans as the principal post. It 
proved a heavy tax upon the parent country, in five years occasion- 
ing a loss of 125,000 livres to the French Government. The cele- 
brated " Mississippi Bubble," by which European capitalists lost 
three million dollars, was an advantage to Louisiana. 

In the meantime papal emissaries, penetrating all parts of the 
West, had established mission stations at most of the prominent 
points from Montreal to New Orleans. Trappers and traders, eager 
for gain, kept equal pace with the enthusiastic Allouez, the holy 
Marquette, the devout Gravier : and in their train some of the oldest 
permanent settlements of the West were founded. Detroit, Cahokia 
and Kaskaskia, called by La Salle " a terrestrial paradise/' date as 
far back as Mobile and Philadelphia. Fort Chartres, at the junction 
of the Osage and Missouri rivers, a place of immense importance to 
the French for fifty years, was founded in 1720, and Vincennes in 
1735. These settlements gradually increased, made up of a mixed 
French and Indian population devoted to the simple pursuits of 
industry, the luxuriant soil amply repaying their toil with plenteous 
crops. We have noticed that as early as 1746, 600 barrels of flour 
were annually shipped from the Wabash region to New Orleans, 
besides hides, tallow, wax and honey. The religion of these settle- 
ments was Roman Catholic ; their laws consisted of a few elements 
of the old Roman code and their education comprised little beyond 
reading and writing. Thus lived missionaries, fur-traders, voyageurs, 
farmers and hunters, in simple quiet, in the midst of the vast western 
wilderness. 

Previous to 1750 the French made a settlement at Fort Du- 
quesne, now Pittsburg, as a part of their system of forts to command 
the valley on the east. In 1755 General Braddock met a memorable 
defeat near this place, but the victory of General Wolfe at Quebec, 
four years later, giving the English the ascendency in the North, 
was a serious check to French dominion. At the close of the 
French and Indian war, in 1763, the eastern valley of the Mississippi 
was ceded to England, and west of the river to Spain. The year 
following Florida was ceded to England. At the commencement 
of the Revolution the Spaniards in Louisiana, joining the French as 
allies of the colonics, captured the English posts at Baton Rouge, 
Mobile and Pensacola ; and about the same time the American gen- 
eral, Clark, surprised and captured the English force at Vincennes. 



THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 291 

By the peace of 1783 Great Britain ceded Florida to Spain, and all of 
the territory north of the 31st degree of latitude to the United States. 
In 1800 Napoleon had compelled Spain to cede Louisiana to France ; 
but on the 13th of April, 1803, France sold to the United States the 
vast region of ancient Louisiana, then extending from the Gulf of 
Mexico to Missouri and the region north and west of that State. 
Access was thus opened to the ocean for the enterprising settlers of 
the great valley, and a new impulse was given to its future pros- 
perity. In the last ten years of the century bloody Indian wars raged 
in the West. In September, 1791, General Harmer was defeated by 
the Indians with great loss, and in November, 1792, General Clark 
was routed with a terrible slaughter ; but by the decisive victories 
of General Wayne in 1794 peace was for a season restored among 
the Indian tribes. 



Section £.— Anglo-American Settlements. 

Anglo-American emigration to the Mississippi valley received a 
fresh impulse after the fall of Fort Chartres — the last of the French 
fortresses. Glowing reports of the magnificent valley beyond the 
Alleghanies awakened the eager cupidity of the settlers of the coast 
States, and the eastern populations commenced a westward march 
over the mountains. Military detachments, families, bands of hunt- 
ers and single adventurers pushed steadily on. Some of these move- 
ments were very early. Land " companies " were formed ; the " Ohio 
Company," in 1748, the " Transylvania Company " and the " Missis- 
sippi Company " near the close of the French war, chiefly by inhabi- 
tants of Virginia, for the purpose of obtaining from the English 
crown grants of land in the great valley, with power to hold and 
dispose of them. In 1786 the "Ohio Company" was reorganized, 
enterprising gentlemen from Massachusetts * entering into it, and 
liberal land bounties were granted by the General Government. By 
these means the settlement of the country was facilitated. 

In 1754 an attempt was made by North Carolinians to settle in 
Tennessee, but they were driven off by Indians. The first perma- 
nent settlement was effected in eastern Tennessee by emigrants 
from Virginia and North Carolina. Following the waters of the 
Holston and Clinch rivers, they located near Knoxville as early as 
1756, and were soon followed by a few others. Kentucky was 
explored and settled from Virginia, in 1769, by Messrs. Henderson, 

* Generals Parsons, Rufus Putnam and Rev. Mannasseh Cutler were appointed directors. 



292 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Knox, and the famous Boone. Marietta, Ohio, was settled in 
1788, by a company led by General Rufus Putnam and Manasseh 
Cutler, of Massachusetts. The following year Cincinnati was 
founded, and in 1794, the Western Reserve, in the north-eastern 
part of the State, was settled by families from Connecticut and 
Massachusetts. Small beginnings were also made in Indiana, 
Illinois, and Missouri, just prior to 1800. Indian massacres and the 
great national war seriously retarded the growth of these early set- 
tlements, but new impulses were successively given to them by the 
close of the French war, then by the war of the Revolution, and 
finally by the successful expedition of General Wayne, in 1794. The 
celebrated ordinance of 1787, perpetually devoting the North-west 
Territory to freedom, and the reorganization of the " Ohio Com- 
pany " the same year, turned public attention strongly toward the 
latter State. In the year 1800 the population of these States was: 
Tennessee, 105,602 ; Kentucky, 220,965 ; Ohio, 45,365. Indiana 
Territory had 4,875, and Illinois was not reported. Such were the 
beginnings of the great populations now filling the Mississippi 
valley. 

These early inhabitants comprised some of the best classes of 
people in respect to morals, religion and general culture ; but very 
many were dissipated, reckless men, refugees from the better civili- 
zation of the older communities, and not a few outlaws from justice, 
and duelists red with the blood of their victims. Society was 
inchoate, or at best crudely organized, and summary processes of 
" regulators " constituted the only public defense. The Cherokees, 
on the south, and other Indian tribes, north and west, were restless 
and aggressive, and not less than five treaties with them were made 
and broken between 1783 and 1790. Buried hatchets were easily 
dug up, and war-dances resumed on the slightest provocation. 



Section 3.— Evangelizing Efforts. 

The first Protestant missionary beyond the Allegheny Mount- 
ains, Christian Frederick Post, a devout and godly Moravian, had 
become familiar with Indian habits and languages in his labors 
among the Delawares, on the banks of the Susquehanna. A calm, 
simple-hearted, but intrepid man, he feared not the dangers and pri- 
vations of the Indian wilderness. During that perilous period after 
the fall of Braddock, he was selected by General Forbes and sent 
into the Indian territory to win over the red men from the French 



MORAVIAN BEGINNINGS. 293 

to the English. The fall of Fort Duquesne was claimed to be one 
of the consequences of his negotiations. 

After the close of the French and Indian war, Post, accompanied 
by another Moravian, the celebrated Heckewelder, returned to this 
region, proceeding as far as the Muskingum, on whose banks a tribe 
of the Delawares had settled, and recommenced his labors. "The 
war of Pontiac beginning in the following year, the two missiona- 
ries, warned of their danger by friendly Indians, returned east of 
the mountains and remained six years, when, together with David 
Zeisberger, they came back to the Muskingum, and laid the founda- 
tions of the town of Gnadenhutten, a memorable settlement of the 
good Moravians and their Indians. This was the first establishment 
of those devout and useful missionaries beyond the mountains. 
Many an Indian heart was won to the cause of truth by their pa- 
tience, constancy, and judicious, humble instructions ; and flourishing 
out-stations began to grow up all around them. During all the 
Revolutionary struggle the Moravians were successfully laboring 
toward the conversion of the Delaware Indians. But, unfortunately, 
the towns which they occupied were just upon the frontier, between 
the whites on the one side and the Indians on the other." * These 
Christian Indians became the victims of suspicion from the fierce 
Wyandots, the Shawnees, and the British, on the one hand, and the 
Americans, at Fort Pitt,f on the other, and were at last cruelly 
massacred by the latter — one of the darkest spots in the records of 
American arms ; an unprovoked, causeless, and irrational slaughter. 
A few of them escaped and remained true to their religious instruc- 
tions. The settlement was subsequently re-enforced and re-estab- 
lished by the Moravians. The Moravian brethren were the first to 
carry the Gospel in its purity into the vast region of the Mississippi 
Valley. 

To the Baptist denomination belongs the honor of the first intro- 
duction of the Gospel into Tennessee and Kentucky ; being very 
strong and numerous in Virginia and North Carolina, whence the 
first settlers came. As early as 1765 the first Baptist churches were 
organized in eastern Tennessee, along the Holston and Clinch Rivers. 
They were for a time broken up by the Indian war of 1774, but 
after 1780 they were re-enforced and reorganized by new settlers. 
In 1786 the Holstein Association was organized, consisting of seven 
churches and seven ministers. At first but few preachers came for 
the single purpose of preaching the Word, and yet there was quite 

* See Pioneers, Preachers and People of the Mississippi Valley. By Rev. W. H. Milburn, 
D.D. New York, Derby and Jackson, i860. Pp. 349, 350, etc. t Now Pittsburg. 



294 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

a goodly number who were authorized to administer the sacraments, 
who had emigrated primarily, as settlers, to improve their temporal 
prospects. In 1790 there were 18 Baptist churches and 889 members 
in Tennessee.* About the year 1781 several Baptist preachers and 
a few members emigrated from Virginia into Kentucky, and in the 
course of the following year the churches at Cedar Creek and Nel- 
son Creek were organized. In 1783 two others were formed, and, 
in 1785 nine others. Among their first preachers were the Craigs, 
the Bledsoes, Bailey, etc. In 1790 they numbered 42 churches, 40 
ordained ministers, 21 licensed preachers, and 3,095 members. 

The Baptists were the first Protestants to enter Illinois. The 
conquest of the country by General George R. Clark, in 1778, and the 
organization of a civil government, by Virginia, soon after, opened 
the way for American emigration, and as early as 1786 a number 
of families had settled on the "American Bottom " and the high 
lands of what is now Monroe County. They came chiefly from west- 
ern Virginia and Kentucky. In 1787 Rev. James Smith, a Baptist 
minister in Kentucky, visited these people and preached to them, 
and some professed conversion ; but the first Baptist Church was not 
organized until May, 1796, at New Design, St. Clair County. In 
1805 they had seven churches, five ordained and three licensed min- 
isters, and 153 members. The Baptists were also among the first to 
organize churches in Ohio. Among the early emigrants to Fort 
Washington (Cincinnati), were several Baptist families from New 
Jersey. A Baptist church was constituted at Columbia in 1790. 
The Miami Association was formed in 1797. In 1800 a number of 
Baptists from New England settled in the Scioto Valley and formed 
the Ames Church. No Baptist churches were organized in Indiana 
and Missouri until after 1800. 

The earliest Presbyterian emigration from Virginia followed the 
line of the Holston into eastern Tennessee. They organized 
churches in Upper Concord, New Providence, Salem, Mount Bethel, 
and Chartiers Valley, in 1780; New Bethel, in 1782; Providence, 
in 1784; and Hopewell, in 1785. In 1785 the Abingdon Presbytery 
was organized, and in 1797 it numbered, in Tennessee, nineteen 
congregations. The first preachers were Rev. Messrs. John Cossan, 
John M. Doak, D.D., Hezekiah Balch, James Balch, Robert Hender- 
son, D.D., Samuel Carrick, and Gideon Blackburn, D.D. Revs. 
Charles Cummings and Samuel Doak, D.D., maybe regarded as the 
founders of Presbyterianism in eastern Tennessee — the former, for 

* American Quarterly Register, August, 1841. Article by Rev. James M. Peck, M.A., of Illi- 
nois, pp. 40', etc. 



EARLY CINCINNATI DAYS. 295 

more than thirty years, being devoted to pioneer missionary work, 
and the latter simultaneously organizing and giving form and sta- 
bility to the early ecclesiastical beginnings. They mutually supple- 
mented each other in building up and establishing the Church. 

The beginnings of Presbyterianism in Kentucky were a little 
later. In October, 1783, Rev. David Rice, long familiarly called 
"Father Rice," established a home in Mercer county. He was a 
man of education, a graduate of Princeton College. In 1784 Revs. 
Adam Rankin and James Crawford located at Walnut Hill. Two 
years later Revs. Andrew McClure and Thomas B.Craighead followed. 
These five ministers, with Rev. Zerah Templin, then recently or- 
dained as an evangelist, constituted the Presbytery of Transylvania, 
October 17, 1786. Twelve congregations were then partially organ- 
ized. In 1790 Revs. Robert Marshall and the celebrated Carey H. 
Allen were sent from Virginia to Kentucky as missionaries. 

When Cincinnati was laid out, in 1789, certain lots were dedi- 
cated to church and school purposes. The following year " Father 
Rice," of Kentucky, organized in the place the First Presbyterian 
Church,* and the first house of worship was erected in 1792^ But 
the progress was slow, the church being much of the time without 
a pastor. The growth of the city was very small during the first 
decade. In 1796 it is said to have been " a small village of log- 
cabins, including, perhaps, a dozen coarse frame houses with stone 
chimneys, most of them unfinished/' J In 1800 it had but 750 in- 
habitants. In 1799 tne Presbytery of Washington, consisting of 
seven ministers, was formed out of the Transylvania Presbytery, 
Kentucky, and embraced the field around Cincinnati, on both sides 
of the Ohio River. § 

The earliest introduction of Methodism into the west was in the 
State of Tennessee. In 1785, less than twenty years after its com- 
mencement in America, Rev. Messrs. Richard Swift and Michael 
Gilbert, early itinerants, visited the Holston country. The region 
through which they traveled and organized their circuits was for 
the most part rough, mountainous, thinly settled with ignorant and 
uncultivated people, and exposed to Indian depredations. They 
were followed by Mark Whitaker and Mark Moore, zealous, plain, 
"old fashioned Methodist preachers." || These in turn were suc- 
ceeded by Jeremiah Matson, Thomas Ware, Joseph Doddridge, 

* History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 
Vol. II, p. 123. + United States Gazetteer. 

J Judge Bennett in Ohio Historical Society Transactions. 
% History of Presbyterian Church. Gillett, Vol. II, p. 125. 
I Sketches of Western Methodism. By Rev. J. B. Finley, D.D. P. 57. 



296 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Jeremiah Able, John Tunnell, John McGee, John West, and others. 
In the year 1800 the Methodist societies in Tennessee numbered 
743 communicants. Methodism was introduced into Kentucky by 
a few devoted local preachers, among whom were Francis Clark, 
Wm. J.Thompson, Nathaniel Harris, and the Woodfields, who came 
with the early tide of emigration from Virginia and North Caro- 
lina, soon after the close of the Revolutionary war. But the first 
itinerant ministers were Revs. James Haw and Benj. Ogden, who 
were sent to Kentucky in 1786. The next year they reported 90 
members. They were successively followed by Rev. Messrs. Thomas 
Williamson, Francis Poythress, Peter Massie, Benjamin Snelling, 
Wilson Lee, etc. In 1800 there were 1,741 Methodists in Kentucky. 
The first Methodist sermon in Cincinnati was preached in 1793, 
by a local preacher from Kentucky, named Francis Clark. Toward 
the close of the year 1795, Rev. James Smith, a local preacher from 
Virginia, crossed the Ohio River on a tour of inspection, and 
preached in or near Cincinnati, at the house of a Mr. — Talbert. 
Again, in 1797, Mr. Smith returned to Ohio and preached in Cincin- 
nati, in the cabin of Mr. — Smalley. He also preached in Colum- 
bia and elsewhere, though he did not organize any " class." The 
first " regular itinerant," Rev. John Kobler, was sent by Bishop 
Asbury, in 1798, as missionary in " the North-west Territory," as 
Ohio was then called. He found the site of Cincinnati a dense for- 
est, with only a fort and a few cabins erected in " the clearings " 
around it. The place was under the command of General Harrison, 
and was the rendezvous of the forces sent by the Government to 
guard the frontiers. Here Mr. Kobler desired to preach, but, unlike 
Mr. Smith, could find no opportunity. He went forth exploring 
settlements, traversed trackless woods and forded deep streams, 
forming " classes" and "a circuit." Two years later 257 communi- 
cants were reported in Ohio. Kobler became a magistrate, and a 
member of the convention which formed the constitution of the 
State of Ohio. 

In 1799 Rev. Tobias Gibson, impressed with a strong desire to 
visit Natchez, offered himself to Bishop Asbury, and was sent to 
open the way for Methodism on the lower Mississippi, eighteen 
years before the Mississippi Territory was admitted into the Union. 
" He set out from Pedee, his native spot, and bent his course to- 
ward the Cumberland River. For six hundred miles he traveled 
through the wilderness. Arriving at the river he sold his horse, 
bought a canoe, and embarked for twelve hundred miles, with 
saddle, bridle and saddle-bags, and a supply of provisions. Paddling 



CONGREGATIOXALISTS IN OHIO. 297 

himself down the Cumberland he dropped into the Ohio and soon 
after reached the Mississippi. . . . He continued his solitary course 
down the great river until he reached Natchez. Here he founded 
a Methodist church. He subsequently made four land journeys 
through the wilderness lying between Natchez and the Cumberland 
to procure additional laborers. In the Minutes of 1800, sixty mem- 
bers were reported as the result of his first year's work.*" 

The Congrcgationalists came very early to Ohio. In 1788 
Marietta was settled by a company of forty-seven persons from 
Massachusetts under General Rufus Putnam, an intimate and 
highly-esteemed friend of General Washington, one of the directors 
of the Ohio Company, and subsequently Surveyor-General of the 
United States. The enlightened men who managed the affairs of 
the " Company" in one of their first meetings made arrangements 
for the support of the Gospel and the instruction of the youth in 
their new colony. In 1788 Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., one of the 
directors, engaged Rev. Daniel Storey, a graduate of Dartmouth 
College, then preaching in Munson, Mass., to go to the West and 
serve as chaplain to the new settlements of the company. After a 
tedious and laborious journey across the Alleghany Mountains, Mr. 
Storey arrived at Marietta in the spring of 1789^ and commenced 
his labors as an evangelist. The settlements were new and scat- 
tered, some of them at a considerable distance from Marietta ; 
nevertheless he visited them in rotation, in conformity with the 
arrangements of the directors, according to which he was to preach 
about one third of the time at the settlements of Wolf Creek and 
Belpre. 

During the Indian war, from 1791 to 1795, Mr. Storey preached 
the larger portion of the time in the North-west block-house of 
Campus Martius, the upper room of which was fitted up, with 
benches and a rude desk, so as to accommodate a hundred persons. 
This room was also used for a school taught by Major Anselm Tup- 
per, a gentleman of good education, the first school-teacher probably 
in the North-west. Colonel E. Battelle, a graduate of Harvard 
College, kept a school about this time at Belpre. These intellec- 
tual and spiritual labors were carried on under the direction of the 
Ohio Company. When the Indians were quiet, Mr. Storey visited 
other points, fifteen or twenty miles distant from Marietta. 

* Bishop H. X. McTyeire's History of Methodism. Southern Methodist Publishing House, 
Nashville, Term. 1884. P. 463. 

t Early History of the North-west. Cincinnati. Hitchcock & Walden. By Samuel P. 
Hildreth, M. D. 



298 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The first Congregational Church in Ohio, composed of persons 
residing in Marietta, Belpre and Waterford, Ohio, and Vienna, in 
Virginia, was organized at Marietta, in 1796, by Rev. Mr. Storey. 
Called to the pastoral charge of the church, and there being no 
ministers of that persuasion west of the mountains, he returned to 
the East and was duly ordained, in Danvers, Mass., on the 15th of 
August, 1797. He maintained his pastoral relation with the church 
in Marietta until March, 1804. Other colonies of Congregational- 
ists from Massachusetts and Connecticut settled in the north-eastern 
part of Ohio, called the ' ; Western Reserve," about 1796-7, and in 
1800 the Connecticut Missionary Society sent a missionary, Rev. 
Joseph Badger,* into this region, who organized, at Austinburg, 
Oct. 21, 1801, the first Congregational church in the " Reserve," 
consisting of eight males and six females. 



Section 4.— Early Privations, etc. 

The first preachers in the West shared largely with the people 
in the hardships and trials of the new country. A primitive state 
of society greeted them every-where. Deer-skin was a common 
article of clothing for men and boys, and a blanket or a coverlid 
served for an overcoat in the winter. Homespun cloth was worn 
only by the better classes, and this the preachers were glad to ob- 
tain. The best dwellings of the settlers for many years were huts 
or log-cabins ; and stools, pots, a " Dutch oven," or no oven at all, 
with a hard bed of straw or of bear and buffalo skins, constituted 
the usual furniture. Boxes served for tables. The pioneer preacher 
was often compelled to sleep on the cold ground in the forest or 
under the open sky of the prairie. The food of the people was also 
very simple, with little variety. Often no bread would be had for 
weeks together. Pumpkins, potatoes, " hog and hominy " were the 
staple articles in the earlier times, and at some seasons bears' meat, 
venison, and wild fowl. Bears' oil sometimes took the place of 
butter. 

The idea of erecting churches could not be entertained for a long 
time after the beginning of the settlements. The cabins, the forts 
and the forests were the first meeting-houses, and the stumps of 
trees were the first pulpits. The "howling wilderness'' was on 
every side ; the roads only bridle-paths ; blazed trees their guide- 



* For an account of his labors and privations among these early settlements see American 
Quarterly, Register, February, 184 r, pp. 322-328. 



BACKWOODS LIFE. 299 

boards. As there were no bridges the streams were forded on horse- 
back. Religious services were attended from ten to twenty miles 
around, and those were fortunate who had not more than five or six 
miles to go. In the earliest times every man came armed. The 
guns were stacked, and the sentinel was appointed to give an alarm 
in case of the approach of Indians. The toils and hardships of the 
ministers were excessive. They shared the common lot of the 
people in respect to food, clothing and lodging : but their journeys 
from place to place, to preach, to administer the ordinances and to 
visit their scattered sheep, made their labors arduous and hazardous. 
The settled ministers often traveled from fifteen to fifty miles in 
the discharge of parochial duties, and the early Methodist itiner- 
ants were constantly traveling their large circuits four or five hun- 
dred miles around. Peter Cartwright facetiously said of one of 
his large circuits on the frontier, that " it took in one half of cre- 
ation, for it had no boundary on the west ; " and he penetrated six 
hundred miles due west in pursuit of scattered emigrants. In 
their journeys the preachers often encountered savage Indians, 
savage beasts, and sometimes more savage white men. Thus did 
these heroic men toil to build up Christ's Church. 

It was a period of rough, resolute courage and independence, 
and great controversies were frequent. There were sharp conten- 
tions about baptism and pedo-baptism, free grace and predestination, 
falling from grace, unconditional perseverance, etc., etc. Challenges 
and public debates were common, and these things, with Indian 
wars, French intrigues, French infidelity aud contentions about 
State rights, greatly retarded the progress of religion. Infidelity 
was rife in these western regions at this early period, permeating, 
as it was estimated, one half of the population of Kentucky. Vice 
and dissipation flooded the country. It required great boldness to 
attempt to stem the tide which rolled in with irresistible power 
every-where. 

At the close of the century the Presbyterians and the Method- 
ists sometimes found it necessary to unite their efforts and concert 
their action for the common cause. This was done in the southern 
part of Kentucky, where " union meetings " and " sacramental 
meetings " were held, the two denominations working together as 
kind and efficient yoke-fellows. In connection with these union 
efforts the great revival of 1800 commenced, which will constitute 
the theme of another chapter.* 

* Period II, Chapter I. 



SOO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER III 



DIVERSE CURRENTS 



Sec. I. The Unitarian Trend. Sec. 3. The New Jerusalem Church. 

" 2. Universalism. " 4. The Shakers. 



Section 1— The Unitarian Trend. 

THIS tendency in the New England churches had its inception 
in the Half- Way Covenant * adopted in 1662. Through the 
century this leaven had steadily worked, materially changing the 
current theology of New England. 

The Edwardian and Whitefieldian revivals for a time broke the 
force of this tendency, successfully combated Stoddard's innova- 
tion, and led many of the churches back to the old strict terms of 
membership. In the remainder of the churches, however, the old 
Calvinistic theology died a speedier death. The strengthening of 
one class increased the revolt in the other. After the revival the 
word •' Arminian," which had been so much dreaded, grew familiar. 
The type of thought, however, was not pure Arminianism, but 
rather Pelagianism mixed with Socinianism. As the term was used 
it meant Anti-Calvinism. The change had been long and gradual. 
First, certain church rites crumbled, then the doctrines. There was 
a new emphasis in behalf of man's free will and ability to gain sal- 
vation, and in respect to God's impartiality. There were two 
parties, and after 1750 they were perceptibly diverging. The new 
party was rising and extending. The mottoes were, Few funda- 
mentals ; no human creed ; only Bible words to express mysteries. 
Broad toleration was advocated in ordination and convention ser- 
mons, and the examination of candidates for ordination was dis- 
carded. The works of English Unitarians were in circulation. The 
orthodox party were becoming alarmed, grew more defiant, and 
charged the " Liberals " with evasion. Such was the drift at the 
close of the Revolution. 

* See pp. 100-102, 107, 108, 137, 140, 150-152, 198-201. 



UNITARIANISM. 301 

Although the schism out of which the Unitarian body was or- 
ganized did not occur until 1 8 1 5-1825, yet so deep and extensive 
was this drift that the exciting events of the Revolution only slightly 
checked its progress; and in 1786 it was said that " the general 
tone of thought in Boston was decidedly Unitarian." The elder 
Edwards and Mayhew had departed ; Chauncy and Gray were 
feeble with advanced age ; Styles was in his meridian at Yale Col- 
lege : Dwight was a rising light ; Emerson and Ware had just com- 
menced their ministry ; Channing and Beecher were boys ; Norton 
and Buckminster were tender babes ; and Hopkins and Belamy were 
leading a small party in an effort to relieve orthodoxy of the odi- 
ousness of High Calvinism. It was at such a time that the first 
open avowal of Unitarianism in the United States was made in the 
city of Boston, not among the Congregationalists, but among the 
Episcopalians. 

King's Chapel the First Unitarian Church in America. 

When the British troops left Boston all the Episcopal clergy 
went with them, and King's Chapel was occupied by the " Old 
South " congregation while they were repairing the injuries to their 
house made by the English soldiery who had occupied it. In 
1782 the remaining proprietors of King's Chapel determined to re- 
store the Episcopal form of worship. In the absence of a regular cler- 
gyman Mr. James Freeman, a rising young man and a recent gradu- 
ate of Harvard College, was employed to read the liturgy. "He was 
attached to the ritual, but had yet to frame his theological opinions. 
He gave himself to the current of free investigation, and no eccle- 
siastical authority restrained his progress or menaced him with 
public annoyance. Some changes in the Common Prayer were re- 
quired by the change in the political relations, and after a time 
Freeman avowed his wish to change, with them, those parts in which 
the Trinity was acknowledged. . . . By a vote of twenty to seven 
the proprietors of the chapel adopted the ritual with its proposed 
alterations. He asked in vain for orders from the new bishops in 
the United States, and in 1787 the warden* proceeded deliberately 
to ordain him, seventeen proprietors protesting." f The amend- 
ment to the liturgy was adopted June 19, 1785, which may be re- 
garded as the date of the formation of the first Unitarian Church in 

* The warden "laid one hand upon him and with the other delivered to him the Bible." 
Lindsays Vindication, p. 25. 

t Pages from the Ecclesiastical History 0/ New England, p. 37. 
20 



302 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

America. " Thus the first Episcopal Church in New England 
became the first Unitarian Church in the New World." " 

In London a Mr. Lindsay, a friend of Freeman, had just tried a 
similar experiment. They conferred together. Freeman told him 
the whole story — how shy the public were at first ; how Dr. Priest- 
ley's books were being read, and other books of English Unitarians ; 
how many of the clergy had given up the Trinitarian doxology ; 
that there was only one minister in New England who openly 
preached " the Socinian scheme," although " there are many 
churches in which the worship is strictly Unitarian, and some of 
New England's most eminent laymen openly avow that creed." 

" Although Dr. Freeman was the first who in this country 
openly preached Unitarianism under that name, he never claimed 
the credit of that movement, but referred to Dr. Mayhew and others 
as having preached the same doctrine before. This was no doubt 
true. . . . Yet as he was the first to avow and defend the doctrine 
by its distinct name he may be considered as its first preacher." + 

Before his death he became a decided humanitarian. J Revs. 
Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, and William Bentley, of Salem, class- 
mates of Freeman in Harvard College, were also among the first to 
adopt these views. Bentley was very learned and bold. Of him 
Hon. Edward Everett said, at his funeral, " He dared to speak what 
others did not dare to tliink" 

In 1794 Dr. Priestley, the distinguished leader in the Unitarian 
ranks in England, and a decided humanitarian, came to this country 
to spend the remainder of his days. His great talents and learning 
were universally acknowledged ; but not much was accomplished by 
his efforts to promote the spread of Unitarianism here.§ He preached 
to a small congregation in Northumberland, Pa., where he resided, 
but his lectures in Philadelphia drew large audiences. Hon. Thomas 
Jefferson was much influenced by him, adopting some of his opin- 
ions in the latter part of his life. 

On the 1 2th of June, 1796, thirteen persons holding Unitarian 
views assembled in Philadelphia to establish religious worship ; but 
the growth of the congregation was slow and their services were sev- 
eral times entirely suspended. The new leaven was steadily working 
in Boston, and Dr. Bradford has said, " It was confidently believed 
that there was not a strict Trinitarian clergyman in Boston in 1800." ' 

* Greenwood's History of King's Chapel. 
t Sprague's Annals of the Unitarian Pulpit, p. 169. 
\Ibid., p. 173. § Ibid., Introduction, p. 11. 

I Life of Mayhew, p. 468. He probably meant in the Congregational churches, See more 
fully on this point, Period II Chap. VI. 



ANTE- TRINITARIANS, 303 

The Attitude. 

The first marked victory which the " liberal" party in New En- 
gland gained occurred in the early part of the last century, " in the 
defeat of the Mathers and the ascendency of the Brattles, Leveretts 
and Willards, in the administration of Harvard College." The 
founders of the Brattle Street Church, who were leaders of this 
movement, " headed the social and intellectual tendency that de- 
veloped itself into Unitarianism." But the most sensitive point in 
the earlier stages of the movement was practical liberty, a revulsion 
against the party of Edwards and Whitefield, who endeavored to re- 
store the old practice of doctrinal tests and the relation of Christian 
experience. It was a contest against what was called ecclesiastical 
proscription. This practical protest was very soon vindicated bv 
new metaphysical theories in regard to man's moral nature and 
spiritual capabilities, at variance with the old doctrines of necessity, 
depravity, regeneration, justification by faith, the atonement, the 
character and person of Christ and, at a later period, of the Trinity 
also. While they could not submit to the rigid discipline and the 
exacting creeds of the older divines, they nevertheless, for the most 
part, cherished sterling Christian principles and a high sense of per- 
sonal responsibility. They intended to remain in the Church, but 
meant to contend for liberty of thought and action. They were 
supported by a large share of the wealth, culture, civil influence 
and social distinction of the New England churches. Nor was the 
spirit of this period of a controversial character, but calm, yet in- 
dependent. 

Freeman, in a letter to Belsham, in 1795, thus described the 
attitude of the new party. 

I am acquainted with a number of ministers in the southern part of Massa- 
chusetts who avow and publicly preach Unitarian doctrine ; while others, more 
cautious, content themselves with leading their hearers, by a course of rational 
and prudent sermons, gradually and insensibly to embrace it. 

In some cases the line of demarcation between the two schools 
was very slight. Such men as Belknap and Eliot differed from the 
majority of the liberalists. - Rejecting the Athanasian creed, they 
accepted the '* indwelling scheme," without assailing the Trinitarian 
theology as such, and spoke of God as Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost, as a few 7 Unitarians of a later period have done. Some 
prominent ministers of this party, down to the close of the last cent- 
ury, and also in the earlier part of the present, refused to be called 
Anti-Trinitarians, while nevertheless they rejected what they called 



S04 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

" Tritheism." Others preferred Athanasius to Arius ; some set forth 
" a Trinity of divine manifestations," which has been facetiously 
called " the effective evolution, or the differentiating and integrating 
of the unity of the Divine Being." Diversity of opinion, however, 
cannot be regarded as peculiar to this period, but it has been charac- 
teristic of this movement from its inception to the present time, 
only with an ever-increasing divergence, as will be shown in the 
sketches of its subsequent history. 



Section 2.— Universalism. 

In a previous chapter,* the inceptive stages of a revolt against 
extreme Calvinism toward Universalism were sketched. It was 
shown to be confined to no single locality, but was apparent in all 
sections and in all classes of minds. 

But two men stand forth more conspicuous than any others as 
the founders of Universalism in this country, and are referred to by 
the Universalists themselves as the patriarchs and pioneers of the 
denomination — Revs. John Murray and Elhanan Winchester. 

Of these Mr. Murray occupies the more prominent position, hav- 
ing been currently styled The Father of Universalism in the United 
States because of the extent and publicity of his labors, and his suc- 
cess in awakening public attention to his doctrines and in founding 
societies of that faith. Originally a Whitefieldian Methodist, he was 
converted to Universalism by Rev. James Relley, of London. He 
held to the doctrine of the trinity, substitutional atonement, the 
peculiar saving efficacy of divine grace through faith in Christ, re- 
generation and sanctification by the Holy Ghost, a personal devil, 
the resurrection of the literal body, the future general judgment, 
resulting in the salvation of all men, and a literal hell, in which devils 
will be punished forever. Mr. Murray entertained very high views 
upon the question, What constitutes a Universalist? Speaking of 
some " who," he says, " are not heart believers, but only head be- 
lievers," and " who contend that because Jesus is the Saviour of 
all men therefore they will be saved," he says: 

I am more and more convinced that nothing but the spirit and power of God 
can make a consistent Universalist. Do you ask me what it is that constitutes a 
consistent Universalist? I answer, a consistent Universalist must be taught of 
God, and under the influence of the Divine Spirit, t 

* See Colonial Era, Chapter VIII. Diverse Currents, pp. 194-21 1. 

+ See Hints Relative to the Forming of a Christian Church. A pamphlet. By Rev. John 
Murray. Boston, 1791, p. 45. 



I T NI VERSA LIS TS. 305 

Speaking of those who " suppose that all will be on a level in the 
article of death," he says : 

Neither in life nor death, in the body or out of the body, can any of the ran- 
somed of the Lord be saved from misery till they are made acquainted with God 
as their Saviour ; and though in death the spirit does not go with the body into the 
dust, and must be under the eye of the Father of Spirits, yet " where Christ is," 
that is, in " fullness of joy," they never can be till they have peace and joy in be- 
lieving; no, he who dies in unbelief lies down in sorrow and will rise in the resur- 
rection of damnation, or, more properly, condemnation.* 

He regarded the Bible as teaching the judgment as past and 
present, and also yet to come. " The past judgment " was " by Christ, 
when on earth." " Now is the judgment of this world." " The 
present judgment " is that in which u every one taught of God judges 
himself." "Judge yourselves, and ye shall not be judged." " The 
judgment yet to conic" is that of "the last great day," in which all 
who have not judged themselves, all unbelievers of the human race 
and all fallen angels through whose influence the unbelieving part of 
mankind are held in darkness and blindness, shall be judged by the 
Saviour of the world ; but these two characters shall then be sepa- 
rated — one placed on the right hand and the other on the left — the 
one, the " sheep," for whose salvation he laid down his life ; the 
other, " accursed," whose nature he passed by. In that future judg- 
ment, believers who have judged themselves shall not be judged, nor 
will they be present, f 

Rev. Elhanan Winchester, 

pastor of a Baptist church in Philadelphia, avowed himself a Res- 
torationist in 1781. He was converted to these views by reading 
the works of Siegvolck and Stonehouse. Like Mr. Murray, he was 
a deeply devoted and zealous man, of respectable literary qualifi- 
cations, and their theological views seem not to have differed, except 
in regard to the punishment of the wicked after the future general 
judgment, which Mr. Winchester taught would result in the holi- 
ness and happiness of all men. But Mr. Murray denied that there 
would be any misery after the general judgment. 

Mr. Winchester was very definite and positive in his views of 
future retribution, holding to a literal hell, literal fire and brim- 
stone, whose torment will be strictly penal, which he proclaimed in 
the most terrific strains, and the duration of which he taught would 
be unequal, in different cases ; in some extending to forty-nine 
thousand years. This period he seems to have deduced from a 

* Hints Relative to the Forming of a Christian Church. f Murray's Hints, pp. 9, 10, 33. 



306 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

fanciful interpretation of certain prophetic types and numbers. 
He died in Hartford, Conn., in 1797, at the early age of forty-six 
years, leaving behind him more than forty volumes and pamphlets, 
but few of which now exist except in rare libraries. He had been 
very zealous and extensive in his labors, preaching seven years in 
England, where he made many converts to his views, as well as in 
this country. 

Dr. Charles Chauncy, 

of Boston, has been before alluded to.* His bookf on this subject, 
(The Mystery Hid from Ages ; or the Salvation of All Men the Grand 
Thing Aimed at in the Scheme of God) was published anonymously in 
London, 1784, although written about twenty years before. With his 
characteristic caution he first published in Boston, in 1782, a pamph- 
let of twenty-six pages of extracts from the volume. It advocated 
the final restoration of all men to holiness and happiness as a doctrine 
of the Bible. A sharp controversy was immediately awakened. 
Two replies to his pamphlet appeared, one written by Rev. Samuel 
Mather, D.D., pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Bos- 
ton, and the other by Rev. Joseph Eckley, D.D., of the "Old South." 
Mr. Shippie Townsend, of Boston, a layman, also participated in 
the debate. After his volume was published, in 1784, the contro- 
versy took a wider range, and in the midst of it, in 1787, he died, 
aged eighty-two years. Two years after Chauncy 's death, Rev. Jona- 
than Edwards, D.D , of New Haven, published an able volume in re- 
ply to Dr. Chauncy. Dr. Belknap said, " The Chauncy controversy 
engaged every body's attention more or less.";): 

The extent of this tendency to these views may be judged from 
the following testimonies: Rev. Nathan Strong, D.D., of Hartford, 
Conn., in 1796, said: "This error (disbelief in future punishment) is 
not confined to those who are commonly called Universalists. There 
is a more numerous class of people who have not, and perhaps never 

* See Colonial Era, Chapter IV. Diverse Currents, p. 206. f Svo., pp. 400. 

% See Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit. Volume on Unitarian Ministers, p. 77. 

Note. — Dr. Chauncy seems to have had some knowledge of Murray's preaching in Boston 
and vicinity before his book was published, and to have had no sympathy with his theory of uni- 
versal salvation without future punishment. Being a Restorationist. he protested against Mr. 
Murray's teachings as dangerous in their influence. In the preface to his volume he says : u The 
doctrine of universal salvation has in this and some other towns been held forth by a stranger, 
who has, of himself, assumed the character of a. preacher, in direct contradiction not only to all 
the beforetime writers, but to the whole tenor of A T ew Testament books, from their beginning to 
end. According to this preacher a man may go to heaven notwithstanding all the sins he has 
br'en guilty of in the course of his life. Such doctrine looks very like an encouragement to liber- 
tinism, and falls in with the scheme of too many in this degenerate age, who, under the pre- 
tense of promoting religion, undermine it at the very root. It is certainly fitted to this end, and 
h s already had this effect upon many." 



RESTORA TIONISM. 307 

will, separate from the other denominations of professed Christians."* 
Rev. Bishop Mead, of Virginia, has said, " It was not an uncommon 
thing for Universalism to be preached by the Virginia clergy, in the 
last quarter of the last century. f 

These early Universalists seem not, however, to have united in 
general movements. Dr. Chauncy never met with Murray and Win- 
chester; and Mr. Winchester moved in an orbit entirely his own, 
except on two occasions. Once he occupied Murray's pulpit, in 
Boston, and he was present with Murray at the first general conven- 
tion of Universalists, in Oxford, Mass., in 1785, where he preached 
a sermon of which Murray speaks favorably in his Autobiography. 
This convention was a small body, made up of only three ministers 
and delegates from the societies at Gloucester, Boston, Milford, and 
Oxford. The third minister was Rev. Caleb Rich. We have no 
evidence of any united action of Mr. Winchester with Mr. Murray 
at any other time. 

Murray and Winchester. 

The differences between these two men, although not numerous, 
were very decided, Murray being absolutely and uncompromisingly 
opposed to the doctrine of the punishment of sinners, even for a 
limited period, in the future world, and Winchester preaching and 
writing upon it in the most flaming and alarming strains.;): 

*See reply to Dr. Huntington's book, Calvinism Improved. By Rev. Nathan Strong, 
D.D., of Hartford. T796. P. 11. 

tS^e Old Churches and Families of Virginia. By Bishop Wm. Meade. Vol. I, p. 183. 
He cites Rev. Messrs. Yancy, of Louisa, and Talley, of Gloucester, Va. 

X At this point a controversy has arisen between Universalists of a later period. We occa- 
sionally find it stated in the Universalist literature of the last fifty years that Murray was a Res- 
torationist. It was not an uncommon thing to meet this assertion, from 1823 to 1838, in the 
writings of Revs. Adin Ballou, Paul Dean, and others, who were the leaders in a split in the de- 
nomination, in favor of Restorationism, which then occurred. In their circular, sent out at 
that time, they say that "there has been of late years a great departure from the sentiments 
of the first Universalist preachers in this country," and that they "believe with Murray, Win- 
chester, Chauncy, and the ancient authors who have written upon this subject, in future re- 
wards and punishments, to be followed by the final restoration of all mankind to holiness 
and happiness." But these assertions were ably and unanswerably refuted by Rev. Thomas 
Whittemore, then editor of the Trumpet, by abundant quotations from Mr. Murray s 
writings, explicitly declaring his dissent from Mr. Winchester's doctrine of Rest rationism. 
And yet, in The Universalist^ February it, 1871, Rev. Adin Ballou re-asserts the same thing, 
declaring that the Universalist denomination " was originally Restorationist in faith, and so re- 
mained, in doctrinal exposition, till after the year 1815." " The doctrine of universal salvation, 
without any disciplinary punishment after death, was advocated by certain persons in England 
and America before and after the Universalist Convention in 1785, but was strongly denounced 
by Winchester and Murray, the leading founders of that convention." " Hosea Ballou was the 
first preacher (at least of any note) inside the Universalist denomination who advocated univer- 
sal salvation without any disciplinary punishment after death, some time between 1815 and 1820." 
Such were Rev. Adin Ballou's assertions, nothwithstanding the demonstrations of Mr. Whitte- 
more to the contrary, from thirty to forty years ago, over and over again in the Trumpet. 



S08 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

A brief statement of the peculiar views of these two leading 
founders of American Universalism is necessary, that the character 
of the opinions in this early period maybe understood, and the drift 
of sentiment in more recent times may be more distinctly appre- 
hended and appreciated. Mr. Winchester has stated his views of the 
punishment of the wicked in these words. 

Some suppose that all punishment and pain shall end at the coming of Christ, 
and mankind at once shall be restored ; but destruction shall be to the workers of 
iniquity and to those who refuse to submit to the Lord ; and as for punishment 
ceasing- when he first comes, it is a mistake of great magnitude, for the punish- 
ment of the wicked will continue ages of ages after the day of judgment.* 

Again he says : 
They can never be loosed from it until they are wholly subdued. f 

To a friend Mr. Murray said, in regard to the doctrine of restoration: 
Mr. Winchester considers weak, ruined individuals as paying their own debts ; 
yea, to the uttermost farthing. I see no strength but in Christ Jesus ; be you as- 
sured, therefore, I am not of Mr. Winchester's school.J 

Again he says: 

A second class of Universalists insist on purgatorial satisfaction, according to 
which every man must come to be his own saviour ; for if I must suffer as much in 
my own person as will satisfy Divine justice, how is or how can Jesus Christ be my 
saviour? If this purgatorial doctrine be true, the ministry of reconciliation com- 
mitted to the apostles must be false, to wit: "God was in Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses." In fact, I know no 
description of people further from Christianity, true Christianity, than such Uni- 
versalists. ... As I descend into the vale of life these discoveries give me a 
touch of sorrow, and I anticipate a harvest of evil. § 

In these extracts, more of which might be given, Mr. Murray ex- 
plicitly declares that he is " not of Mr. Winchester's school," and 
joins direct issue with Restorationists. 

Mr. Murray believed that all men had broken the law of God, and 
were all, therefore, justly exposed to its penalties, that these penalties 
had been fully suffered by Christ for us on the cross, and that " His 
punishment on the cross was our punishment for sin." Hence, strictly 
speaking, Mr. Murray did not hold to punishment for sin either in 
this life or in the next, for Christ had suffered all the punishment 
due to sin, and every man must be saved by faith, by a personal 
acceptance of Christ. Hence the miseries attendant upon unbelief 
will continue as long as unbelief shall continue, whether in this world 
or the next; but he regarded them as unavoidable consequences, and 
not penalties. It is these unavoidable consequences of sin and unbe- 

* Winchester on the Prophecies. Vol I, p. 265. f Murray's Letters. Vol. II, p. 263. 

\Ibid., p. 278. § Ibid. Vol. II, p. 130. 



MURRAY AND WINCHESTER. 309 

lief, and not punishment for them, which will extend into the future 
world, because sin and unbelief will exist there. Mr. Winchester 
held to a day of judgment after death, at which men would be sen- 
tenced to punishment ; but the judgment in which Dr. Murray believed 
was designed to deliver men from all sin and unbelief, by revealing to 
them the character of God, "showing the things. that belong to their 
peace," and "making them acquainted with salvation." " In that day 
all knees should bow and accept Christ and enter into eternal rest." * 
The early conventions of 1785 and 1803, and of the intervening 
period also, embraced men of the two schools, Murray's and Win- 
chester's, who agreed as to the final happiness of all men; and in 
the platform which was adopted in 1803 the differences were ignored, 
as in the second Article : 

We believe in one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ 
by one Holy Spirit of grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to 
holiness and happiness. 

Such was the condition of things during the first period of Uni- 
versalism. 1. It was a departure from the generally accepted evan- 
gelical theology chiefly at one point — the final salvation of all men. 
It had no taint of Unitarianism or of Rationalism. 2. Murray held 
to the salvation of all men at the general judgment, and that unbe- 
lievers would be in a state of misery until that time ; not penal, but 
the natural consequence of sin and unbelief, f Christ having endured 
the penalty for them. 3. Winchester held to a local hell and a 
long period of disciplinary punishment after the general judgment, 

*See Trumpet, August n, 1832. Also Murray's Hints to the Forming of a Church. Bos- 
ton, 1792. 

t In further confirmation of the decidedly evangelical character of the views of Mr. Winches- 
ter on all points except that of the final restoration of all men, we adduce the following testimony 
from Rev. Enoch Mudge, the first native Methodist preacher raised up in New England. In a 
letter in Zion's Herald, March, 1827, he gave an account of an interview which he had with Mr. 
Winchester a short time before his death, in which Mr. Winchester related his conversations with 
Rev. John Wesley, whom he had frequently met in England, in the latter part of his life. In 
those conversations their doctrinal agreements and disagreements were freely discussed. 

" In stating the points of agreement (with Mr. Wesley) I well recollect," said Mr. Mudge, "Mr. 
Winchester commenced with a view of the doctrine of the depravity of man in his fallen state, a 
full and complete atonement by Christ, the necessity of repentance and regeneration, of justifica- 
tion by faith, of sanctification. On this he enlarged fully, observing that the doctrine was the 
same ; their only difference was in the manner of preaching it. He also dwelt on the similarity 
of their views with regard to the general calls and invitations of the Gospel, the moral accounta- 
bility of man and of future rewards and punishments — the necessity of being holy in order to be 
happy. Thus far," said he, "we could usually preach in nearly the same strain ; but when we 
went to speak of the nature and duration of the punishment of the wicked, we differed, Mr. 
Wesley supposing the state of probation to close with the present life, and that the states of all 
men are unalterably fixed in the day of judgment. He viewed punishment as penal and eternal ; 
as chastisatory and designed for reclaiming the criminal, and that when reclaimed they shall be 
restored." 



310 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

resulting in the final salvation of all men. In what proportion these 
different opinions then prevailed in the denomination we have no 
means of judging. 

The first Universalist society in the United States was organized 
by Rev. John Murray, in Gloucester, Mass., January, 1779. At the 
end of the first ten years from the landing of Murray, there were 
two societies and four or five ministers. In 1 801 there were twenty- 
two preachers of that faith in America. * 



Section 3— The Hew Jerusalem Clmrcli. 

was introduced into the United States during this period. In the 
life-time of Emanuel Swedenborg there were but few individuals 
who were known to have cordially received the doctrines taught in 
his writings. Swedenborg did nothing, and there was nothing done 
in his day to effect an organization of those who accepted the doc- 
trines taught by him. Swedenborg lived many years in London 
for the purpose of publishing his works, and died there, in 1772, in 
the eighty-fifth year of his age. 

In 1782 a society was formed in Manchester to print and 
publish Swedenborg's volumes in the English language. This 
society is still in active existence. In 1783 meetings were es- 
tablished in London for reading Swedenborg's works and for free 
conversation, and the first public meeting was held the same year. 
Those who attended it were so highly gratified that they determined 
to promote their " plan of holding up to the view of the world a 
light which could no longer be concealed in a secret place nor hid 
under a bed or a bushel." Rooms were immediately engaged, and 
advertisements were inserted in some of the newspapers giving a 
general invitation to all the readers of Swedenborg's writings in 
London and elsewhere, to join the Standard, "and by a common 
exertion to assist in extending the knowledge of them." This ad- 
vertisement was immediately noticed by Mr. James Glen, a Scotch 
gentleman, about to settle in Demarara, in South America. He 
introduced himself to the newly-formed society at its second meet- 
ing. Mr. Glen had accepted the doctrines of the New Church from 
reading the treatise on Heaven and Hell while on the ocean, on 
his return to Europe from America, where he had been to pur- 
chase a plantation, the book having been presented to him by the 
captain of the vessel on which he sailed. 

* Abel Sargent's Free U7iivcrsalist Magazine was first issued in New York city, in 1793. 



5 WEDEXBORGIANISM. 3 1 1 

Meetings for worship soon grew out of these first meetings for 
study and conversation, and the next year, 1784, in the month of 
June, Mr. James Glen, who had now reached the United States, 
delivered public lectures in Philadelphia — the first promulgation of 
the doctrines of the New Church on the continent of America. 
These lectures were well attended, and some of those who were 
present became the first receivers of these doctrines in the New 
World. Mr. Glen traveled in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ken- 
tucky, for the purpose of making these doctrines known. He also 
gave lectures in Boston not long after. He had brought with him 
from England such English translations of these writings as were 
there published ; and after he had left for Demarara a further sup- 
ply of books from England gave opportunity for others to study the 
writings of the Church. The work of republication was immedi- 
ately begun and earnestly prosecuted. 

In 1795 Rev. Wm. Hill came to America from England. He 
preached new Church doctrines in Massachusetts — in Boston, Ded- 
ham, Cambridge, and Salem. He went back to England, but after- 
ward returned to this country, where he died, in Philadelphia, in 
the year 1804. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Jacob Duche, 
rector of St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia, and chaplain to the 
first Continental Congress. In the year 1792 a sermon explaining 
the doctrines of the New Church was preached in the court- 
house in Baltimore, Md., by Rev. James Wilmer, formerly a cler- 
gyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Others took up the work. 
Among the most efficient laborers was Rev. John Hargrove who 
had been a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first 
regularly organized society of the New Church in this country which 
continued in existence was formed in Baltimore, in the year 1798, 
under the ministry of Rev. Ralph Mather and Rev. John Hargrove. 
Mr. Mather was an Englishman, and had preached in England. 
Mr. James Glen, who attended the second public meeting in London, 
and who first made known the doctrines of the New Church in 
Philadelphia, was the first who lectured upon them in Boston. A 
few years after Mr. Glen was followed, as has been said, by Rev. 
Wm. Hill, who presented the Arcana Celestia, and a number of 
the smaller works of Swedenborg, in Latin, to the college library 
at Cambridge, Mass. A small number of persons were led by his 
labors to receive the doctrines taught in Swedenborg's writings.* 

*The author is indebted to Rev, Samuel M. Worcester, M.D., of Salem, Mass., for the fore- 
going sketch. 



312 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 4.— The Shakers. 

These religionists arose in Europe in the first half of the eight- 
eenth century. In 1705 they appeared in England. In 1757 Mrs. 
Ann Lee joined the Society and soon became its conspicuous head. 
In 1774 she came to the United States and settled in Watervliet, 
near Albany, N. Y. In a religious revival among the Baptists, at 
New Lebanon, Columbia County, in 1780, some of those most visi- 
bly affected visited " Mother Lee," and through her were led to be- 
lieve that they had found the " key to their experiences." Mother 
Lee traveled widely several years, performing alleged miracles, 
broaching the idea of a community of property, forming her follow- 
ers into a model for Shaker organizations, and died in 1784. James 
Whitaker, called " Father James," who came from England with 
her, succeeded her at the head of the organization, and died in 1787. 
The same year, Joseph Meacham, a Baptist preacher, and a convert 
of Mother Lee, collected her followers in a settlement in New Leba- 
non, which thenceforth became a center of union. Under his ad- 
ministration in the course of five years eleven Shaker settlements 
were founded; namely, at New Lebanon and Watervliet, N. Y. ; at 
Hancock, Tyringham, Harvard and Shirley, Mass.; at Enfield, 
Conn. ; at Canterbury and Enfield, N. H. ; and at Alfred and New 
Gloucester, Me. No other societies were formed until after 1800. 



FREXCH SKEPTICISM. 313 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE FRENCH-AMERICAN INFIDELITY. 



Sec. i. Type of French Unbelief. 
" 2. Introduction into America. 
" 3. Skepticism Among Statesmen. 



Sec. 4. Infidel Organizations. 
" 5. Testimonies. 



THE most serious opposing influence encountered by Christianity 
during this period was the gross infidelity which then abounded, 
surpassing in virulence, extent and influence all manifestations of 
skepticism in previous or more recent periods. The rising spirit of 
"free inquiry"* in the colonial period has been briefly sketched in 
previous pages, and was traced to its twofold origin — deism in 
England and atheism in France, but reaching the colonies through 
English channels. It will now be seen coming from another source. 



Section 1.— Peculiar Type of French Unbelief. 

Although somewhat later in its origin than the English, French 
infidelity soon outstripped the former in the evil race, and exerted 
a wider and more destructive influence. About the time of the 
American Revolution, French deism culminated in atheism ; athe- 
ism and naturalism, in materialism. Doubt soon became almost 
universal, and scoffing burst into " a scream of maniac rage." The 
growing climax of skepticism which had been rising through the 
century reached its height in France among the most active, daring, 
witty and philosophic minds of that age. There, too, infidelity 
became organized, and from that burning focus it went forth upon 
its evil mission. We cannot pause to speak at length of the apostles 
of the movement nor of the passion and genius with which they 
entered upon their work. 

By jibes and jeers corrupting the moral sensibilities, by shining 
sophistries and soft subtleties of sentiment relaxing the moral 
sense, by specious generalities upon personal liberty and freedom of 

Pp. 194-196. 



314 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

thought sifted into its literature, then every-where eagerly sought 
for, French infidelity went forth to intoxicate the world with its 
false but delicious dreams. Men laughed at the brilliant Satanic 
wit of Voltaire, wept in sympathy with the exquisite romance of 
Rousseau, and stood in wonder, or followed in hesitating thought 
those master magicians, the Encyclopedists, as they pursued their 
problem of reconstructing the universe without a God. It sum- 
moned to its aid the handmaids of the highest culture ; Criticism 
dipped her pen in venom and performed its most destructive service ; 
Art chiseled its ideas into marble, traced them in glowing colors 
upon canvas, and warbled them in most entrancing strains; Poetry 
invested them with charms of imagination and measure; History, 
becoming a colored glass, vitiated the testimony of the past ; 
while Philosophy degraded herself to the profane vocation of under- 
mining human society under the specious pretense of emancipat- 
ing it. 

There was one extenuating condition which, however, only 
became more deceptive and ruinous. In France, infidelity was 
largely a revolt against a most gigantic and relentless despotism 
with which religion had become identified during a long period of 
papal intrigue and misrule ; and the revolutions which it instigated 
were professedly in the interest of popular deliverance. 



Section £.— Introduction into America. 

To Americans infidelity was introduced in plausible forms in 
connection with the ideas of liberty and self-government then very 
popular. Statesmen and scholars were the first victims. In a short 
time French styles of thought became fashionable in the higher 
classes of society, more especially in some of the Middle and Southern 
States, among gentlemen who had traveled in Europe, the wits and 
sprightly young men in the colleges, and the extreme Republicans. 
In addition to these things, peculiarly friendly relations existed 
between our countrymen and the French people. They had assisted 
the American colonies in the war of the Revolution — a fact which 
had considerable influence in predisposing many leading Americans 
toward French thought. Imbibing their ideas, men in high official 
positions through a long period of years gave them the benefit of 
their favor. 

Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight, writing of this period, with the cir- 
cumstances of which he was personally familiar, said : 



INFIDEL LITERATURE. 31 S 

Youths, particularly, who had been liberally educated, and who, with strong 
passions and feeble principles, were votaries of sensuality and ambition, delighted 
in the prospect of unrestrained gratification, and, panting to be enrolled with men 
of fashion and splendor, became enamored with the new doctrines. The tenor of 
opinion, and even of conversation, was to a considerable extent changed at once. 
Striplings scarcely fledged suddenly found that the world had been involved in 
general darkness through the long succession of preceding ages, and that the light 
of wisdom had just begun to dawn upon the human race. All the science, all the 
information that had been acquired before the last thirty or forty years stood in their 
view for nothing. Experience they boldly proclaimed a plodding instructress who 
taught in manners, morals and government nothing but abecedarian lessons, fitted 
for children only. Religion they discovered, on the one hand, to be a vision of 
dotards and nurses, and, on the other, a system of fraud and trick, imposed by 
priestcraft for base purposes upon the ignorant multitude. Revelation was found 
to be without authority or evidence, and moral obligation a cobweb which might, 
indeed, entangle flies, but by which creatures of stronger wing nobly disdained to 
be confined. The world they resolutely concluded to have been, probably, eternal, 
and matter the only existence. Man, they determined, sprung like a mushroom 
out of the earth like a chemical process ; and the power of thinking, choice and 
motivity were merely the result of elective affinities. If, however, there was a 
God, and man was a created being, he was created only to be happy. As, there- 
fore, animal pleasure is the only happiness, so they resolved that the enjoyment of 
that pleasure is the only end of his creation. 

At this period Europe, which annually ships to our shores a vast quantity of 
useful merchandise, and together with it a proportional assortment of toys and 
mischief, consigned to these States a plentiful supply of the means of corruption. 
From France, Germany and Great Britain, the dregs of infidelity were vomited upon 
us. From the System de la Nature and the Philosophical Dictionary, down to 
the Political Justice of Godwin, and the Age of Reason, the whole mass of pollu- 
tion was emptied upon this country. The last two publications flowed in upon us 
as a deluge. An enormous edition of the Age of Reasonwas published in France 
and sent over to America to be sold at a few pence per copy, and, where it could 
not be sold, to be given away.* But I am losing both you and myself in this forest 
of enormities. Future ages will hardly believe that any part of this portentous 
story could pass for truth with men of acknowledged wisdom and piety. Nothing, 
however, is more certain. f 



Section 3.— Skepticism Among Statesmen, Gen- 
erals, etc. 

Theoretical infidelity was unknown in the earlier colonial period. 
The Colony of Virginia was entirely exempt until near the middle 
of the last century. When the first infidel book was imported into 
Virginia, sometime subsequent to 1730, it produced such anexcite- 

* It has been asserted by a good authority that the infidels of France raised among them- 
selves in the course of several years three million francs for the purpose of purchasing, printing, 
and distributing books to corrupt the minds of the people. 

t Dwight's Travels. Vol. IV, pp. 376, 379, 380. 



316 CHRISTIAXITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

merit that the governor and commissary communicated with the 
authorities in England. Subsequently infidelity overran the State 
and her public men were borne away by its influence. 

It has become a familiar fact that many of the rising statesmen of 
Revolutionary fame were seriously in bondage to French skepticism. 
Some should be exonerated from this charge. It is well known that 
General Washington and Patrick Henry escaped the contagion, 
though they have been incorrectly classed with the skeptics of their 
time. Washington, in his address to the governors of the States in 
1783, referred to "the pure and benign light of revelation," and 
' ; the Divine Author of our blessed religion." Of Patrick Henry, 
Bishop Meade * said, " He had an abhorrence of infidelity. Early in 
life he was a deeply interested attendant upon the ministry of Rev. 
Samuel Davies, D.D., and later in life he wrote an answer to Paine's 
Age of Reason, though it was never published. Concerning Edmund 
Randolph, we have his own testimony in a letter : " When we were 
united (married) I was a deist, made so by my confidence in some 
whom I revered, and by the labors of my two preceptors, who, though 
of the ministry, poisoned me with books on infidelity." He was 
afterward recovered from the snare by the example and prayers of 
his pious wife.f 

Hon. Thomas Jefferson for a long time yielded to the skepticism 
of his times, and General Charles Lee was noted for the boldness of 
his infidelity and his reckless blasphemy. In his will he instructed 
his survivors "not to bury him in any church or church-yard, or 
within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting- 
house." \ 

As late as 1810, says Bishop Meade: 

Infidelity was rife in the State, -and the College of William and Mary was 
regarded as the hot-bed of French politics and religion. I can truly say that then 
and for some years after in every educated young man in Virginia whom I met I 
expected to find a skeptic, if not an avowed unbeliever. § Infidelity became rife in 
Virginia, perhaps, beyond any other portion of the land. The clergy for the most 
part were a laughing stock or objects of disgust. || 

Even Bishop Madison became subject to the suspicion of infi- 
delity, though unjustly. General Dearborn, Secretary 7 of War under 
Jefferson, was an avowed unbeliever. On one occasion when travel- 
ing in a public stage-coach from Washington, D. C, he declared it to 
be his opinion that, " So long as those temples stand (alluding to 

* Old Families and Churches of Virginia. V 1. II, p. 12. \ Ibid. Vol. I, p. 1S2. 

X Ibid. Vol. II, p. 368. § Ibid. Vol. I. p. 29. | Ibid. Vol. I, p. 52. 



BENJAMIN FRAXKLIN'S MOTION. 317 

the church edifices) we cannot hope for order and good govern- 
ment." Passing by a meeting-house in Connecticut, he pointed at 
it and with the utmost scorn exclaimed : " Look at that painted 
nuisance." 

The Framers of the Constitution. 

It will not be questioned that many of the framers of the Con- 
stitution of the United States were deeply imbued with the ideas 
of the French atheistical school." Recently it has been a matter 
of boasting that " the great founders of our Government were her- 
etics," and that " the Government of the United States is not, in 
any sense, founded upon the Christian religion." f 

It is well known that in the convention of 1787, which framed 
the Constitution of the United States, great difficulty was experi- 
enced in harmonizing upon various conflicting questions, and at 
one time in the course of their deliberations it was feared that all 
their efforts to find a common basis of union would utterly fail. 
Many days passed and they made no progress. Finally, on the 
28th of June, Hon. Benjamin Franklin arose in the convention and 
expressed a regret that they had had no religious devotion during 
their session, and proposed that a chaplain be engaged to implore 
the Divine blessing and guidance, each morning, during the remain- 
der of the session. His speech was a beautiful and appropriate 
recognition of dependence upon God for guidance and success. 
Hon. Roger Sherman seconded the motion. Hon. Alexander Hamil- 
ton and others feared lest prayers being introduced at that late day 
should excite among those outside a suspicion of dissensions within, 
and lead to some disagreeable animadversions. Others suggested 
that the convention had no funds. Some other strange and incon- 
sistent pleadings were made, and finally, says Hon. James Madison, 
in his History of the Debates of the Convention, " after several un- 
successful attempts for silently postponing the matter, by adjourning, 
the adjournment was at length carried, without any vote on the 
motion." No further action was had, and not a single prayer was 
offered in the entire session of the convention which framed our 
national Constitution. Is it strange that a convention which allowed 

* A writer in the Index (Toledo), May 13, 1871, said: "All the great men who took part 
with Mr. Paine in laying the foundations of the Government of the United States, with very few 
exceptions, held the same theological sentiments " (as he did), although " they did not publicly 
identify themselves with him in his attacks upon the Church and its religion." " And they 
would have completely revolutionized the sentiments of the American people but for the influ- 
ence of George Whitefield and John Wesley." 

t Mr. T. W. Higginson, in Horticultural Hall Discourse, Boston, January 12, 1873. 
21 



318 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

no recognition of God in its deliberations, should have framed an 
instrument in which God is not acknowledged ? * 

The statesmen of this period are entitled to great credit for their 
intellectual abilities and resources, forming a constellation of the 
first magnitude in the realm of mind. The spirit inspiring the Rev- 
olution, and the energy in counsel and in action demanded by the 
memorable crises from 1773 to 1787, fostered and developed the 
strongest intellectual powers, and a nobility of character belonging 
to a superior order. We honor their abilities, are grateful for their 
services and admire their heroism. But their minds were evidently 
tainted with the subtle poison of French philosophy, vitiating their 
religious perceptions. 



Section 4— Infidel Organizations. 

Infidel clubs were very common at the close of the last and the 
beginning of the present century, in the Middle and in some of the 
Southern States, on the same plan and in affiliation with those in 
France. An early memoir of Hon. Thomas Jefferson, published in 
1809, says : 

A society of Illuminatt, or, more properly called by themselves, Illumines, 
had been established in Virginia. It consisted of one hundred members, had its 
regular officers as well as members, and was set afoot in 1786 by the GRAND 
Orient of France. From this society a deputy was sent to reside with the mother 
society in France, in order to hold communication between the infidels and revo- 
lutionists of the two countries, and to give the American society its instructions. 
In New York there was another society of the same kind, out of which fourteen 
others at least had sprung. 

The following testimony, from a well-accredited source, will still 
more fully show the character and tendency of the infidelity and its 
affiliated clubs at this period : 

I knew a party formed more than fifty years ago (about 1786), in Orange 
County and Smith's Cove, in the State of New York, for the avowed purpose of 
destroying Christianity and religious government. They claimed the right to in- 

* " The opinion that the religious defect of the Constitution is due to the irreligion of some 
of the leading statesmen of the time is sustained by the testimony of Dr. Franklin, who, in refer- 
ence to his motion for prayers in the convention, 'imploring the assistance of Heaven and its 
blessings upon our deliberations,' sadly wrote that, 'with but few exceptions the convention 
thought prayers for Divine guidance unnecessary.' And further, by that of Luther Martin, a 
delegate from Maryland, who, in a letter to the Legislature of that State, said ' there were some 
members so unfashionable as to think that a belief in the existence of a Deity, and of a state of 
future rewards and punishments, would be some security f<>r the good conduct of our rulers.' " 
Letter of Hon. Felix R. Brunot, of Pittsburg, to the Convention to Consider the Subject of 
Inserting a Recognition of the Divine Being in the Constitution of the United States. Held 
in Boston, Dec. 16 and 17, 1874. 



ATHEISM IN THE COLLEGES. 319 

dulge in lasciviousness and to recreate themselves as their propensities and appe- 
tites should dictate. Those who composed this association were my neighbors ; 
some of them were my school-mates. I knew them well, both before and after they 
became members. I marked their conduct and saw and knew their ends. Their 
number was about twenty men and some females. I can give the names and the 
particulars of these individuals. For the sake of the living I will introduce the in- 
itials of their names only, except a few. 

Joshua Miller was a teacher of infidelity, and was shot off a stolen horse by 
Colonel J. Woodhull. N. Miller, his brother, was shot off a log while he was play- 
ing at cards on first day morning, by Zebed June, on a scouting party for rob- 
bers. Benjamin Kelley was shot off his horse for the murder of one Clarke, by a 
boy, the son of the murdered man ; he lay above ground until the crows picked his 
bones. J. Smith committed suicide by stabbing himself while he was imprisoned 
for crime. \V. Smith was shot by B. Thorpe and others for robbery. S. T. be- 
trayed his own confidential friend for five dollars ; his friend was hung and himself 
afterward was shot by D. Lancaster ; said to be an accident; I heard the report of 
the gun and saw the blood. J. A. was shot by Michael Coleman for robbing 
Abimel Young, in the very act. J. V. was shot by a company of militia. J. D. 
in one of his drunken fits laid out and was chilled to death.* 

A similar fate befell the others. These facts, the author says, 
are supported by the affidavits of responsible men. 

Atheism in Yale College and Other Institutions. 

On the election of Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., to the presi- 
dency of Yale College, in 1795, he found atheistical clubs existing 
there, and infidelity in its most radical forms prevailed among the 
students. It was a time of great laxity of moral and religious sen- 
timent. Young men were fascinated with radical notions of mental 
as well as political independence, and were much inclined to shake 
off what they regarded as the shackles of superstition. "The de- 
gree to which it prevailed may be judged from the following fact: 
A considerable portion of the class which he (Dr. Dwight) first taught 
had assumed the names of the English and French infidels and were 
more familiarly known by them than by their own."f It required all 
the tact and eloquence of that able man to suppress this great evil. 
But under his administration it was nearly rooted out. Several re- 
vivals of religion, one of which has often been referred to on account 
of its power and extent, were among the effectual means of this 
result. 

Mr. Thomas Cooper came to this country in 1797 and figured 
as a naturalist, a lawyer and a politician. A friend of Priestley,' an 

* Practical Infidelity Portrayed. By Abner Cunning-ham. i2mo. New York, D 
Coolidge ; Boston, J. Loring ; Philadelphia, N. Kite. 1836. Pp. 42-46. 
t Introduction to Dwighfs Theology. Vol. I, p. 20. 



320 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

early member of the democratic clubs of England, then of the affili- 
ated Jacobin clubs and a Girondist, under Mr. Jefferson he rose to 
favor, and was for many years Professor of Chemistry and Political 
Economy in Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. Subsequently he held 
high positions in the University of Pennsylvania, and finally in Co- 
lumbia College, South Carolina. In all these situations, by sophis- 
tical reasonings, sneers and sarcasm, he trained many youthful 
minds in unbelief. 

Paine's Age of Reason was introduced here about the close 
of the century, and had an extensive circulation. Great was 
the activity of European infidels in disseminating their senti- 
ments in our country. In the year 1800, Hon. John Adams, 
then President of the United States, received a letter from Ger- 
many proposing to introduce into this country " a company of 
school-masters, painters, poets, etc., all of them disciples of Thomas 
Paine." His reply was characteristic of the man : 

I had rather countenance the introduction of Ariel and Caliban with a troupe of 
spirits the most mischievous from the fairy land.* 

So threatening were the dangers which then menaced the coun- 
try through the secret politico-infidel clubs organized in affiliation 
with those of France that President Adams referred to them in 
terms of warning in a public proclamation. The facts are set forth 
in the Memoir of Thomas Jefferson, to which reference has already 
been made. 

Ilhtminism had been systematically embraced by various bodies of men who as- 
sociated for its propagation. President Adams, in a proclamation in which he briefly 
disclosed the dangers that threatened the country, had said : "The most precious 
interests of the United States are still held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and 
insidious arts of a foreign nation (France), as well as by the dissemination among 
them of those principles subversive of the foundation of all religious, moral and 
-social obligations, that have produced incalculable mischiefs and misery in other 
countries." The violent assaults which were made upon this passage of the proc- 
lamation proved the truth and accuracy of the sentiment. Enraged at this public 
disclosure of their plans the whole faction attacked it. 

The objects of these societies were to destroy Christianity and 
to revolutionize government and society generally. The belief in a 
God, the immortality of the soul, moral obligation, civil and do- 
mestic government, the right of property, marriage, chastity and 
decency were objects of their hatred and conspiracy, as they had 
been in France. Wherever they prevailed the most gross and brutish 
manners and shameless immorality followed. 

* Life and Works of John Adams. Vol. IX, p. 73. 



FREXCH INTRIGUE. 321 

Jacobinism in America. 

The Jacobin Club of Paris was established at a time when the 
French Revolution had prostrated all legitimate government, and 
invested the mob, under the name of " the sovereign people," with 
the fullest prerogatives, even of plunder and violence. Among its 
members and leaders were Robespierre, Danton, Marat, Collot- 
d'Herbois, and Santerre, supported by more than two thousand 
affiliated clubs in France, and a host of ferocious demagogues. 
M. Genet, the minister of this Jacobin government to the United 
States, landed at Charleston, S. C, April 8, 1793. England, then at 
war with France, had secured Russia, Austria, Spain and Sardinia 
as allies. The United States were professedly neutral, although the 
sympathies of a large portion of the people were with France, and 
it was only with extreme difficulty that Washington could restrain 
them from violating the rules of neutrality. Extensive depredations 
upon American commerce by English vessels, under a series of 
official orders at variance with the rights of neutrality, increased 
the difficulty by aggravating the popular feeling against England. 
The real object of Genet's mission was to involve the United States 
in a war with England, and thus effect a diversion in favor of France. 
For this purpose immediately on his arrival he commenced to dis- 
tribute naval and military commissions, and performed many other 
offensive acts. 

So great was the popular sympathy with the French Revolution 
that at his reception in Philadelphia " the dinner-table was decorated 
with the ' Tree of Liberty, 1 and a red cap called the 4 Cap of Liberty ' 
was placed upon the head of M. Genet, and from his passed in suc- 
cession from head to head around the table."* Those who readily 
adopted the badges of the Jacobins were ready for further steps. 
Immediately a club was organized in Philadelphia with a constitu- 
tion a la mode de Paris, which sent out an invitation for the for- 
mation of similar clubs elsewhere. The response was general, and 
they soon existed in every direction. Their object was to thwart 
the endeavors of Washington to maintain a neutral attitude, to force 
the nation into an alliance with France, and bring on a war with 
England. 

Great pains were also taken to incorporate French follies and ex- 
travagances into American manners. The addresses Mr. and Mrs. 
were held to be aristocratic, and Citizen and Citizeness were urged as 
more republican. On the Fourth of July the President of the United 

* Life 0/ Hon. John Jay, LL.D. By his son, Wm. Jay. Ha pers, 1832. P. 302 



322 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

States was toasted in New York City as " Citizen George Wash- 
ington/' " It is scarcely credible to what an extent the absurdities 
devised and practiced by the French demagogues, to influence the 
passions of the mob, were adopted and applauded by multitudes of 
the hitherto staid and reflecting citizens of the United States." * 
The French revolutionists had denounced all heraldic bearings as 
aristocratic, and some began to fastidiously inquire whether the 
eagle upon the coins of our Government and elsewhere did not 
savor of royalty, and consequently become a scandal upon a repub- 
lican government. " The Tree of Liberty" and "The Cap of Lib- 
erty" were everywhere popular. 

Posterity will with difficulty believe the prostituted state to which Genet and his 
satellites, the democratic societies, had brought the public feeling. By a variety of 
those artifices which familiarize the heart to cruelty, they had inured the multitude 
to the contemplation of bloodshed and to habitual ferocity. At a dinner in Phila- 
delphia, at which Governor Mifflin and his friend Dallas were present, a roasted pig 
was introduced as the representative of the unfortunate Louis XVI. It was the 
joyful celebration of the anniversary of his murder. The head, being severed from 
the body, was carried round to each at the table, who, after putting on the liberty 
cap, pronounced the word "Tyrant ! " and gave the head a chop with his knife, t 

In America, as well as in France, the most atrocious villainies were maintained 
to be patriotic acts. Robbery was held to be moral and correct justice; murder 
was maintained to be laudable ; and those most execrable of all crimes, treason 
and rebellion, were dignified by the name of national justice, because Jacobinized 
France gave the fashion to the morals and opinions of this country, and fidelity to 
her, under her new rulers, was best asserted by treason to every other country. \ 

A liberty cap, decorated with French and American flags, was 
placed with great pomp in the Merchants' Exchange, in New York. 
A large concourse assembled on the occasion and united in singing 
patriotic songs, while a detachment of militia attended, under arms, 
in honor of the ceremony. A fete was given in Philadelphia in 
honor of the revolution in Holland. A great crowd assembled, an 
altar was erected to Liberty, and before this altar the mob chanted 
hymns to the goddess, took an oath to be faithful to her and never to 
forget the genius and the arms that had restored freedom. § The 
profanity and folly of this oath indicate its French origin. 

Such was the infatuation that then prevailed under French in- 
fluence. The intimate relations which existed between the two 
countries, and an indebtedness for aid rendered in our Revolu- 
tionary distresses, made Americans easy victims to their specious 

* Life of 'John Jay, p. 319. 

t Memoirs 0/ Hon. Thomas Jefferson, with a View of the Rise and Progress 0/ French In- 
fluence and French Principles in the United States. 1809. Vol. I. p. 132. 

Xlbid, p. 133. %Life of John Jay, p. 321. 



JACOBINISM IN KENTUCKY. 323 

theories and frenzy. But for the fairness and integrity of Wash- 
ington and the success of that wise and incorruptible statesman, 
Hon. John Jay, in adjusting our pending difficulties with England, 
the nation must have been involved in fatal complications with 
France, and become still more fearfully demoralized in manners. 

These Jacobin clubs extended as far west as Kentucky, then in 
its infancy, and the seeds of infidelity were sown broadcast over 
that State. Their character has been thus described : " Politically 
they were violent and dogmatic; morally they were corrupting; 
and, in respect to religion, they were utterly infidel." The nomen- 
clature of towns and counties in Kentucky still attests the French 
sympathies of the first settlers, and it is a very significant fact that 
at this period French agents were able to enlist two thousand 
recruits in this State to attack the Spanish settlements on the Missis- 
sippi. Transylvania University, founded by the Presbyterians, was 
wrested from their hands and given over to the influence of infidel- 
ity. - In 1793 Kentucky dispensed with the services of a chaplain 
of the Legislature — a measure significant of the influences in the 
ascendency in high places. Before the close of the century a con- 
siderable majority of the inhabitants of the State were reputed to 
be infidels, and the usual concomitants of vice and dissipation were 
not wanting. 



Section 5— Testimonies. 

Dr. Lyman Beecher, in his Anotobiograpliy,\ bears a striking tes- 
timony. Speaking of this period he says, 

That was the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine school. Boys that dressed 
flax in the barn, as I used to, read Tom Paine and believed him. I read and 
fought him all the way. I never had any propensity to infidelity But most of the 
class before me were infidels, and called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alem- 
bert, etc., etc. They thought the faculty were afraid of free discussion. But 
when they handed Dr. Dwight a list of subjects for class disputation, to their sur- 
prise he selected this : " Is the Bible the word of God ? " and told them to do their 
best. He heard all they had to say, answered them, and there was an end. He 
preached incessantly on the subject for six months, and all infidelity skulked and 
hid its head. 

Chancellor Kent said : 

In my younger days there were very few professional men who were not in- 
fidels, or at least they were so far inclined to infidelity that they could not be called 
believers in the truth of the Bible. \ 

* History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 
Vol. I, pp, 420, 421. t Vol. I, p. 43. 

% In a conversation with Governor Clinton, New York. Mr. Kent lived 1765-1847. 



324 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

♦ 

Rev. Ezra Ripley, of Concord, Mass., said: 

A large portion of the learning not possessed by the clergy leaned to Deism, if 
it was not decidedly in its favor. Christianity and its institutions were treated with 
more than indifference and not seldom directly opposed. ... I have been an eye 
and ear witness of the proud boasting and confident assertions of profane and 
blasphemous infidels and have seen the poison plentifully cast into the fountain of 
literature. * 

Of Thomas Paine much has been written without due discrimi- 
nation. He has been overestimated and overblamed. Mr. McMas- 
terf describes him : 

We doubt whether any name in our Revolutionary history, not excepting that of 
Benedict Arnold, is quite so odious as the name of Thomas Paine. Arnold was a 

traitor, Paine was an infidel Since the day when the Age of Reason came 

forth from the press the number of infidels has increased much more rapidly than 
it did before that book was written. The truth is, he was one of the most remark- 
able men of his time. It would be a difficult matter to find anywhere another such 
compound of baseness and nobleness, of goodness and badness, of greatness and 
littleness, of so powerful a mind left unbalanced and led astray by the worst of 

animal passions Of all the human kind he is the filthiest and the nastiest, 

and his disgusting habits grew upon him with his years. In his old age, when the 
frugal gifts of two States which remembered his good work had placed him beyond 
immediate want, he became a sight to behold. It was rare that he was sober; it 
was still rarer that he washed himself, and he suffered his nails to grow till, in the 
language of one who knew him well, they resembled the claws of birds. What 
gratitude was he did not know. 

The French Revolution inspired the enemies of religion for a 
time with confident expectations of a speedy triumph. The minds 
of multitudes were unsettled, and there was a breaking away from 
the old creeds. " Wild and vague expectations were every-where 
entertained, especially among the young, of a new order of things 
about to commence, in which Christianity would be laid aside as an 
obsolete system." % It was confidently asserted by some that in 
two generations Christianity would altogether disappear. Such was 
the skepticism that prevailed at the close of the last century and 
the beginning of the present. The growth of Christianity in this 
country since these vain predictions has been the most marvelous § 
ever known in any land or any age. 

*In his Half-Century Sermon, covering 1778-1828. 

t History of the People of the United States. D. Appleton & Co 1884. Vol. I, pp. 150, etc. 
See also Period II, Chapter VII, Section 1. 

X Religion in America. Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. Harper & Bros. 1856. 
§ See next to the last chapter in the book. 



ROMANISM IN AMERICA. 325 

• 



CHAPTER V. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



Sec. i. Patriotic Under Disabilities. Sec. 4. Religious Orders and Publica- 

11 2. The Hierarchy Established. tions. 

" 3. Progress in Individual States. ,; 5. Indian Missions. 



Section 1.— Patriotic Under Disabilities. 

BEFORE the Revolution the Roman Catholic Church had no 
organized existence in the original thirteen United States. 
Scarcely any representatives of this faith existed in New England, 
Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. Maryland had ceased to be a 
Roman Catholic colony, about one hundred years before the Revo- 
lution ; the descendants of Lord Baltimore and his companions and 
nearly all the population of the colony were Protestants, when our 
national independence was declared. The number of families that 
retained the Roman Catholic faith and a part of their property was 
very small ; and among the servants who continued faithful to that 
religion but few could have access to their ministers or transmit 
their faith to their children. The clergy were objects of persecution, 
were few in number, and carefully kept out of the sight of the 
Protestants. 

It had been arranged by the pope that the English colonies in 
America should be under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicar in 
London. This arrangement proved disastrous, for the London 
official was himself exposed to so many difficulties and persecutions 
that he could render but little aid. Maryland had a few private 
Roman Catholic chapels, and Baltimore was a station privately 
visited once a month by a priest. Until 1776 the devotees of the 
papacy in Maryland were hampered by civil restrictions. 

In Pennsylvania the Roman Catholics were under no legal re- 
straints, so that this colony afforded an asylum for Roman Catholics 
persecuted in Maryland and elsewhere. But it was difficult for the 
Quakers to understand that the papal faith ought to enjoy the same 



326 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

share of liberty which they exercised. Man"- obstructions were put 
in the way of erecting Roman Catholic churches, and such impedi- 
ments were encouraged by the English Government. On one occa- 
sion, in the colonial era, the Philadelphians appealed to the Privy 
Council in England to decide whether it was expedient to allow the 
Roman Catholics to erect a building for religious purposes. The 
response was, " There is no law in the colony which authorizes you 
to oppose the attempt of the Catholics, but the Privy Council de- 
sires that its execution may be impeded as much as possible." 
Every-where else the Catholic religion was formally excluded. On 
account of these obstacles, prior to 1771 the Irish Catholics had 
settled scarcely anywhere except in Maryland and Pennsylvania. 
About twenty-six priests and 25,000 to 30,000 communicants, with 
no bishop, college or academy, represented the Catholicity of the 
United States and Territories in 1775. 

The Continental Congress in 1774 proclaimed the broadest tol- 
eration, and in 1776 the Roman Catholics in Maryland — some of 
them very rich and influential — were granted civil and religious 
equality. The other twelve original States soon followed, though 
eligibility to hold political offices was not granted in many States 
until after the present century opened — not until 1806, in New 
York; 1821, in Massachusetts; 1836, in North Carolina; 1844, in 
New Jersey. In the States where Roman Catholics were the 
original proprietors of the soil, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Indiana, 
Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, Wisconsin, 
New Mexico and California, the free exercise of the Roman Cath- 
olic religion was guaranteed by solemn treaties, when they were 
ceded to the United States. 

Roman Catholics and the Revolution. 

The Roman Catholics took an active part in the war of the 
Revolution. One of the most distinguished laymen, Charles Car- 
roll, of Carrollton, Md., was a signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. " Here go millions," said Benjamin Franklin, as Mr. Carroll 
signed the paper. The first " sea fight " of the Revolution, in Ma- 
chias Bay, Maine, May 11, 1775, resulting in the capture of two 
British store-ships, was fought under Captain Jeremiah O'Brien, an 
ardent Roman Catholic. Commodore Barry, a pious Roman Cath- 
olic, has been styled the " Father of the American Navy." Sev- 
eral Roman Catholics were members of General Washington's " Life 
Guard." Colonel Moylan, prominent in many battles of the Rev- 
olution, was a Roman Catholic. Roman Catholic France supplied 



ROMANISTS AXD THE REVOLUTION. 327 

the cause of the Revolution with soldiers and money. Roman 
Catholic Spain threw open her ports as neutral to the American 
marine, and contributed aid to the struggling Republic. Bishop 
England said," " More than half the regular troops furnished by 
Pennsylvania during the war of the Revolution were Irish Cath- 
olics." 

After the " Act of Toleration," adopted by Maryland in 1776, 
the Roman Catholics began to erect churches in the towns and 
cities ; but, like other denominations in that period, growth was re- 
tarded by the distracting events of the Revolution. Nothing was 
done in the other colonies until after the peace of 1783. The proc- 
lamation of peace was a signal for a general emigration from Europe 
to America. Among the new comers were large numbers of Roman 
Catholics. Ireland sent over a considerable number, with a half 
dozen priests, who settled chiefly in the cities. In 1784 the papal 
nuncio at Rome wrote to Rev. Father Carroll at Baltimore, inquir- 
ing what number of missionaries were needed to serve the interests 
of the Church in America. Mr. Carroll, in his reply, represented 
the Roman Catholic population as follows: Maryland, 16,000; 
Pennsylvania, 7,000; other States, 3,000; total, 26,000. Besides 
these other Roman Catholic authorities have estimated their popu- 
lation in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and the Mississippi valley at 
4,000, Indian converts not included. But this Church had reached 
a point of very rapid growth, chiefly by immigration. By 1800 they 
numbered about 100,000. 



Section 2.— The Hierarchy Established in the United 

States. 

We have noticed that previous to the Revolution, the Roman 
Catholics in America depended, in spiritual matters, on the Vicar 
Apostolic residing in London. Peace being restored and independ- 
ence gained, this relation could no longer be maintained. It was 
deemed desirable to give dignity and stability to the Roman Cath- 
olic religion by the establishment of the hierarchy in the United 
States. The clergy, therefore, in 1784, petitioned the pope to pro- 
vide for their necessities. His holiness applauded their zeal, com- 
plied with their request, and appointed Rev. Dr. John Carroll, S.J., 
" Superior of the missions in the United States." In 1789 he was 
appointed and consecrated Bishop. 

* Letter to the Lyons Propaganda in 1836. 



328 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The First Roman Catholic Bishop in the United States. 

Bishop Carroll was a native of Maryland, a son of Daniel Car- 
roll, a stanch Irish Roman Catholic, " who had preferred the con- 
fiscation of his property to the renunciation of his faith." When 
thirteen years of age, this son was sent to Europe to be educated. 
He became a novitiate and in due time took the full vows of the 
Society of the Jesuits. After spending more than twenty years in 
Europe, he returned June 6, 1774, * and identified himself with the 
interests of the Roman Catholic Church in Maryland. In 1776, by 
request, he accompanied the American embassy, consisting of Dr. 
Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and his own brother, Charles Car- 
roll, to seek the active assistance of the Canadians in the Revolution. 
His religious influence and ecclesiastical relations, it was supposed, 
would be helpful ; but the mission was not successful. Throughout 
the great struggle he sympathized with the colonies, and is said to 
have cherished great respect for General Washington. By the 
unanimous resolution of Congress he was elected to pronounce the 
eulogy upon General Washington, Feb. 22, 1800, a master-piece 
of eloquence, patriotism and classic taste. 

Immediately upon his accession to the episcopacy Bishop 
Carroll undertook four enterprises for the development and the ex- 
tension of the Roman Catholic Church in this country — the educa- 
tion of youth, the formation of a national clergy, the erection of 
churches and the foundation of female communities to care for the 
sick and orphans. The preliminary steps toward the erection of a 
college at Georgetown were taken by him in 1789, the " ex-Jesuits " 
having appropriated a part of the society's property for that pur- 
pose. This religious Order, as has been before noticed, had existed 
in the Maryland Colony from its foundation, but Jesuits, after 1773, 
were under the ecclesiastical ban of the pope. " They kept up a 
sort of union among themselves, in Maryland and Pennsylvania, after 
the suppression of their Order, for the purpose of more effectually 
conducting the Maryland mission and of managing their temporal- 
ities, of which they were not despoiled in America as they had been 
in Europe." f Being too few to perform the functions both of mis- 
sionary priests and teachers, they called to their aid priests of other 

* At this time there was not a single public place of Roman Catholic worship in Maryland. Old 
St. Peter's, at Baltimore, had been closed before its completion and so remained several years. The 
chapels on the Jesuit farms and a few private chapels or oratories were the only places of worship 
possessed by the Catholics of the province. The number of Catholic clergymen in Maryland at 
that time was nineteen, all ex-Jesuits. There were also three in Pennsylvania, ex-Jesuits also. 
For names and localities see Lives of Deceased Catholic Bishops, Vol. I. p. 39. 

t Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States. Vol. I, p. 123. 



THE CLERGY REINFORCED. 329 

orders, among whom were Rev. Louis Dubourg, subsequently 
Bishop of New Orleans, and Rev. Ambrose Marechal, two distin- 
guished Sulpicians. But before the restoration of the Jesuits, in 1814, 
this Order had exclusive direction of this college. The institution 
was opened in 1790, just two years before Washington was selected 
for the national capital. In 1791 the Theological Seminary of St. 
Sulpice, and soon after St. Mary's University, were founded near 
Baltimore, by members of the Sulpician Order who fled from France 
to escape the terrors of the French Revolution. 

Exiled French Clergy. 

The reign of terror drove to this country a large number of 
Roman Catholic clersjv, many of whom were eminent for learning-. 
Between 1 791-1799 twenty-three French priests sought our shores. 
With their aid Bishop Carroll furnished his rising educational insti- 
tutions with competent instructors, multiplied missions and ex- 
tended the circle of the Church into New England, the South and 
the West. The most celebrated of these exiled French Catholic 
priests were Abbe John Dubois, who landed in 1791 and subse- 
quently became Bishop of New York ; the Abbes Benedict Flaget, 
John B. David, Stephen Badin, Francis Matignon, Ambrose Mare- 
chal, Gabriel Richard and Francis Ciquard, all of whom came in 
1792. In the year 1794 Abbe Louis Dubourg and Abbes John 
Moranville, Donatian Oliver, and Rivet arrived. In 1796 came 
Abbe Fournier, a missionary in Kentucky, and Abbe John Lefevre 
Cheverus, afterward Bishop of Boston. In 1798 Abbe Anthony 
Salmon joined his friend, Fournier, in the wilderness of Kentucky. 

" The Catholic Church in the United States," says a Roman 
Catholic writer,* " is deeply indebted to the zeal of the exiled French 
clergy. No portion of the American Church owes more to them 
than that of Kentucky. They supplied our infant missions with 
most of our earliest and most zealous laborers, and they likewise 
gave to us our first bishops. There is something in the elasticity and 
buoyancy of the French character which adapts them in a peculiar 
manner to foreign missions. They have always been the best mis- 
sionaries among the North American Indians ; they can mold their 
character to suit every circumstance and emergency ; they can be 
at home and cheerful every-where." 

The foundation of the Georgetown College (opened in 1790) and 

* Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions 0/ Kentucky. By Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D. 
Louisville. 1845. P. 56. 



330 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

the Sulpician Seminary at Baltimore gave character and stability to 
Mr. Carroll's diocese, and in November, 1791, he called his priests 
together and held the 

First Roman Catholic Synod in America. 

Twenty ecclesiastics were present. At this meeting it was re- 
solved to ask his holiness for a division of the United States into 
several dioceses, or at least the appointment of a coadjutor who 
should share with Bishop Carroll the burdens of the episcopate. 
Pius VI. acceded to the last request, and Father Leonard Neale 
was appointed coadjutor in 1800. Mr. Neale was born in Maryland, 
in 1746, and was a descendant of one of the first colonists under 
Lord Baltimore. He was educated in Europe, at St. Omers, Bruges, 
and also at Liege, where he was ordained a priest, in the Society of 
the Jesuits, a short time before the issuance of the famous bull of 
Pope Clement XIV, suppressing the Order. Fulfilling a mission 
in South America, he came to Maryland in 1783. Aftet serving 
the Church in Philadelphia, and as president of Georgetown Col- 
lege, in 1800 he was appointed coadjutor of Bishop Carroll, cum 
jure successionis. 

A large accession to the Roman Catholic Church in the United 
States was realized in 1793 by French Catholic refugees from St. 
Domingo. The French population of the island is estimated to 
have been 40,000, most of whom emigrated to escape massacre, and 
many of the mulattoes followed them. A very large portion of 
them came to the United States. In a single day, July 9, 1793, 
fifty-three vessels bearing refugees came to Baltimore." These ac- 
cessions largely augmented the wealth and the Roman Catholic 
populations of New York city, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston 
and New Orleans. 



Section 3.— Progress in the Several States. 
New York. 

The stringent laws enacted in the colonial era against the 
Roman Catholic priests have been duly noticed. In conse- 
quence of these severe enactments but few Roman Catholics 
could be found in that province down to the time of the Revolution. 
When the new Government arose, independent of the English 
crown, the minds of the people were strongly averse to Romanism, 
and the prejudices already existing were strengthened by the pro- 
tection extended by the English Government to the Roman Cath- 



ROMANISM IN XEW YORK. 331 

olics in Canada, by the celebrated ''Quebec Act" of 1774. On 
the assumption of power by the Provincial Congress the Roman 
Catholics remained fettered. Bonds so tightly riveted could not be 
easily sundered. Even during the severe struggles of the Rev- 
olution, when the colonists largely predicated their hope of success 
upon the co-operation of Roman Catholic France, and when La- 
fayette was leading our troops and Kosciusko and DeKalb were 
training our crude soldiery, the New York Convention of 1777 did 
not modify the restrictions against Roman Catholics. Hon. John 
Jay moved that persons seeking naturalization should be required 
"to abjure and renounce all allegiance and subjection to all and 
every foreign king, priest, potentate and state, in matters ecclesias- 
tical and civil." The restriction, though adopted, became inope- 
rative through the action of Congress, which assumed the control 
of naturalization, and with this attempt all legislation opposed to 
the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion ceased. 

After the evacuation of New York city by the British in 1783, 
such Roman Catholics as were in the city assembled for the public 
celebration of the offices of religion. In 1784 the Legislature re- 
pealed the law of 1700 in regard to "popish priests and Jesuits." 
Rev. Father Farmer, S.J.," who came on occasionally from Philadel- 
phia, was the first officiating priest, using for religious purposes such 
large rooms as could be obtained, sometimes a loft over a carpen- 
ter shop near Barclay Street, sometimes the parlor of the Spanish 
Consul. An Irish Capuchin, Rev. Charles Whelan, succeeded 
Father Farmer and became the first settled priest. His flock in 
1785 numbered about 200 persons. In 1785 an act of incorporation 
of St. Peter's Church was obtained from the Legislature, and early 
in 1786 five lots were purchased from the trustees of Trinity Church, 
at the corner of Barclay and Church Streets. The Spanish Ambas- 
sador, Don Diego de Gardoqui, laid the corner stone, and its chief 
benefactor was Charles III., King of Spain, who contributed $10,000 f 
toward the erection of the edifice. Father Nugent assisted a short 
time in the care of the church. In 1787 Rev. William O'Brien, a 
Dominican, was appointed to the charge of St. Peter's. Soon after, 
he visited Mexico for the purpose of collecting funds to finish and 
adorn the church. The Archbishop of Mexico, a former fellow- 
student of Father O'Brien, received him kindly and aided his col- 
lections so that $4,900 were raised, besides $1,000 from Puebla de 
los Angeles. 

* Father Farmer came to this country in 1752 and died in 1786. 
t There is some question about this amount. 



S32 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

New England. 

The early settlers in this section brought with them the strong 
prejudices of their times, and took every possible precaution against 
the intrusion of papal emigrants. Their measures were so effect- 
ual that but few entered New England until after the Revolution. 
None came as voluntary emigrants, but some poor Irish were sold 
there as slaves,* and others, at a later period, came as redemptioners. 
These unfortunates, occasionally visiting French settlements as 
sailors or servants, sought the religious services of Roman Catholic 
priests. On the devastation of Acadia, in 1756, some of the de- 
ported inhabitants were landed in utter destitution on some points 
of the New England coast. Reduced from a state of competence, 
they disdained to become menials, and claimed, though without 
much avail, the rights of prisoners of war. The law prevented Ro- 
man Catholic priests from entering the colonies ; and, thus deprived 
of their favorite religious ordinances, they were called " Neutrals," 
and were spoken of as " still ignorant, bigoted Catholics, broken- 
spirited, poor," etc. Many of them died leaving their children 
amid Protestant influences ; others returned to Nova Scotia, others 
reached Canada, and others went to Louisiana, France, or the West 
Indies. 

A few Roman Catholics are supposed to have gathered in Bos- 
ton, and others were scattered in the interior, but, under penal laws, 
and deprived of religious instruction, their children grew up Protest- 
ants. Among these was General Sullivan, a hero of the Revolu- 
tion. But with the Revolution changes came. When General 
Washington appeared in the camp at Boston, at the opening of the 
war, he found preparations on foot for burning the pope in G^gy } 
and issued an order forbidding the " ridiculous and childish custom." 
He expressed surprise " that there should be officers and soldiers 
in his army so void of common sense as not to see the impropriety 
of such a step at this juncture, at a time when we are soliciting, and 
have already obtained the friendship and alliancef of the people of 
Canada, whom we ought to consider as brethren embarked in the 
same cause — the defense of the liberty of America. At this junc- 
ture and under such circumstances to be insulting their religion is 
so monstrous as not to be suffered or excused." 

About this time Washington sent a message to the Roman Cath- 
olic Indians in Maine, inviting them to join the cause of freedom. 

*See section on Indentured Servitude, in the Colonial Era, page 220. 

t The alliance for which the colonists were then laboring was net obtained, though they were 
then hopeful of securing it. 



TOLERATION INDUCED BY THE WAR. c333 

Delegates of those tribes, led by Ambrose Var, came and conferred 
with the Massachusetts Council and promised to aid in the struggle, 
stipulating one request: " We want a black gown or French priest. 
Jesus we pray to, and we will not hear any prayer* that comes from 
Old England." The terms were accepted by the very body that had 
ever before bitterly pursued the Roman Catholic priesthood. The 
Indians joined the American cause sincerely — the St. Johns, the Pas- 
samaquoddies, the Abenakis, and the Penobscots ; Orono, a chief of 
the latter tribe, bearing a commission, which he honored by his vir- 
tues and his bravery. 

The alliance of the Americans with France brought Roman 
Catholic fleets and armies across the Atlantic. Count D'Estaing 
entered Boston harbor in 1778, tarrying there three months, and the 
Roman Catholic services performed for the fleet were witnessed by 
many Bostonians. A funeral procession of an officer, with a 
crucifix at its head, traversed the streets of the city. Such were 
some of the modifications wrought by the circumstances of the 
times. 

After the close of the Revolution a few Roman Catholics were 
found in Boston — some French and Spaniards, and about thirty 
Irish. A chaplain of the French navy, Claude Florent Bouchard 
de la Poterie, settled among them. He was soon followed by Rev. 
Louis Roussellet. The next was Rev. John Thayer, a native of 
Boston and a descendant of an old New England family, educated 
for the Congregational ministry, who, during his travels in Europe, 
renounced Protestantism and adopted the Roman Catholic faith. 
After a period of study at the Seminary of St. Sulpice, in Paris, he 
was duly ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood and assigned to 
the care of the Church in Boston, where he arrived January 4, 1790. 

The chapel on School Street, first erected by French Protestants, 
was formally consecrated for Roman Catholic worship in 1788. Here 
they remained about fifteen years, until the Cathedral on Franklin 
Street was consecrated, in 1803. 

Of the four eminent Roman Catholic clergy exiled from France 
on account of the Revolution, who came to this country in 1792, two 
were sent by Bishop Carroll to New England — Rev. Francis Mat- 
tignon, D.D., to Boston, and Rev. Francis Ciquard, to Maine. After 
the arrival of Dr. Mattignon, Father Thayer extended the scope of 
his labors to more remote points, continuing in New England until 
1799. In 1796 Rev. John Louis de Cheverus, another French clergy- 
man, came to Boston. He visited the scattered Catholics in Salem, 

* Namely, religion. 



334 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Newburyport, Portsmouth, Damariscotta, Bristol, Waldoboro, 
Plymouth, etc. 

South Carolina. 

In 1786 the mass was first celebrated in Charleston by an Italian 
priest, a chaplain on a ship bound for South America. It occurred 
in the house of an Irish Catholic, and twelve persons were present. 
A little later Father O'Reilly, an Irish priest, began to exercise his 
ministry among them, and in 1789 the erection of a church was 
commenced. In 1793 Rev. Dr. O'Gallagher, a native of Dublin, a 
man of superior intellect and eloquence, was sent to Charleston by 
Bishop Carroll, and cared for the flock. Papal refugees from St. 
Domingo and emigrants from Maryland soon swelled the number, 
and they were enabled to erect a very creditable church edifice. 

Kentucky. 

The first Roman Catholics known to have settled in this State 
were Dr. Hart and Wm. Coomes, the former a devoted Irish Catho- 
lic and the other a native of Maryland. " They both came," says 
Archbishop Spaulding,* "in the spring of 1775, among the very first 
white people who came to Kentucky." In 1785 about twenty Ro- 
man Catholic families emigrated from Maryland to Kentucky, which 
number was steadily augmented b)' new arrivals. Rev. Mr. Whalen, 
an Irish Franciscan, took charge of the Kentucky mission, traveling 
by a wild and dangerous path to the scene of his arduous duties, 
and reaching his destination in the spring of 1787. After two and 
a half years of excessive labor his failing health compelled him to 
leave, and Rev. Father Badin followed in 1793, traveling on foot 
from Baltimore to Pittsburg, descending the river on a flat-boat to 
Mayville, and thence on foot to Lexington. Here a church was 
erected, " a temporary hut covered with clapboards, and unprovided 
with glass in the windows. A slab of wood, roughly hewed, served 
for an altar. Such was the first Catholic church in Kentucky." 

Louisiana. 

In 1793 New Orleans, then under the Spanish dominion, was 
made an episcopal see, and Rev. Don Luis Penalver y Cardenaz, D.D , 
a distinguished Spanish divine, was appointed the first bishop, but 
did not take possession until 1795, and remained only until 1802, 
when he was elevated to the archbishopric of Guatemala. 



'Sketches of Early Kentucky Missions. 



ROM AX CATHOLIC PUBLICATIONS. 336 

Indiana. 

In 1702 Father Joseph Flaget, a refugee from the troubles in 
France, arrived in Baltimore, and was appointed by Bishop Carroll 
to the distant mission of Vincennes. After a slow journey by wagon 
to Pittsburg he was detained there six months by the low waters 
of the Ohio, and late in December reached Vincennes. He found 
both church and people in an unhappy condition. Though origi- 
nally settled by Roman Catholics, Vincennes had been so long with- 
out priest or sacraments that their religion was nearly extinguished. 
After two years of very trying labor he returned to Maryland. 



Section 4.— Religious Orders and Publications. 

In 1790, at the solicitation of Bishop Carroll, four Carmelite nuns 
came from Antwerp and founded a convent of their Order near Port 
Tobacco, Md. In 1792 the Order of the Sisters of St. Clare, or Visi- 
tation Nuns, established a convent in Georgetown, D. C. In 1790 
the Order of S£. Augustine was established in Philadelphia. In the 
same year the Sulpicians founded a seminary near Baltimore. The 
Jesuits have been elsewhere mentioned. 

Before the Revolution a few Roman Catholic books were printed 
in Philadelphia, such as the Garden of the Soul, Folloiving of 
Christ, etc., and some Catholic books were kept on sale near old 
St. Joseph's. In 1784 " C. Talbot, late of Dublin, printer and book- 
seller," issued in Philadelphia an edition of Reeves's History of the 
Bible. He appears to have been the first Roman Catholic publisher 
in the United States. In 1789 another publisher issued Roman 
Catholic books — Mr. T. Lloyd. Matthew Carey published a quarto 
Roman Catholic Bible in 1790, and for twenty years published a 
large number of prayer-books, catechisms, and controversial and 
devotional works. 



Section J.— -Indian Missions. 

The Illinois and the Lake missions among the Indians had con- 
siderably declined before the country was ceded to Great Britain 
in 1763. 

In 1660 Menard began to convert the Kiskakons, and undertook to minister to 
the fugitive Hurons. His successors established missions among the Chippewas 
and Nez Perces, on Lake Superior ; the Ottawas, both Kiskakon and Sinagos, in 
their various posts, among the Pottawotamies, Winnebagoes and Menominees, on 



336 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Green Bay ; and among the Sacs and Foxes, Mascoutens, Kickapoos, and some 
families of the Miamis in the interior of Wisconsin. All these tribes still exist,* 
except the Mascoutens, merged probably into the Sacs and Foxes. All were to 
some extent converted to Catholicity before that sad period for the French missions 
when Choiseul directed the destinies of France. For thirty years there was no 
priest west of Detroit, and the Catholic Indians, thus left to themselves, when not 
well-grounded by time in Christianity, or removed from pagan influence, lost much 
ol their fervor and even of their faith. 

So complete was the failure of these Jesuit Indian missions, as 
related by Mr. J. G. Shea.f He adds : 

Not only have the narratives of the missionaries perished, but also the philolog- 
ical works \ which they composed ; and at this day there is no trace of any gram- 
mar, vocabulary, catechism, or prayer-book in any of the dialects of Wisconsin 
and Michigan. 

Small bands of Indians retired west of the Mississippi, some of 
which are now under Roman Catholic influences. But frequent in- 
termarriages took place between French officers and soldiers and the 
Indians, out of which many of the older French families in Michigan, 
Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Missouri sprang. Among these 
the Roman Catholic religion was retained, and they Constituted the 
nucleus of the earliest Roman Catholic churches in those States. 
Michigan was settled by Roman Catholics from France and Canada, 
not far from 1680, and the papal religion was the only religion known 
in that region until about the close of the war of 1812. Of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois and Missouri almost the same statement may be 
made. The first settlements were papal, and the nuclei of Roman 
Catholic churches now existing in those States were in existence 
long before the Protestant churches entered them. The Roman 
Catholic population in Ohio and the Upper Mississippi valley in 
1785, which is earlier than the date of the first Protestant Church 
in those regions, has been estimated by a Catholic writer at 4,000. § 
Louisiana and Florida were wholly Roman Catholic until after the 
opening of the present century. There are no evidences of mission- 
ary efforts under the Spanish rule. In 1793 the Papal Church in 
Louisiana was deemed to be of sufficient importance to call for the 
establishment of an episcopal see in New Orleans. 

* J. G. Shea, writing more than thirty years ago. 

f History of the Catholic Missions in the hidian Tribes of the United States, pp. 379, 3S0. 

X These were very few and of a meager character. 

§ De Courcey's History of the Catholic Church in the United States, p. 54. 



WHIGS AXD TORIES. 337 



CHAPTER VI. 



MORALS. 



Sf,C. I. Post bellum Irritations. J Sec. 4. The Social and Physical Condition, 



2. Political Insubordination and Bit- 

terness. 

3. The Family, Dueling, etc. 



Penal Inflictions, etc. 

5. Intemperance. 

6. Survey of the Dark Period. 



Section 1.— Post "bellum Irritations, etc. 

THE Revolution at last accomplished, and the foreign evils 
which it threw off being no longer felt, but forgotten, new 
troubles arose, the remedies for which could not be easily devised. 
The people began to grumble, became sullen and hard to please. 
No longer united by external danger, old animosities and new jeal- 
ousies broke forth and the Union seemed likely to be dissolved. 
British debts had been confiscated in some colonies ; British creditors 
were making common cause with refugees and other enemies of 
independence, and the treaty stipulations in regard to the Tories 
were not satisfactory. There were three parties; the smallest the 
Tories, who hoped for forgiveness and the advantages of place and 
power, the largest and most influential the violent Whigs, who 
would drive every loyalist from the States; then there were other 
Whigs, less extreme, who recommended leniency. Between the two 
branches of the Whigs an active discussion went on, the loyalists 
saying little. A multitude of sermons were preached and pamphlets 
published. " Letters to Refugees," " Last Advice to the Refugees " 
and " Considerations for the Refugees " crowded upon the editors 
of the newspapers. 

The editor of a New England paper exhorted his readers " never 
to make friends with those fiends, the refugees." " As Hannibal," 
said he, ; ' swore never to be at peace with the Romans, so let every 
Whig swear by his abhorrence of slavery, by liberty and religion, 
by the shades of departed friends who have fallen in battle, by the 
ghosts of those of our brethren who have been destroyed on board 



338 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

of the prison-ships and in loathsome dungeons, never to be at peace 
with those fiends, the refugees, whose thefts, murders and treasons, 
have filled the cup of woe." At Worcester, Mass., and Stamford, 
Conn., the Tories were forbidden to return. Harsh laws, passed 
while the war was still raging, were in many of the States re-enacted 
or suffered to remain on the statute-books ; but in New York the 
most severe acts were necessary to satisfy the angry multitude. 
Tories and Englishmen were scarcely safe. Summary vengeance 
was sometimes inflicted. Offensive names which the newspapers 
refused to publish were proclaimed by the watchman — " Past ten 

o'clock, and is a vile hypocrite and an enemy of freedom." 

In South Carolina refugees coming to recover their abandoned 
plantations were slaughtered. The people of Charleston vowed 
that no Tory should find an asylum in their city. 

Wretched, indeed, was the condition into which Congress fell. 
" Rudely formed amid the agonies of the Revolution, " the Confed- 
eration had never been revised and perfected. Each of the States 
retained its sovereignty and asserted this right against the general 
Government, toward which they acted as though dealing with a for- 
eign foe. The general Congress degenerated into a debating club 
of an inferior order. Neglected by its own members, discarded by 
mutinous troops, reviled by the press, its acts possessed no influ- 
ence. Driven by the jibes and taunts of a band of drunken plow- 
men it entered upon a career of uncertain wanderings. First, it 
goes to Princeton, where, under the guns of fifteen hundred regulars, 
it passes its resolutions in Nassau Hall. Thence it adjourns suc- 
cessively to Annapolis, to Trenton and to New York, mercilessly 
ridiculed at every step by the press. We cannot here follow further 
these unhappy events, but must sketch more widely. 

Moral deterioration is a concomitant and a consequence of war. 
About one half of the thirtyyears extending from 1753 to 1783 were oc- 
cupied by the French and Indian and the Revolutionary wars, and 
other Indian wars followed. The moral effect was what might be easily 
conceived. The withdrawal of so many men of all ages from the quiet 
and conservative pursuits of industry to military life, away from the 
restraints of the Sabbath and the sanctuary, and in intimate asso- 
ciation with unprincipled and skeptical men of foreign lands, engen- 
dered, in many minds hitherto virtuous, laxity, unrest and moral reck- 
lessness. The twenty years following the Revolution was a time of the 
lowest general morality in American history, fully attested by the 
biographies and newspapers of that period and the records of eccle- 
siastical bodies. In the churches there was much complaint of gen- 



MORAL DETERIORATION. 339 

eral lukewarm ness and^grievous apostasies. Many were the lamenta- 
tions and warnings of good men, though faintly heard by the public 
ear, and exerting but little influence to arouse the people to relig- 
ious activity. Primitive morality passed away and Sabbath-break- 
ing, profanity and other gross vices abounded. The faithful minis- 
ters of the Presbyterian Church deeply deplored the moral 
condition of the country. At the session of the Synod of Phila- 
delphia and New York, in 1778, the Report on the State of the 
Church emphasized " the lamentable decay of vital piety " and " the 
gross immoralities," " increasing to an awful degree." The next 
year they mention the " great and increasing decay of vital piety, the 
degeneracy of manners, the want of public spirit, and the prevalence 
of vice and immorality throughout the land."* 



Section £.— Political Insubordination and Bitterness. 

A general sentiment of insubordination growing out of the polit- 
ical revolutions of the civilized world seized young and old, and 
developed high notions of freedom, personal independence and a 
strong tendency to resist authority. " Infidel philosphers found 
ready listeners when they represented the restraints of religion as 
fetters upon the conscience, and moral obligations as shackles imposed 
by bigotry and priestcraft." f 

Resistance to authority, which for the purpose of revolution had been prescribed 
as a remedy, had now become habitual from constant application. That which 
was at first nauseous, and reluctantly taken as a medicine, had now become pleas- 
ing to their palates, and, like their daily food, seemed necessary, almost, to their 
existence. The wholesome jealousy of power which had hitherto been so salutary 
now degenerated into a distemper, and the great object of it, the British Govern- 
ment, being removed, another was necessary to supply it with the means of existence. 
For the very pxirpose of revolution a spirit had been raised in the country which 
it was easy to foresee would with great difficulty, if at all, be laid, or confined within 
proper bounds. Every individual had for years been encouraged and accustomed 
to vaunt about his rights, and even to think any sort of government an imposition. 
The very lessons taught them . . . were to be brought forth in domestic scuffle 
against their leaders ; and demagogues of a subordinate class were thickly scattered 
through the country to influence the tempers and poison the opinions of the masses 
of the people even against the shadow of government.! 

In consequence of these things, a spirit of misrule and injustice, 
accompanied by a general relaxation of moral principle, discontent, 

* Minutes of the Synod 0/ 1778, 1779. 

t Annals 0/ Yale College. By Hon. Ebenezer Baldwin. New Haven, 1831. P. 145. 

% Memoirs of Thomas Jefferson, 1809. VoL I, p, 17, 



340 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

heart-burnings and complaints, prevailed. Licentiousness of sen- 
timent and of conduct followed directly in the footsteps of liberty, 
the offspring of the profane alliance into which she had been drawn 
with French infidelity. Desecration of the Sabbath, neglect of the 
sanctuary, profanity and disrespect of the Bible, shown in low cavils, 
were common in not a few of even the New England towns, in 
which the last vestiges of Puritan morals seemed to have been irre- 
coverably effaced. 

This corruption extended into civil and literary circles. The 
newspapers of those days partook of the general demoralization. 
Mr. Jefferson referred to it in decided terms in 1807. He said: 
*■ Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth 
itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. 
The real extent of this state of misapprehension is known only to 
those who are in a situation to confront facts within their knowledge 
with the lies of the day," etc. These lines were written in an era 
of bad feeling between the Republicans and the Federalists of the 
old school — a period of bitterness which has had no parallel in any 
of the partisan strifes of our days. 

But the state of feeling referred to in the preceding paragraph 
had existed much longer than some may suppose. It sprang up 
soon after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The Jacobin 
intrigue inflamed it still more. It was the bane of Washington's 
second term and of the administration of Adams also. 

Washington Assailed. 

With the exalted views of Washington which now prevail it is 
difficult to conceive to what an extent he was then assailed and 
maligned. This great and good man was attacked with great as- 
perity ; his conduct was reprobated by the press, and in public and 
private addresses ; he was even accused of " desiring to join the 
coalesced despots of Europe in their crusade against liberty." 
People were warned against making Washington " an idol who 
might become dangerous to liberty." One libeler applied to him 
the epithets, " Faithless, unprincipled and aristocratic moderatist, 
who would offer up the liberties of thy fellow-citizens on the altar 
of administration, and the sacred obligations of our country, though 
perhaps not thine, on the altar of treachery and dishonor ! " The 
Aurora* charged upon him that he was " the source of all the mis- 
fortunes of our country," and said that the name of Washington 

* Article on the Abdication of Washington. 



ATTACKS ON WASHINGTON. 341 

" gave a currency to political iniquity and legalized corruption." 
The notorious Thomas Paine bitterly assailed Washington in a 
private letter, from which we take the following extract : 

" And as to you, sir, treacherous in private friendship, and a hypocrite in public 
lite, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor ; 
whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any." 

These extracts show the temper of the times, the bitter animosi- 
ties and severe party strifes of the last ten years of the last cent- 
ury. Washington deeply felt this personal abuse, and referred to it 
in a letter to Mr. Jefferson in 1796. He said: " I have been ac- 
cused of being the enemy of America and subject to the influence 
of a foreign country; and, to prove that, every act of my adminis- 
tration is tortured and the grossest and most insidious misrepresen- 
tations of them made by giving one side only of a subject, and that, 
too, in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be 
applied to a Nero, or a notorious defaulter, or even to a common 
pickpocket." 

It was a dark period in our national history. Early in 1796 an 
intimate acquaintance of Washington, a gentleman of the highest 
character, said, in a letter addressed to his great friend: 

Our affairs seem to lead to some crisis, some revolution ; something that. I can- 
not foresee or conjecture. I am more uneasy than during- the war. Then we had 
a fixed object ; and though the means and time of obtaining it were problematical, 
yet I did firmly believe that we should ultimately succeed, because I did firmly be- 
lieve that justice was with us. The case is now altered ; we are going and doing 
wrong ; and therefore I look forward to evils and calamities. There doubtless is 
much reason to think and to say that we are woefully and, in some instances, wick- 
edly misled. Private rage for property suppresses public considerations, and per- 
sonal rather than national interests have become the great objects of attention. 

In answer to the foregoing letter, Washington, among other 

things, said : 

Your sentiments that we are drawing rapidly to a crisis accord with mine. 
What the event will be is beyond my foresight. * 



Section 3.— The Family, Dueling, etc. 

The demoralization consequent upon the spread of French ideas 
extended also to the family relation. As in France, so in America, 
in those days there was a weakening of matrimonial ties ; the legiti- 
mate harvest of deistical and atheistical sentiments. A gentle- 

* Memoirs of Hon. Thomas Jefferson, before quoted. Vol. I, pp. 66, 67. 



342 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

man writing a little later, at the beginning of the present century, 
said : 

I once cut out of all the newspapers we received the advertisements of all the 
runaway wives, and pasted them on a slip of paper, close under each other. At 
the end of a month the slip reached from the ceiling to the floor of the room, more 
than ten feet high, and contained more than one hundred and twenty-three adver- 
tisements. We did not receive, at most, more than one twentieth part of the news- 
papers of the United States. 

Dueling was another glaring evil of those times. It had become, 
a great national sin. With the exception of a small section of the 
Union, the whole land was deeply stained with blood. From the 
northern lakes to the Gulf of Mexico were heard the cries of lamen- 
tation from widows and the fatherless. This flagrant crime was 
often committed by men high in office — the appointed guardians of 
life and liberty. Challenges passed within the halls of Congress, 
and a duelist * was nominated and by a large majority elected to 
the Vice-Presidency of the United States. We had become a 
nation of murderers by tolerating and honoring the perpetrators of 
the crime. 

Many of the safeguards of our day did not then exist. Letters 
and packages were opened and read by the mail-carriers. For a long 
time after the Revolution, men who transacted important business 
corresponded in cipher. Some cities were famous for routs and 
riots, luxury and display ; but the routs were generally over before 
nine o'clock in the evening. Theaters were proscribed and, in 
Massachusetts, held in abhorrence, and the stringent laws against 
them in earlier times were re-enacted in 1784. In New York and 
Philadelphia also they were discarded, and plays were pronounced 
immoral. But in Baltimore, which had obtained u a high reputation 
for jollity," they were allowed, and in some other places. Balls, 
routs and dancing assemblies, alternating with theaters, were the 
favorite amusements of the Baltimoreans. Lewd songs and coarse 
jokes were not uncommon. But a large part of the community 
kept aloof from such spectacles. About 1784-85 a long discussion 
sprang up in many cities in regard to theaters, which continued 
several years. It was not until the close of Washington's first ad- 
ministration that a company of players showed themselves in Boston. 

In the autumn of 1792, under various pretenses, several perform- 
ances were allowed in Boston. Finally, " it was announced that 
' Douglas and the Poor Soldier,' a moral lecture, in five parts, would 
be presented. But Hancock was Governor, and not a man to be de- 

* Aaron Burr. 



FIRST THEATER ERECTED IN BOSTON. 343 

ceived by a name or to tolerate so bold an invasion of the law. One 
night in December, therefore, while the company was playing the 
moral lecture of ' School for Scandal,' and the play had gone as far 
as the end of the second act, the sheriff suddenly rushed upon the 
stage and carried off Sir Peter to the jail. The house in a fit of 
fury denounced the Governor, damned liberty, and pulled down and 
trampled under foot a painting of the Governor's Arms that hung 
before the stage box. The next number of the Centinel was full of 
cards. One expressed the thanks of Harper, the arrested comedian, 
for the sympathy manifested by the audience on the evening of his 
arrest. A second informed the public that, at the request of the 
selectmen, the performance would be discontinued for a while. A 
third, it was pretended, came from the tavern-keepers, and stated, 
amid a profusion of thanks, that since the theater had been stopped 
the tap-rooms had been crowded, that the tapsters no longer slept 
over the empty pots, and that the cry of ' Coming, sirs ; coming, 
sirs,' was nightly heard on every side." * 

The plays were soon resumed, and a year later the first theater 
was erected in Boston. 



Section 4.- -The Physical and Social Condition, Penal 
Institutions, etc. 

There can be no doubt, says Mr. McMasters,t that a wonderful amelioration 
has taken place since that day in the condition of the poor. Their houses were 
meaner, their food was coarser, their clothing was of commoner stuff, their wages 
were, despite the depreciation that has gone on in the value of money, lower by 
one half than at present. A man who performed what would now be called un- 
skilled labor, who sawed wood, who dug ditches, who mended the roads, who 
mixed rnortar, who carried boards to the carpenter and bricks to the mason, or 
helped to cut hay in the harvest time, usually received, as the fruit of his daily toil, 
two shillings. Sometimes, when the laborers were few, he was paid more, and be- 
came the envy of his fellows if at the end of a week he took home to his family 
fifteen shillings, a sum now greatly exceeded by 'four dollars. Yet all authorities 
agree that in 1784 the hire of workmen was twice as great as in 1774. 

On such a pittance it was only by the strictest economy that a mechanic kept 
his children from starvation and himself from jail. In the low and dingy rooms 
which he called his home were wanting many articles of adornment and of use 
now to be found in the dwellings of the poorest of his class. Sand sprinkled on 
the floor did duty as a carpet ; there was no glass on. his table ; there was no 
china in his cupboard ; there were no prints on his wall. What a stove was he did 
not know ; coal he had never seen ; matches he had never heard of. Over a fire of 
fragments of boxes and barrels, which he lit with the sparks struck from a flint, or 

* History of the People of the United States. By McMasters. Vol. I, pp. 94, 95. 
\Ibid. Vol. I, p. 96. 



-344 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

with live coals brought from a neighbor's hearth, his wife cooked up a rude meal 
and served it in pewter dishes. He rarely tasted fresh meat as often as once in a 
week, and paid for it a much higher price than his posterity. Every thing, indeed, 
which ranked as a staple of life was very costly. Corn stood at three shillings the 
bushel, wheat at eight and sixpence; an assize of bread was fourpence; a pound 
of salt pork was tenpence. Many other commodities now to be seen on the tables 
of the poor were either quite unknown or far beyond the reach of his scanty 
means. ... 

If the food of an artisan would now be thought coarse his clothes would be 
thought abominable. A pair of yellow buckskin or leathern breeches, a checked 
shirt, a red flannel jacket, a rusty felt hat cockecj up at the corners, shoes of neat's 
skin set off with huge bucklers of brass, and a leather apron comprised his scanty 
wardrobe. The leather he smeared with grease to keep it soft and flexible. His 
sons followed in his footsteps, or were apprenticed to neighboring tradesmen. His 
daughter went out to service. She performed, indeed, all the duties at present ex- 
acted from women of her class; but with them were coupled many others rendered 
useless by the great improvement that has since taken place in the conveniences of 
life. She mended the clothes, she did up the ruffs, she ran on errands from one end 
of the town to the other, she milked the cows, made the butter, walked ten blocks 
for a pail of water, spun flax for family linen, and, when the year was up, received 
ten pounds for her wages. . . . 

But there is one other change which has, it must be admitted, done .far more to 
increase the physical comforts of the poorest class than better food, higher wages, 
finer clothes — men are no longer 

Imprisoned for Debt. 

No crime known to the law brought so many to the jails and prisons as the 
crime of debt ; and the class most likely to get into debt was the most defenseless 
and dependent, the great body of servants, of artisans, and of laborers — those, in 
short, who depended on their daily wages for their daily bread. One hundred years 
ago the laborer who fell from a scaffold, or lay sick of a fever, was sure to be seized 
by the sheriff the moment he recovered, and be carried to jail for the bill of a few 
dollars which had been run up during his illness at the huckster's or the tavern. 

There is, indeed, scarce a scrap of information bearing upon the subject extant 
which does not go to prove beyond question that the generation which witnessed 
the Revolution was less merciful and tender-hearted than the generation which 
witnessed the civil war. 

Brutality. 

Our ancestors, it is true, put up a just cry of horror at the brutal treatment of 
their captive countrymen in the prison-ships and hulks. So great and bitter was their 
indignation that money was to be stamped with representations of the atrocities ot 
which they complained, that their descendants to the remotest generation might 
hold in remembrance the cruelty of the British and the sufferings of the patriots. 
Yet even then the face of the land was dotted with prisons where deeds of cruelty 
were done in comparison with which the foulest acts committed in the hulks sink 
to a contemptible insignificance. 

For more than fifty years after the peace there was in Connecticut an under- 
ground prison which surpassed in horrors the Black Hole of Calcutta. This den, 



PRISON HORRORS. 345 

known as Newgate Prison, was in an old worked-out copper-mine in the hills near 
Granby. The only entrance to it was by the means of a ladder down a shaft, 
which led to the caverns under ground. There, in little pens of wood, from thirty 
to one hundred culprits were immured, their feet made fast to iron bars and their 
necks chained to beams in the roof. The darkness was intense ; the caves reeked 
with filth ; vermin abounded ; water trickled from the roof and oozed from the 
sides of the caverns ; huge masses of earth were perpetually falling off. In the 
dampness and the filth the clothing of the prisoners grew moldy and rotted away 
and their limbs became stiff with rheumatism. The Newgate Prison was perhaps 
the worst in the country, yet in every county were jails such as would now be 
thought unfit places of habitation for the vilest and most loathsome of beasts. At 
Northampton the cells were scarce four feet high, and filled with noxious gases of 
the privy vaults, through which they were supposed to be ventilated. Light came 
in from two chinks in the walls. At the Worcester prison were a number of like 
cells, four feet high by eleven long, without a window or a chimney or even a hole 
in the wall. Not a ray of light ever penetrated them. In other jails in Massa- 
chusetts the cells were so small that the prisoners were lodged in hammocks 
swung one over the other. In Philadelphia the keeps were eighteen feet by twenty 
feet, and so crowded that at night each prisoner had a space six feet by two to lie 
down in. 

Into such pits and dungeons all classes of offenders of both sexes were indis- 
criminately thrust. It is therefore not at all surprising that they became seminaries 
of every conceivable form of vice and centers of most disgusting diseases. Pros- 
titutes plied their calling openly in the presence of men and women of decent sta- 
tion and guilty of no crime but an inability to pay their debts. Men confined as 
witnesses were compelled to mingle with the forger, besmeared with the filth of the 
pillory, and the fornicator streaming with blood from the whipping-post, while here 
and there among the throng were culprits whose ears had just been cropped or 
whose arms, fresh from the branding iron, emitted the stench of scorched flesh. 

The Entire System of Punishment. 

was such as cannot be contemplated without mingled feelings of pity and disgust. 
Offenses to which a more merciful generation has attached no higher penalty than 
imprisonment and fine stood upon the statute-books as capital crimes. 

Modes of punishment long since driven from the prisons with execrations as 
worthy of an African kraal were looked upon by society with a profound indiffer- 
ence. The tread-mill was always going. The pillory and the stocks were never 
empty. The shears, the branding-iron, and the lash were never idle for a day. In 
Philadelphia the wheel-barrow men still went about the streets in gangs, or ap- 
peared with huge clogs and chains hung to their necks. In Delaware, which to 
this hour treats her citizens with the degrading scenes of the whipping-post, twenty 
crimes were punished with a loss of life. Burglary and rape, sodomy and witch- 
craft, were among them. In Massachusetts ten crimes were declared by the Gen- 
eral Court to be punishable with death. 

There the man who, in a fit of anger or in a fit of drunkenness, was heard curs- 
ing and swearing, or spreading evil reports of his neighbor, was first set in the 
stocks and then carried off to the whipping-post and soundly flogged. If, how- 
ever, he was so unfortunate as to be caught in the arms of a prostitute he was 
suffered to escape with a fine. In Rhode Island a perpetual mark of shame was 



346 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

for many offenses judged to be a most fitting punishment. There a counterfeiter 
was punished with a loss of a piece of his ear, and distinguished from all other 
criminals by a large C deeply branded on his forehead. A wretch so hardened as 
to be recommitted was branded on the arm. Keepers knew no other mode of 
silencing the ravings of a madman than tying him up by the thumbs and flogging 
him till he was too exhausted to utter a groan. 

The misery of the unfortunate creatures cooped up in the cells, even of the 
most humanely kept prisons, surpassed in horror any thing ever recorded in fiction. 
No attendance was provided for the sick, no clothes were distributed to the naked. 
Such a thing as a bed was rarely seen, and this soon became so foul with insects 
that the owner dispensed with it gladly. Many of the inmates of the prisons 
passed years without so much as washing themselves. Their hair grew long, their 
bodies were covered with scabs and lice and emitted a horrible stench. Their 
clothing rotted from their backs and exposed their bodies tormented with all man- 
ner of skin diseases and a yellow flesh cracking open with filth. The death rate 
often stood as high as sixty in the thousand. As if such tortures were not hard 
enough to bear, others were added by the half-maddened prisoners. 

" Garnishing." 

No sooner did a new-comer enter the door of a cell than a rush was made for 
him by the inmates, who stripped him of his clothing and let him stand stark 
naked till it was redeemed by what, in the peculiar jargon of the place, was known 
as drink-money. 

It sometimes happened that the prisoners were in possession of a carefully pre- 
served blanket. Then this ceremony called garnishing was passed over for the 
yet more brutal one of blanketing. In spite of prayers and entreaties the miser- 
able stranger was bound, thrown into the blanket and tossed till he was half dead 
and ready to give his tormentors every superfluous garment to sell for money. 
With the tolls thus exacted liquor was bought, a fiendish revel was held, and 
when bad rum and bad tobacco had done their work, the few sober inmates of the 
cell witnessed such scenes as would be thought shocking in the dance-houses 
which cluster along the wharves of our great seaboard towns. 

To a generation which has beheld great reforms in the statutes of criminal law 
and in the discipline of prisons and jails, to a generation which knows but two 
crimes worthy of death — that against the life of the individual and that against the 
life of the State — which has expended fabulous sums in the erection of reforma- 
tories, asylums and penitentiaries, houses of correction, houses of refuge and 
houses of detention all over the land ; which has furnished every State prison 
with a library, with a hospital, with workshops and with schools, the brutal scenes 
on which our ancestors looked with indifference seem scarcely a reality. Yet it 
is well to recall them, for we cannot but turn from the contemplation of so much 
misery and so much suffering w'th a deep sense of thankfulness that our lot has 
fallen in a pitiful age, in an age when more compassion is felt for a galled horse 
or a clog run over at a street crossing than our greatgrandfathers felt for a woman 
beaten for cursing or a man imprisoned for debt.* 

But there was one great evil which stood out more prominently 
than others, requiring a more extended notice. 

* History 0/ the People 0/ the United States. By McMasters. Vol. I, pp. 96-102. 



INCREASE OF INTEMPERANCE. 347 

Section 5.— Intemperance. 

The first Continental Congress, in 1774,* uttered a decided 
manifesto against the evil of intemperance in these words: 

Resolved, That it be recommended to the several legislatures immediately to 
pass laws the more effectually to put a stop to the pernicious practice of distilling, 
by which the most extensive evils are likely to be derived if not quickly prevented. 

But this action was soon forgotten by the Government itself 
during the war of the Revolution, and supplies of distilled liquors 
were voted by Congress for the army under the fatal delusion that 
they were necessary in the hardships and dangers to which the 
soldiers were exposed in that severe struggle. In consequence of 
this action a diseased appetite was not only fostered where it 
already existed, but was also awakened in many who had not hith- 
erto experienced its insatiable longings. 

During the war the commerce of the colonies was cut off and 
with it the supply of foreign beer and wines, and hence almost all 
the liquor which was then used was distilled spirits — the most fiery 
and vitiating of all the beverages ever presented to the lips of man ; 
and this was soon in demand for almost every purpose of cure or 
sustenance. The absence of the foreign supply, and a more exten- 
sively vitiated appetite, increased the demand and gave a great im- 
pulse to the business of distillation. In the course of three years 
the consumption of grain became so great that it was feared that a 
famine would ensue in the army. In 1779 the army began to suffer, 
and the State of Pennsylvania enacted a law preventing the distil- 
lation of all kinds of grain or meal, except rye and barley. But the 
check was only temporary. 

As might have been expected, there was a great increase of this 
terrible evil after the close of the Revolution. The soldiers, on 
being discharged, carried out into the communities the appetites 
which they had formed, and many others, long inclined to the mod- 
erate use of the milder articles from which they had been cut off, 
had become addicted to those of the most powerful and deteriorat- 
ing character. Hence we find that during the forty years after the 
close of the war intemperance attained its greatest proportions, and it 
was often referred to in those days by European travelers as " the most 
striking characteristic of the American people." The statistics of 
1792 and 18 10 afford abundant confirmation of these statements. 
In 1792 there were 2,579 distilleries in the United States. In 1810 

*For a sketch of intemperance in the colonial era, see pp. 212-214, Liquor Problem in all 
Ages. By Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt. New York City. 



348 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

they numbered 14,191, being an increase nearly sixfold, while the 
population had increased less than twofold. During the year ending 
September 30, 1792, there had been of foreign distilled spirits im- 
ported (exports deducted, leaving the quantity actually consumed) 
4,567,160 gallons; wines (exports deducted), 1,267,723 gallons ; dis- 
tilled in the United States, 5,171,564 gallons. Total consumed in 
this country, 1 1,008,447 gallons. But the population of the country 
at that time was 4,173,024, which would be an average of two and 
one half gallons for every man, woman and child, including slaves, 
who, however, were not allowed to use liquors. 



Section 6.— General Survey of the Dark Period. 

During the last decade of the last century many good men be- 
came seriously concerned in view of the low condition of piety and 
morals which almost every-where prevailed. A few testimonies from 
some of these men will assist in reproducing a distinct view of the 
situation. Rev. Devereux Jarratt, a distinguished Episcopal clergy- 
man of Virginia, writing in 1794, said: 

The present time is marked by peculiar traits of impiety and such an almost 
universal inattention to the concerns of religion that very few will attend, except 
on Sunday, to hear the word of the Lord.* . . . The state of religion is 
gloomy and distressing ; the Church of Christ seems to be sunk very lovv.f . . . 
Little regard and reverence is paid to magistrates and persons in public office J on 
account of the prevalence of the spirit of the French Revolution. 

The state of morals in the new Territories was especially bad. 
Rev. Peter Cartwright in his Autobiography bears testimony to the 
condition of a portion of Kentucky. 

Logan County, when my father moved into it (1793), was called " Rogue's Har- 
bor." Here many refugees from almost all parts of the Union fled to escape pun- 
ishment or justice ; for, although there w T as law, yet it could not be executed, and 
it was a desperate state of society. Murderers, horse-thieves, highway robbers, 
and counterfeiters fled there, until they combined and actually formed a majority. 
Those who favored a better state of morals were called "Regulators." But they 
encountered fierce opposition from the " Rogues," and a battle was fought with 
guns, pistols, dirks, knives, and clubs, in which the "Regulators " were defeated. 

Gallipolis, Ohio, was originally settled by French infidels, and as 
late as 1815, although it was the " county seat and a flourishing 
town," yet it was without a minister of the Gospel. Cleveland, 

* Life of Rev. Devereux Jarratt . Written by himself. Baltimore. Warren & Hanna, 1805, 
P. 5. t Ibid., p. 129. I /did., p. 15. 



GENERAL DEMORALIZATION. 349 

Ohio, was settled in 1799. In 1803 Rev. Joseph Badger visited this 
place and said of it : 

Infidelity and profaning the Sabbath are general. They bid fair to grow into a 
hardened corrupt society.* 

Western New York, like many other ne»w localities, was settled 
by bold and enterprising men, speculators in land, and men whose 
misfortunes or vices or roving disposition inclined them to disregard 
the more staid habits and associations of older communities, and to 
cast off the obligations of religion and good morals. It was then a 
common saying that " Religion had not got west of the Genesee 
River." Some of the towns were hot-beds of infidelity, and the 
books of Paine, Voltaire, etc., were largely circulated. A writer in 
those days describing the condition of the new regions, said : " In 
most of the communities there was no other vestige of the Christian 
religion than a faint observance of Sunday, and that merely as a 
day of rest for the aged and a play-day for the young." In the older 
communities many of the pulpits were filled by a formal and worldly 
ministry, orb}' men who had fled from the ecclesiastical censures of 
the lands across the ocean, and the Church was generally conformed 
to the gay society around it. 

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1798, in its 
pastoral letter, indulged in language of alarm and expostulation: 

Formidable innovations and convulsions in Europe threaten destruction to 
morals and religion ; scenes of devastation and bloodshed unexampled in the his- 
tory of modern nations have convulsed the world, and our country is threatened 
with similar calamities. We perceive with pain and fearful apprehension a gen- 
eral dereliction of religious principle and practice among our fellow-citizens, a visi- 
ble and prevailing impiety and contempt for the laws and the institutions of religion, 
and an abounding infidelity which, in many instances, tends to atheism itself. 
The profligacy and corruption of the public morals have advanced with a progress 
proportioned to our declension in religion. Profaneness, pride, luxury, injustice, 
intemperance, lewdness, and every species of debauchery and loose indulgence 
greatly abound. 

Solemn exhortations to the churches followed, to be read from 
all the pulpits, and a day of fasting and prayer was appointed. In 
some Presbyteries the first Tuesday of every quarter throughout 
each year was observed for this purpose, from 1796 to the close of 
the century. On the first Friday in March in 1 796, the Methodist 
Episcopal Church f observed a general day of fasting and prayer for 
the same reasons as those here given. The means of resistance 
against these evils were then comparatively small. There were 

* Memoirs, p. 46. + See Bangs's History of Methodism. Vol. II, p. 22. 

23 



S50 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

large tracts of the country in which the people were either not sup- 
plied with churches at all or the supply was very scanty. There were 
also but few religious books, and no tracts, for tract societies had 
not then been organized, and the age of Bible societies had not 
dawned. During all the colonial history no English Bible was per- 
mitted to be published in the land, and the people were entirely de- 
pendent on the mother country. Bibles were therefore very ex- 
pensive and scarce. After the troubles arose with the mother country 
it became difficult to obtain a supply of the Holy Scriptures. It 
has been estimated that at the time of the Revolution there were 
not more than four million Bibles in the whole world. Since the 
organization of Bible societies hundreds of millions have been printed 
and scattered abroad. In 1777 the American Congress directed the 
Committee on Commerce to import, at their expense, twenty thou- 
sand English Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere, into the 
different States of the Union. In 178 1 ^Congress recommended an 
edition of the Bible which had then been just published by Robert 
Aiken, of Philadelphia, the first edition of the Holy Scriptures ever 
printed in America. These things occurred before the influence of 
French infidelity had become so general. So meager were the means 
of resistance against the great evils which were flooding the nation. 
Our country was peculiarly adapted to be the battle-ground of a 
great impending religious conflict. Here was no State Church, nor 
could the civil arm be stretched out to defend or sustain Christianity. 
The right of free discussion was secured by law to belief and unbe- 
lief alike. Nor was the battle to be fought for America only, but 
for mankind, for we were destined to be a great cosmopolitan people, 
a mediatorial nation among the nations of the earth. 

Under such disadvantages did Christianity commence the work of 
the present century in the United States, and with such high re- 
sponsibilities. The question to be decided was, Shall this American 
nation be Christian or infidel ? A question which could not be 
decided by an appeal to arms, but by the working of silent and subtle 
convictions pervading the realm of ideas, and relying on spiritual 
influences and agencies alone. 

* The first editions printed in America in the English language. Two editions of Eliot's 
Indian Bible were printed in Cambridge, Mass.. in 1663 and 1686, 



TEMP ERA XCE SEED-SOWERS. 351 



CHAPTER VII. 



REFORMS INITIATED. 



SBC. i. Early Temperance Seed-Sowing. ] Sec. 2. Early Antislavery Seed-Sowing 



Section /.—Early Temperance Seed-Sowing. 

LIKE all other reforms from a low condition of general demoral- 
ization penetrating the entire framework of society, the re- 
verse movement was very small, feeble and inconstant in its begin- 
ning. A long succession of temperance men can be traced down 
through the ages to our times, who have withstood the prevailing 
drinking usages, by which vast multitudes have been borne down 
to ruin. Even during the dark and troublous period of the last 
quarter of the last century, the first seed-sowing of reform may be 
traced, chiefly in scattered individual movements, from which ample 
harvests have since been reaped. 

The efforts of the Hon. John Adams to restrain the sale and use 
of intoxicating drinks in his native town, near the close of the 
colonial era, have been frequently noticed. Dr. Benjamin Franklin 
was a man of strict temperance habits. While employed as a jour- 
neyman printer in London he often protested against the drinking 
usages of his fellow printers, and, in after life, amid the allurements 
of more exalted stations, maintained his strict temperance princi- 
ples. The Society of Friends from their origin, in a very corrupt 
and dissolute age, were noted for the inculcation, both by precept 
and example, of the strictest doctrine of temperance, and scrupu- 
lously instilled those ideas into the minds of their children. The 
Yearly Meeting of the Friends in New England,* in 1784, incorpo- 
rated into the discipline a special clause respecting the use of ardent 
spirits, which was regarded as permanently binding on all their 
members. Rev. John Wesley at the beginning of his ministry was 
convinced that intemperance was a great foe to true religious prog- 

* American Quarterly Temperance Magazine. Albany, Nov., 1833, pp. 367, 3C8 



332 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ress, and not only preached against it, but also insisted upon the 
most rigid temperance among his ministers and people. A rule 
which he prescribed for his societies excluded " drunkenness, buying 
or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, except in cases of 
extreme necessity!' The early Methodists in this country were not 
less decided than Mr. Wesley in their opposition to the drinking 
usages of that period. At the Conferences held in 1780 and 1783 
decided action was taken. In the latter year they inquired : 

Shall our friends be permitted to make spirituous liquors, sell and drink them 
in drams ? Answer. By no means ; we think it wrong in its nature and conse- 
quences, and desire all our preachers to teach the people, by precept and example 
to put away this evil. 

In 1784 the first Conference was held, by which the Methodist 
Episcopal Church was formally organized. This body adopted the 
foregoing rule of Mr. Wesley, and made it obligatory upon every 
member of the Church. Revs. Dr. Thomas Coke and Francis As- 
bury, the first Bishops of the Church, in their Notes on the Disci- 
pline, alluding to this rule, said: 

Far be it from us to wish or endeavor to intrude upon the proper religious or 
civil liberty of any of our people. But the retailing of spirituous liquors and giv- 
ing drams to customers when they call at the stores are such prevalent customs at 
present, and are productive of so many evils, that we judge it our indispensable 
duty to form a regulation against them. The cause of God, which we prefer to 
every other consideration under heaven, requires us to step forth with humble bold- 
ness in this respect. 

Thus it will be seen that the founders of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in America deserve to be regarded as among the first 
and most decided movers in this great reform. It is also a well- 
known fact that the house of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, 
was the constant home of the early Methodist itinerants, toward 
whom he was strongly inclined. Asbury and Coke visited him often, 
and doubtless in their conversations contributed something to pre- 
pare him for the active part he performed in this great reform. 
It is a just tribute to the memory of a great and good man, a 
man of superior scientific attainments, of patient, philosophic re- 
search, of rare progressive spirit, a zealous reformer and a devout 
Christian, to say that this great movement is indebted for its origin to 

Dr. Benjamin Rush, 

of Philadelphia. Other men had inculcated temperance, both 
by precept and example, and thus stood as lights in dark ages, 



DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. 353 

but Dr. Rush resolutely undertook, by extensive efforts, long 
persevered in, amid the arduous duties of his profession, to 
withstand this great and desolating evil, both through the press 
and by personal influence with the leading men of his time. And 
it will be seen as we proceed that to his efforts the earliest perma- 
nent temperance organizations may be directly traced. His antece- 
dents indicate that he was a fit man for such a work. As early as 
1774, when a member of the provisional assembly of Pennsylvania, 
he moved the first resolutions in favor of our national independ- 
ence, and on the 23d of June, 1776, when a member of the Conti- 
nental Congress, he was appointed the chairman of the Committee 
on Independence. Such a spirit was not to be appalled in view of 
the antiquity and magnitude of this terrible scourge. 

As early as 1785 Dr. Rush published his celebrated essay on The 
Effects of A rdent Spirits on the Human Mind and Body. It attracted 
considerable attention and exerted a manifest influence for good; so 
that, according to Hildreth,* at the celebration of the adoption 
of the Federal Constitution in Philadelphia, July 4, 1788, ardent 
spirits were excluded from the entertainment, American beer and 
cider being the only liquors used. Nor was this all. He made 
earnest and repeated efforts with the leading official ministers and 
ecclesiastical bodies of that day to influence them to proper action 
on this subject; and we find him corresponding with the elder Adams 
and Dr. Jeremy Belknap, of New Hampshire, on this subject. In 
his first letter, dated May 6, 1788, he says : 

The commerce in African slaves has breathed its last in Pennsylvania. . . . 
I am encouraged by the success that has finally attended the exertions of the 
friends of universal freedom and justice to go on in my romantic schemes (as they 
have often here been called) of serving my countrymen. My next object shall be 
the extirpation of the abuse of spirituous liquors. For this purpose I have every 
year for several years past republished the inclosed tract two or three weeks before 
harvest. The effects of this perseverance begin already to show themselves in our 
State. A family or township is hit with this publication one year that neglected or 
perhaps ridiculed it the year before. Associations are forming in many places to 
give no spirits at the ensuing harvest. The Quakers and Methodists take the lead 
in these associations, as they have often done in all enterprises that have morality 
or the happiness of society for their object.! 

The following extract from another original autograph letter 
from Dr. Rush to Dr. Belknap, dated July 13, 1789, in the posses- 
sion of the New England Historical Society, will show in his own 

* Vol. IV, p. 69. 

t Original autograph letter in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 
Mass. Copied by consent of the Society. See Belknap Papers. Vol. I, p. 138. 



354 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

words the depth of interest in this subject, and also present some 
other interesting facts. 

I have borne a testimony (by particular desire) at a Methodist Conference 
against the use of ardent spirits, and I hope with effect. I have likewise 
written to the Roman Catholic Bishop in Maryland to set an association 
on foot against them in his society. I have repeatedly insisted upon a pub- 
lic testimony being published against them by the Presbyterian Synod of this city, 
and have suggested to our good Bishop White the necessity of the Episcopal 
Church not standing neutral in this interesting business. Go thou, my friend, and, 
in your circle of influence or acquaintance, "Do likewise." * 

The First Temperance Association 

in this country was formed in the early part of the year 1789, in 
the town of Litchfield, Conn. In the Federal Herald, \ July 13, 
1789, it is recorded that — 

Upward of two hundred of the most respectable farmers in Litchfield County, 
Conn., have formed an association to encourage the disuse of spirituous liquors, 
and have determined not to use any kind of distilled spirits in doing their farming 
work the ensuing season. 

Whether this association had a constitution and by-laws does not 
now appear, but they had a temperance PLEDGE, thus recognizing 
a principle which has long been the key-stone of the temperance 
reformation. The original copy of this pledge was found in 1833 by 
Hon. Seth P. Beers, while administering upon the estate of Mr. 
Ephraim Kirby, of Litchfield, the first signer.^ After a long preamble 
setting forth the grounds of their action stands the following pledge : 

We do hereby associate and mutually agree that hereafter we will carry on our 
business without the use of distilled spirits as an article of refreshment, either for 
ourselves or for those whom we employ ; and that, instead thereof, we will serve 
our workmen with wholesome food and the common simple drinks of our produc- 
tion. Signed by Ephraim Kirby, Timothy Skinner, David Buel, and nearly two 
hundred others. 

Forty-four years afterward, ten of the original number were still 
living in Litchfield, and one of them, Mr. David Buel, was residing 
in Troy, N. Y., at the advanced age of ninety years, a zealous advo- 
cate of temperance. This was the first voluntary association of 
individuals pledged to abstain from strong drink ever formed in 
this country. To the unfading glory of the farmers of Litchfield 
County let it ever be told. They were the first to originate and 

* For fuller information in regard to Dr. Rush see Liquor Problem in all Ages. By Rev. 
Daniel Dorchester, D.D. ' Phillips & Hunt. New York City. 
t Vol. Ill, No. 74. Published in Lansingburg, N. Y. 
X See Litchfield Enquirer, Sept. 26, 1833. 



EARLY ANTISLAVERY ACTION. 355 

introduce into practice the principie of a social covenant to promote 
the disuse of ardent spirits. 

In the next period this reform will unfold itself through successive 
stages of progress into a great and mighty moral revolution. 



Section 2.— Early Antislavery Seed-Sowing. 

Societies for the abolition of slavery are not of recent origin. A 
considerable number of them sprang up in the latter part of the 
last century. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the first 
ever formed, was organized before the Revolution. In 1784 
it was resuscitated. The New York Abolition Scociety was 
formed in January, 1785, the Rhode Island Society, in 1789; the 
Connecticut Society, in 1790 ; the New Jersey Society, in 1792 ; and 
other societies were organized in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. 
National abolition conventions were held in 1794,111 1795, in 1804, 
and subsequently. 

These early abolition societies embraced in their membership some of the purest 
philanthropists, the ripest scholars, most eminent jurists, and the best statesmen of 
that age. They were deeply imbued with the spirit of liberty and were loyal to the pre- 
cepts of Christianity. Ever zealous, earnest, and devoted, they labored effectively 
in the cause of emancipation and the general elevation of the African race. For 
several years national conventions, in which these societies were represented, were 
annually held. Earnest arguments and appeals were made by these conventions 
to Congress, to the State legislatures, to the free people of color, and to the country, 
to aid in the suppression of the slave-trade, the repeal of inhuman statutes, the pro- 
tection of free persons of color, and the promotion of the general interests of freedom. * 

Among the prominent civilians engaged in these movements 
were the following: John Baldwin, Benjamin Franklin, Anthony 
Benezet, and Benjamin Rush, in Pennsylvania ; John Jay and Alex- 
ander Hamilton, in New York ; Judge Baldwin, in Connecticut ; 
Levi Lincoln, Caleb Strong, and Theodore Sedgwick, in Massachu- 
setts, and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia. 
The more enlightened statesmen and philanthropists of that period 
regarded slavery as " an atrocious debasement of human nature," f 
and desired to find some plan by which it might be abolished by 
law. This was especially true of the best portion of the cultivated 
Christian mind of that day. They saw the essential injustice and 
enormity of slavery, and the duty of its removal, as clearly as they 
ever have since that time. 



* Rise and Fall of the Slave Power. By Hon. Henry Willson. Boston. 1872. James R. 
Osgood & Co. Vol. 1, p. 29. + Benjamin Franklin. 



356 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

But there was a powerful class in the Carolinas and in Georgia 
that actively and persistently resisted every thing that tended to 
the destruction of a system which secured to them wealth, social 
distinction, and political power. There were also " the uneducated 
and unreflecting masses," taking counsel of their feelings of indolence 
and avarice, and of those induced, in the language of Jefferson, 
41 by the quiet, monotonous course of colonial life, largely influenced 
and led, too, by the dominant class, who had little sympathy with 
these abstract ideas of right, justice and humanity, and little dis- 
position to legislate in harmony with them." These two classes 
hindered and prevented all legislative enactments in the Southern 
States which tended either to the modification or the abolition 
of slavery, and succeeded in obtaining a recognition of slavery and 
guarantees for its protection in the Constitution of the United 
States. 

In the more northern States different results were secured. 
During the Revolution public opinion in Massachusetts was so 
strong in favor of the abolition of slavery that in many of the 
towns votes were passed in the town meetings that they would 
have no slaves among them. The present Constitution, adopted in 
1780, declares that " all men are Lorn free and equal." " This," 
says Chief Justice Parsons, a member of the committee which re- 
ported it, " was inserted not merely as a moral and political truth, 
but with a particular view to establish the liberation of the negroes 
on a general principle, and was so understood by the people at 
large," who adopted the Constitution by a two thirds vote. 4 ' It 
would be difficult," said Chief Justice Shaw, "to select words more 
precisely adapted to the abolition of slavery." But even before 
this action slavery was virtually abolished by public opinion. Nor 
is there evidence that the blacks were sold and sent south. In 
1783 a great deal of public indignation was expressed at the con- 
duct of Dr. A , who decoyed three blacks on board of his vessel 

and took them to the West Indies for sale. Governor Hancock sent 
to all the West India Islands, and the men were promptly returned 
to Boston. * 

In 1780 Pennsylvania passed "an act of gradual abolition." 
Rhode Island took early action, providing that all born of African 
descent, after March, 1784, should be free. Connecticut, with not 
quite three thousand slaves at the time, as early as 1784 provided 



*The fullest account extant of slavery in Massachusetts was written by Rev. Dr. Jeremy 
Belknap, in response to inquiries by Judge Tucker, of Virginia, and published in the Massachu- 
setts Historical Collections. Vol. IV. 



GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 3S7 

for the gradual emancipation of slavery. The same year New- 
Hampshire became a free State by a judicial interpretation of her 
Constitution. The Legislature of New York in 1785 refused to 
adopt a system of gradual emancipation. After persistent appeals, 
however, in 1799, it enacted that all children born thereafter were 
free. 

The Religious Origin of the Antislavery Movement. 

The opinion sometimes expressed, that the antislavery move- 
ment was in its origin a purely humanitarian reform, is the result 
of hasty thought. Some have been accustomed to consider 
Franklin, Jefferson, Jay, Rush, etc., as philanthropists under 
whose labors the early abolition societies and emancipation 
acts in the Northern States were inaugurated, and forget that 
the prime impulse was Christian, and that Christian men, includ- 
ing many eminent divines, acted a conspicuous and the leading 
part in the programme. Such men constituted not only some 
of the best leaders but also the rank and file, while the religious 
sentiment furnished the chief pabulum and inspiration of the reform. 
It started directly out of the religious convictions of the people, 
and was dependent for its success upon the religious public. This 
aspect of the case has been so constantly overlooked by writers and 
speakers on antislavery themes that it is necessary to dwell upon it 
here and unfold the action of the religious bodies. By referring to 
pp. 225-228, the earliest seed-sowing of antislavery will be seen, 
under which public opinion was so far developed at the time of the 
Revolution that the abolition of slavery followed in many States 
immediately after that event. 

By the faithful and self-denying- labors of devoted pioneers and early advocates 
of antislavery, and others of less note, covering a period of a hundred years, was 
the Society of Friends at length persuaded to rid itself of the system of enforced 
servitude. Nor was this great work accomplished without much of exciting dis- 
cussion, stern rebuke and stirring appeal. For with them, as with others, the love 
of ease and the lust of dominion were strong, nor did they at once and easily let 
go their hold on the victims of their power. And not until the conscience of the 
Society was aroused by the unequivocal decisions of its ecclesiastical tribunals, 
showing slavery to be a sin to be repented of and forsaken, did it achieve the high 
distinction of being the first and only denomination to purge itself entirely of this 
great iniquity. * 

The Presbyterian Church and Slavery. 

The Presbyterians also shared a part in this early seed-sowing. 
As early as 1774, and again in 1780, this subject was before their 

* Rise and Fall of the Slave Power. By Hon. Henry Wilson. Vol I, p. 10 



358 CHRISTIAN! TV IN THE UNITED' STATES. 

Synod. In 1787 the Synod of New York and Philadelphia declared 
its approval 

of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in America and 
of the interest which many of the States have taken in promoting the abolition of 
slavery ; yet, inasmuch as men introduced from a servile state to a participation of 
all the privileges of civil society, without a proper education and without pre- 
vious habits of industry, may be in some respects dangerous to the community, 
therefore they earnestly recommend to all the members belonging to their com- 
munion to give those persons who are at present held in servitude such good edu- 
cation as might prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom. Re-affirmed 
in 1793 and 1795. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church was not formally organized 
until the Conference called for that purpose in Baltimore, December 
27, 1784. The following is the substance of the action of this body 
in regard to slavery: 

1.. As to the nature of slavery. An abomination ; the deepest debasement; 
the slavery of America more abject than any other. 2. They considered slavery 
to be contrary to the golden law of love, on which hang all the law and the 
prophets ; contrary to the inalienable rights of mankind ; contrary to every prin- 
ciple of the Revolution. 3. Every one possessing slaves, whether by inheritance or 
otherwise, was required to emancipate them if it could be done ; and no persons 
holding slaves for the future was to be admitted into the Church unless he pre- 
viously promised to emancipate them. 4. These rules were to affect the members 
of the Church only so far as they were consistent with the laws of the States in 
which they resided. 5. But those who bought or sold slaves, or gave them away, 
were immediately to be expelled, unless they bought them in order to free them. * 

" These rules," says Rev. Jesse Lee, t " were but short-lived and were offensive 
to most of our southern friends, and were so much opposed by many of our private 
members, local preachers, and some of the traveling preachers, that the execution 
of them was suspended at the Conference held in June following, about six months 
after they were formed, and they were never afterward carried into full force." 

The Conference of 1796 adopted a fuller expression of its views, 
among which we notice a stern disapproval of slavery ; security for 
emancipation required of official members holding them in States 
where emancipation was allowed ; no slaveholder was to be received 
into the Church until the preacher had spoken to him freely and 
faithfully on the subject ; every member who should sell a slave was 
to be excluded from the Society ; members purchasing slaves were 
required to execute a legal instrument of manumission after a spec- 
ified term, etc. This remained with little modification for some time. 

All through these earlier years the Methodist Church maintained 
a positive hostility to slavery, which was felt in the high places in 

* History of the Great Secession. By Rev. Chas. Elliott, D.D. Cincinnati, Swormsted & 
Poe. 1855, p.' 35. f History of the Methodists. 1810. 



HOSTILITY TO SLAVERY, 359 

the nation. Its leading officials freely conferred with presidents and 
governors, and were listened to in legislative halls in behalf of the 
slave. In the convention that framed the Constitution of the United 
States Mr. Marshall, afterward Chief Justice, kept back the words 
slave and slavery from that instrument by urging with great em- 
phasis that if the Government thus countenanced slavery it would 
lose the support of the Methodists and the Quakers. 

The Congregationalists and Slavery. 

Congregationalism was originally confined almost entirely to 
New England, and consequently has been less embarrassed by the 
institution of slavery than any other religious body. But in the 
colonial period, and for a considerable time after the Revolution, 
this institution existed in almost all the Northern States where this 
denomination prevailed. Several noble champions of antislavery 
arose in her ministry at an early date. 

" Among the earlier apostles of emancipation w r as Dr. Samuel 
Hopkins, pastor of the Congregational church in Newport, R. I., 
who was as much distinguished for his advocacy of the doctrines of 
human rights as of the doctrines of the school of theology which 
bears his name. In 1770 he deliberately and solemnly resolved to 
attack the system of kidnapping, purchasing and retaining slaves. 
Although Rhode Island had, as early as 1652, passed an act against 
the purchase of negroes, she had become deeply involved in the 
slave trade. Newport was the great slave mart of New England. 
Cargoes of slaves were often landed near the church and home of 
the great divine. Before his congregation, thus deeply involved in 
the guilt of slave-trading and slave-holding, he boldly rebuked the 
sin. and pleaded the cause of these victims in a discourse of great 
plainness and power. It was an unselfish and heroic act, imperil- 
ing his position both as pastor and as a recognized leader in the 
Church. Of this noble act Whittier says, ' It may well be doubted 
whether on that Sabbath day the angels of God, in their wide sur- 
vey of his universe, looked upon a nobler spectacle than that of the 
minister of Newport rising up before his slave-holding congregation 
and demanding, in the name of the Highest, " the deliverance of 
the captive and the opening of prison doors to them which were 
bound." ' 

" From 1770 to 1776 Dr. Hopkins frequently spoke in behalf of 
the slave, visited from house to house, and urged masters to free 
their bondmen. In the latter year he published his dialogue con- 
cerning slavery, together with his address to slave-holders. He 



360 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

dedicated this remarkable production, said to have been 'the ablest 
document which had at that time and on that theme appeared in 
the English language,' to the Continental Congress. It had a large 
circulation among the statesmen of that day and exerted a potent 
influence on public opinion. This early champion of the black man 
was cheered by the passage in 1774 of a law prohibiting the im- 
portation of negroes into Rhode Island ; and in 1784 by the passage 
of an act declaring all children born after the next March free — re- 
sults to which he had largely contributed by his early, persistent 
and self-denying labors. His heart was gladdened, too, by the 
action of his church. Instructed by his teachings and inspired by 
his zeal, it declared slavery to be ' a gross violation of the righteous- 
ness and benevolence of the Gospel,' and therefore it resolved, ' We 
will not tolerate it in this church.' " * 

The first meeting for the formation of the Rhode Island Abo- 
lition Society was held in the house of Dr. Hopkins, at Newport. 
The New York Abolition Society, among its earlier acts, printed 
Dr. Hopkins's masterly arguments against slavery and gratuitously 
circulated them. The Connecticut Abolition Society had for its first 
officers Rev. Ezra Styles, D.D., President of Yale College, and Judge 
Baldwin, both eminent Congregationalists, and numbered among 
its members many who were eminent for piety and learning. Before 
this society, in 1791, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D.D., the younger, 
proclaimed the radical and uncompromising declaration that, " To 
hold a man in a state of slavery who has a right to his liberty is to 
be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing, 
and is a greater sin in the sight of God than concubinage or forni- 
cation." Rev. Dr. Edwards performed good service on other im- 
portant occasions. In the national Antislavery Convention of 
1795 he was present, and acted a conspicuous part. This conven- 
tion sent out addresses to South Carolina, Georgia, and the people 
of the United States. The address to South Carolina was written 
by Mr. Edwards. 

Thus it will be seen that the original impulse of the antislavery 
movement was religious, and that all through the earlier history 
which has been sketched it derived its chief force and strength from 
religious sentiment. (See also Period II, Chap. IV, Sec. 2.) 

* The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power. By Hon. Henry Wilson. Boston. James R. 
Osgood & Co. 1872. Vol. I, pp. 11, 12. 



CHART. V. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CLERGYMEN, 



■ 



PERIOD II. 



FROM 1800 TO 1850 



HOPEFUL INDICATIONS. 363 



CHAPTER I. 

NEW LIFE IN THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES-AN ERA OF 
REVIVALS INAUGURATED. 



Sec. i. Survey of the Period. Sec. 4. Subsequent Revivals. 

" 2. The Revival of 1800 Incepted. 1 " 5. College Revivals. 
" 3. Character of the Revival. " 6. Effects. 



Section l.—A Survey of the Period. 

WITH the opening of the present century appeared numerous 
indications of an immense advance of Christ's kingdom. 
Formidable oppositions were still arrayed against it, but some old 
institutions, long standing in its way, were falling in pieces, and a 
few nations which had long rejected the Gospel were opening their 
doors to receive it. In India there was a favorable change in the 
administration of civil affairs. Infanticide was prohibited,* and 
European education and Christian chaplains, teachers and mis- 
sionaries had entered. China, under the tuition of European 
monopolies, began to sympathize a little with European ideas, and 
was about to admit an installment of missionary f teachers. The 
Turkish Empire, successively humbled by Venice, Russia and 
Austria, and finally by France and England, had settled into a 
state of submission, and was slowly adopting the ideas, arts and 
education of Western Europe. Africa, also, the land of darkness 
and parodoxes, was conscious of new influences encircling her. In 
1787 Sierra Leone, purchased as a refuge for emancipated bonds- 
men, became a dependency of the British crown. In 1795 the re- 
generation of the Cape of Good Hope commenced under English 
influence. From 1796 to i8od the world became acquainted with 
the wonderful explorations of Bruce and Mungo Park. In 1799 
Vanderkemp commenced his labors among the Kafirs and the Hot- 
tentots, and Egypt and the Barbary States were learning to stand 
in awe of Christian nations. 

* In 1802. f Dr. Morrison went to Canton in 1807. 



364 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Europe had been shaken by the throes of the French Revo- 
lution,- the power of papal intolerance was broken, and Napoleon 
Bonaparte was making gigantic strides across the Continent re- 
constructing its governments and institutions. In the East Indies 
the influence of Dutch supremacy was already felt, and Christian 
schools and usages were being established. Great Britain also 
showed signs of progress. In her American war she had learned 
useful lessons about popular liberty, and was favorably inclined to 
a fuller recognition of civil and religious rights. 

New Christian institutions were organizing for the spread of 
Christ's kingdom. On the Continent of Europe the Netherlands 
Missionary Society was formed in 1797, the Berlin Missionary So- 
ciety in 1800, and a little later Gutzlaff went to the coast of China 
bearing the Gospel. In Great Britain six missionary societies had 
been organized between 1792 and 1800; the Religious Tract Society 
in 1 799, three Bible Societies between 1800 and 1809. Sunday-schools 
had sprung up in England and were being adopted in Protestant 
countries on the Continent. 

Such is the world-wide survey of the religious situation at the 
opening of this century. A general survey of the period (1 800-1 850) 
now to be considered, especially in respect to the unfavorable 
circumstances with which the cause of religion had to contend, and 
also a brief view of some of the more striking peculiarities and 
movements of the times, will prepare us to appreciate the rare 
achievements of American Christianity in the first half of the 
nineteenth century. 

Unfavorable Circumstances. 

The progress of American Christianity during this period was 
not unattended with disadvantages. The war of 18 12 and the ex- 
citing circumstances preceding and following it, covering a period 
of ten years, were a serious detriment to the cause of piety. The 
embargo and non-intercourse acts, from 1807 to 18 10; the capture 
of more than nine hundred American vessels in ten years, and the 
Indian hostilities on the frontiers under British instigation, kept 
the country constantly excited long before the war commenced. 
During the war (18 12-18 15) frequent scenes of savage butchery by 
Indians and British soldiers on the northern and western borders, 
the capture and burning of the national capitol, the attacks upon 
Baltimore and New London, Conn., and the threatening attitude of 
the British fleet toward New York and Boston, at times inflamed 
the popular heart to frenzy. Then followed the wars with Algiers 



TEMPERANCE AND OTHER REFORMS. 365 

and the Florida Indians. Moreover, considerable division of 
opinion existed among American citizens in regard to the war of 
1812. Party politics ran high and domestic disputes pervaded all 
classes, from the halls of legislation to the fireside. In consequence 
of these things the work of religion in many places was sometimes 
either greatly embarrassed or wholly checked. After 1820 the 
country was free from foreign irritations, and the rapidly-extending 
populations were becoming established in their new centers. 

The two decades from 1830 to 1850 are among the most im- 
portant in the history of American Christianity. If inferior to the 
former three in the inauguration of new religious agencies, they were 
nevertheless characterized by other movements which distinctly 
marked them upon the pages of history. The churches were in 
the wake of the great religious revivals which exerted such exten- 
sive and sweeping power from 1826 to 1832. Immediately after 
the latter date the spiritual interest abated somewhat, and there 
commenced a series of great and powerful agitations. It was pre- 
eminently an era of agitations — ecclesiastical, reformatory, social- 
istic, Native-American, and that occasioned by the Mexican war. 

In the year 1830 the great temperance reformation, slowly in- 
augurated in the preceding decades, was moving forward under a 
powerful influence, and soon attracted universal attention, enlisting 
the best minds of the nation in its behalf. It powerfully shook the 
whole land, penetrated every locality, kindled its fires on other 
shores, and became an object of world-wide inquiry and admiration. 
The close of this period (1850) is believed to have been the time 
of the best temperance habits in this country since the introduction 
of distilled liquors as a beverage. 

The great antislavery reform started upon a bolder and wider 
career soon after 1830, and down to the close of the period most 
powerfully stirred the nation, producing strife, bitterness, divisions 
and mobs. The fight was a severe one, .and the results were long 
unfavorable, producing distress and anxiety. Instances of mob 
violence were common in the largest cities. After 1843 tlie question 
of slavery entered largely into political action in primary assemblies, 
in elections and in the halls of legislation ; while the churches were 
at no time exempt from this seriously-disturbing influence. 

From 1 841 to 1850 the subject of Sabbath observance was kept 
prominently before the attention of the country, and very great im- 
provement in the habits of the people was every-where visible. 

The internal difficulties over questions of policy and principle 
arising out oi these reformatory agitations disturbed and rent asun- 
2-4 



366 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

der several of the largest religious denominations. Previous to 
1830, schisms were produced by Arian and Socinian doctrines which 
had crept into the churches. The schisms of the next two decades 
were not occasioned by theological differences, if we except some 
alienations caused by the spread of "New Divinity" among the 
Presbyterians and the Congregationalists, but by great questions of 
ecclesiastical polity or policy. 'The divisions which occurred in the 
three greatest denominations — the Presbyterians (1838), the Meth- 
odists (1844), and the Baptists (1845) — were preceded and followed 
by long and exciting agitations, which seriously diverted the 
churches from their appropriate work. The " New Divinity," the 
" Bushnell " and the " Tractarian " controversies also engrossed the 
attention of many, while the excitements connected with the Mor- 
mon movement and exodus, and the Millerite, or Second Advent 
agitation had a very pernicious effect. 

Socialism was first introduced by Robert Owen in 1826. Later 
came the more widely- felt epoch of American Socialism, when 
Fourierism was introduced (1842) and recommended to public favor 
by men of superior literary culture and influence. Fourierism at- 
tracted much attention and spread like an epidemic, so that in less 
than ten years thirty-four socialistic communities were organized. 
Many persons were considerably influenced and religiously unsettled 
by socialistic speculations. Christianity was tested in with- 
standing this assault. Almost simultaneously the Native American 
excitement agitated the leading cities, and the common school con- 
test was inaugurated by the Roman Catholics under the leadership 
of Bishop Hughes. In this period Naturalistic and Materialistic 
ideas were introduced in connection with the teachings of Combe 
and the phrenologists, and the first installments of Rationalism and 
Spiritualism were received. 

Such were the agitations which affected the condition of the 
churches during this period, distracted their attention, divided their 
energies and embarrassed their religious action and influence. Em- 
phatically an era of agitation, the atmosphere was full of the dust 
of strife and the din of tumults. The virtue and conserving power 
of Christianity were sorely tested ; how much more her aggressive 
power ! And yet new benevolent, evangelizing and educational 
agencies were organized in large numbers, and the churches greatly 
increased their number, strength, and efficiency. The statistics of 
the churches from 1800 to 1850 show a surprising increase, redupli- 
cating upon the population, and exceeding any previous ecclesi- 
astical growth in ancient or modern times. The growth of the 



THE GREAT REVIVAL. 367 

evangelical churches under such circumstances is doubtless owing 
to the fact that most of the great agitations were moral and 
religious— a legitimate part of true militant work, fulfilling the pre- 
diction, " I came not to send peace but a sword." These agitations 
came chiefly out of the quickened religious life of the churches, 
stirring the consciences of men. Christianity was both a factor and 
a beneficiary. Whence came the jnew life and its intensity? 



Section 2.— The Revival of 1800 Incepted. 

Having taken this survey of the period and its exigencies we 
turn back to the opening of the century, that we may ascertain 
how the American churches were prepared by God for such mag- 
nificent achievements. 

Under the influence of the Wesleyan movement, and the preach- 
ing of Rowland Hill and John Newton, the churches of Great 
Britain were rising to a higher spiritual life, and more fully compre- 
hending their responsibilities to the masses of their own countrymen 
and to the world. British Christianity had been powerfnlly quick- 
ened and new beneficent agencies were starting into being. There 
were indications of an immense advance all along the lines of 
Christ's militant host. 

Were the churches of the New World to share in this onward 
movement ? Or were they to falter and fail under the blighting 
influence of French infidelity and gross immorality abounding 
in American communities ? We shall soon see how it pleased God 
to deliver them from their spiritual embarrassments, and how they 
came forward to share in the grandest advancement of His kingdom 
since the apostolic age. 

The dark and trying period through which the country passed 
at the beginning of its national career has been shown to be one of 
such moral and spiritual desolation that many intelligent citizens 
were alarmed in view of the dubious religious prospects. Days of 
fasting and prayer were observed annually, quarterly, monthly, or 
weekly, varying in different localities, with earnest intercession that 
God would interpose in behalf of his suffering cause. 

The Great Revival (1799-1803). 

At this time a great revival of religion commenced, the influence 
of which extended into almost all portions of the country, quicken- 
ing and multiplying churches, turning back the dark and desolating 



368 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

floods of infidelity and immorality, and giving birth to numerous 
powerful religious and reforming agencies. The Bible, Tract, Ed- 
ucational, Foreign and Home Missionary Societies springing up in 
the first twenty years of this century were outgrowths from the 
new life infused by this revival into the American churches. The 
revival had its origin on the remote frontiers, in that portion of 
Kentucky and Tennessee lying west of the Cumberland Mountains 
then known as the " Cumberland Country " — a region of such rare 
beauty of scenery and fertility of soil that it early attracted settlers 
from Virginia and the Carolinas. The first token of divine favor 
w r as manifested in these new settlements, where the greatest hard- 
ships were experienced and the people of God most needed and 
most earnestly sought his aid. Like a wave the new religious life 
rose beyond the Alleghanies, and. rolling over the mountains, 
swept onward to the Atlantic. This frontier population was chiefly 
Presbyterians. Methodists and Baptists. Rev. Dr. Craighead, a 
man of eloquence and learning, formerly from North Carolina, then 
stood at the head of the Presbyterian ministry in that region. The 
preaching at that time, in most localities, consisted princi- 
pally of dry discourses upon a stiff and technical theology, or a 
cold, speculative orthodoxy, which led to no heart conviction nor 
change of life. Persons of quiet and orderly lives were admitted to 
the churches without a religious experience.* 

Five men, three Presbyterians and two Methodises, seemed to 
have acted prominent parts in the forthcoming revival. Of the 

former were Revs. James Gready, William McGee and Hodge ; 

of the latter, John McGee and William Burke. The McGees f were 
brothers. 

Covenants were entered into by Christian people to spend the 
third Saturday in each month in fasting and prayer for the outpour- 
ing of the Holy Spirit, and one half hour at sunset every Saturday 
night and at sunrise every Sunday morning in prayer for the same 
object. In the latter part of 1799 the two brothers McGee, one a 
Methodist and the other a Presbyterian, started upon a preaching 
tour from Tennessee into Kentucky. Their meetings on Red 

* History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. By Rev. E. B. Crisman. Nashville, 
Tenn. 1870. Pp. 19, 20. 

Rev. David Rice (Memoirs), who went to Kentucky in 1783, said : " I scarcely found one 
man and but few women who supported a credible profession of religion. Some were grossly 
ignorant of the first principles of religion ; some were given to quarreling and fighting, some to 
intemperance, and perhaps most of them were totally ignorant of the forms < f religion in their 
own houses." And yet " many of them produced certificates of having been in full communion 
and in £;ood standing in the churches from which they had emigrated." 

t Sometimes Written Magee. 



THE FIRST CAMP-MEETING. 839 

River were attended with remarkable effects. At the next, on 
Muddy River, many distant families came with wagons and camped 
in the woods. This was the beginning of religious "camp-meet- 
ings " * in this country, which have since become a prominent in- 
stitution. In its origin it was Presbyterian-Methodist. In June, 
1800, one of these meetings was held on Gaspee River, a large 
number of people coming together from a radius of sixty miles, the 
services continuing from Friday to the following Tuesday. The 
exercises were attended with powerful " awakenings," children, 
young men and women, old gray-headed people, white and black, 
dissolute and moral, were deeply stirred. Other meetings followed 
in this region, attended by the same influences and producing simi- 
lar results. Many were sacramental occasions, in which Presbyterian 
and Methodist ministers united in the ordinances and other services. 
A meeting was held in Cambridge, Ky., soon after the introduction 
of these peculiar gatherings, which produced a general sensation. 
Thousands of persons were present from many parts of the State, 
and even from Ohio, and it continued one week. Hundreds fell to 
the earth as dead men under the preaching. At another, held at 
Cobbin, Ky., it was extravagantly estimated that " twenty thousand 
persons were present," that " thousands f fell as if slain in battle ; " 
and the " influence was felt throughout the State." Astonishing 
effects attended another on Desher's Creek, at which it was said 
that " the people fell under the power of the word like corn before 
a storm of wind." Rev. William McKendree, subsequently Bishop 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, then presiding elder in this 
region, engaged heartily in the work, and his biographer has said 
that " no small part of the impetus which was given to the work 
was by his preaching and superior wisdom." \ Rev. William Burke, 
a Methodist itinerant, was also an active laborer. The work went 
on in Kentucky and Tennessee several years, and left behind per- 
manent results. 



Section 3.— Character of the Revival . 

From deists, then numerous in Kentucky, and from formal 
religionists the revival encountered opposition; but it went on, and 
Sabbath-breakers, profane swearers, drunkards and skeptics were 
transformed. Congregations increased ; new churches were organ- 

* See Methodist Magazine, 1821, p. 189, for an account of these first meetings, from the pen 
of John McGee. 

t Bangs's History of Methodism. Vol. II, p. 108. % Fry's Life of McKendree, p. 68. 



870 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ized, and old ones were built up. Strange and astounding were many 
of the phenomena, yet deists were constrained to confess that " from 
whatever cause the revival might proceed it made the people bet- 
ter." It promoted friendly tempers where before there were 
numerous and fatal feuds. The religious engagedness and sincerity 
were so great as to disarm suspicions of hypocrisy and produce a 
deep conviction of divine power. Eminent divines closely scruti- 
nized the character of the work. Rev. Samuel Ralston, D.D., of Al- 
leghany County, Pennsylvania, was in the midst of the scenes, and 
declared that " the work was agreeable to the word of God and 
kindred to the great revival in Scotland and New England." Rev. 
Moses Hedge, D.D., of Virginia, in a letter to Rev. Ashbel Green, 
D.D., of Philadelphia, said : 

This work seems to lead to a more clear and distinct view of the operation of 
the Divine Spirit upon the heart of a sinner in his conversion and subsequent 
communications than can be obtained from ordinaiy revivals. 

Rev. George A. Baxter, D.D.,- of Washington Academy, Virginia, 
who visited Kentucky in 1801. and personally inquired into the 
character of the revival, in a letter to Dr. Archibald Alexander 
recorded the following testimony : 

On my way I was informed by settlers on the road that the character of Ken- 
tucky travelers was entirely changed, and that they were as remarkable for sobriety 
as they had formerly been for dissoluteness and immorality. And indeed I found 
Kentucky, to appearance, the most moral place I had ever seen. A profane ex- 
pression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country. 
. . . Upon the whole, I think the revival in Kentucky the most extraordinary that 
has ever visited the Church of Christ ; and, all things considered, it was peculiarly 
adapted to the circumstances of the country into which it came. Infidelity was 
triumphant and religion was on the point of expiring. Something extraordinary 
seemed necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people who were ready to con- 
clude that Christianity was a fable and futurity a delusion. This revival has done 
it. It has confounded infidelity and brought numbers beyond calculation under 
serious impressions. 

Similar testimonies were given by Rev. David Rice, a leading 
Presbyterian minister of Kentucky, and by Rev. Messrs. Samuel 
Miller, D.D., Archibald Alexander, D.D., and James Welsh, a com- 
mittee of the General Assembly^ of the Presbyterian Church, appoin- 
ted to investigate the character of the revival. 

Such was the origin of this great revival in the South-west. But 
it was not confined to that region. In August, 1801, it had reached 
Cross Roads, Orange County, N. C. ; the next year the eastern part 
of the State ; then it spread into South Carolina, northern Georgia 
and Virginia, and thence northward through the Middle States. 



EXTEXT OF THE REVIVAL. 37 1 

Revivals in New England, etc. 
Simultaneously with these movements the revival influences ap- 
peared in the more northern section of the country* In Connecticut 
it preceded the work in Kentucky and Tennessee, although it seems 
not to have been so extensive. Powerful revivals'* were experienced 
in the following Connecticut towns: Somers, in 1797; Canton, 
1798-9; Torringford, 1798; New Hartford, 1798-9; Torrington, 
1798-9; Plymouth, Harwinton, Goshen, Farmington, Norfolk, 
Bristol, Burlington, Avon, Bloomfield and Middlebury, in 1799. 
From the year 1800 they became more numerous and extensive in 
western New England. Rev. Bennet Tyler, D.D., said : 

Within the period of five or six years, commencing with 1797, not less than one 
hundred and fifty churches in New England were visited with "times of refreshing 
from the presence of the Lord." t 

Rev Ebenezer Porter, D.D,,;£ said : 

The day dawned which was to succeed a night of more than sixty years. As 
in the valley of Ezekiel's vision, there was a great shaking. Dry bones, animated 
by the breath of the Almighty, stood up new-born believers. The children of Zion 
beheld with overflowing souls, and with thankful hearts acknowledged " this is the 
finger of God." The work was stamped conspicuously with the impress of its 
Divine author, and its joyful effects evinced no other than the agency of Omnipotence. 

Rev. Edward D. Griffin, D.D., said :§ 

I could stand in my door at New Hartford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, and 
number fifty or sixty contiguous congregations laid down in one field of Divine 
wonders, and as many more in different parts ot New England. 

Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., and Mr. Samuel J. Mills, both emi- 
nently successful laborers in great Christian enterprises in the first 
half of the present century, were converts! in these revivals. 

In the year 1800 a revival commenced in Palmyra, New York, 
and extended to Bristol, Bloomfield, Canandaigua, Richmond, Lima, 
and other places. In New Jersey revivals of extraordinary extent 
and continuance were experienced under the labors of Rev. E. D. 
Griffin, D.D., at Newark, in 1802; and another at Baskingridge in 
1803, under the pastorate of Rev. Robert Finlay, D.D., which ex- 
tended to many neighboring churches, and also into more distant 
and mountainous regions among the workmen in the iron mines and 
furnaces. Four years later these seasons were renewed. 

*See New England Revivals. By Rev. Bennet Tyler, D.D. Massachusetts Sabbath-school 
Society. Boston. 1846. 

t Ibid. Preface, p. 5. \ Subsequently professor in Andover Theological Seminary. 

% Lectures on Revivals. By Rev. W. B. Sprague, D.D. Appendix, p. 152. 

\ Am. Quar. Register, 1840. Vol. I, p. 346. Also Life of Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D. Pp. 

J 2, 13. 



372 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 4.— Subsequent Revivals. 

Since the great quickening of 1800, revivals of religion, before so 
rare, have been of more frequent occurrence, affording some of the 
brightest pages in religious history. Modes of divine operation 
characterizing Christianity in the apostolic age have become more 
common, and large masses of people have been wonderfully moved 
and changed. It will be impossible to fully sketch these religious 
phases and mention all the places where these visitations have 
occurred, but a few data will be given which will show a marked 
advance upon the two previous centuries. Inasmuch as such an 
exhibit must necessarily be only partial, and the history of no other 
denomination affords such good materials prepared at hand as Rev. 
Dr. Gillett's History of the Presbyterian Church, a comprehensive 
statement of the revivals of the latter denomination during the first 
quarter of the century will be given. 

Beginning with the year 1804, a marked advance in nearly all 
parts of the Church was mentioned. The report on the state of 
religion to the General Assembly of 1805 was of "a varied char- 
acter;" that of 1806 speaks of the general extension and pros- 
perity of the Church ; that of 1807 speaks in language of admoni- 
tion and apprehension; that of 1808 speaks of a powerful revival 
in Newark, New Jersey, under Dr. Griffin, and another in the 
Synod of Albany, but expresses " cause for sorrow and humiliation." 
From 1808 to 181 3, a troublous period in the nation, there were 
few extended revivals, but a steady growth, increasing the member- 
ship of the denomination in four years twenty-five per cent. The 
assemblies of 18 14-15 mention some special outpourings of the 
Spirit, but with loud warnings on account of the deleterious influence 
of the war, intemperance and other vices. The report of 18 16 men- 
tions great revivals in New York city, Philadelphia, Albany, Troy 
and other large places, and in nine presbyteries. The report in 1817 
speaks of " wonders of mercy " in the Presbytery of New Jersey, 
in which fifteen hundred conversions were reported, of five hundred 
in the city of Troy, and of other revivals in seven other different 
presbyteries. The report of 18 18 speaks of revivals in seventeen of 
the twenty-six congregations in the Cayuga Presbytery, of six or 
eight in New Jersey, and in four other presbyteries. In 18 19 
revivals were reported as having prevailed in northern, central and 
western New York ; in the Grand River Presbytery, Ohio ; in 
northern New Jersey and in eastern Tennessee. In 1820 there were 
reports of revivals in between seventy and eighty churches, fifteen 



ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCHES. 373 

of which were contiguous congregations. In 1S21 fourteen hun- 
dred accessions were made to the church in the Presbytery of 
Albany ; one-thousand in the Presbytery of Hudson, while four- 
teen other presbyteries had also been visited and about seven 
thousand other accessions had been made to the churches. In 1821 '*- 
mention was made of revivals in nine presbyteries, as well as 
throughout the Synod of Pittsburg and in numerous localities in 
northern and central New York. In 1823, thirty presbyteries repor- 
ted revivals. Less revivals were reported in 1824; but in 1825 
more than twenty presbyteries reported revivals. It has been esti- 
mated that during the period often years (181 5- 1825) not less than 
fifty thousand additions were made to the Presbyterian Church as 
the fruits of these revivals. Similar movements continued during 
the remainder of this period. 

Such were the revivals during the first thirty years of this cent- 
ury in the Presbyterian Church, one of the most staid religious 
bodies of the land. The Methodist and Baptist churches, if their 
record could be fully sketched, would show still more numerous and 
powerful revivals and greater accessions. The additions to the 
churches, from 1800 to 1830, were relatively very large. 

The Presbyterian Church increased from 40,000 to 173,229, or fourfold. 
The Congregational Church increased from 75,000 to 140,000, or twofold. 
The Baptist Church increased from 100,000 to 313,138, or threefold. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church increased from 64,000 to 476,1 53, or sevenfold. 

Nothing like such an increase had ever before been known, 4 
though it has since been paralleled and even exceeded, for the new 
revival era has continued to our times. 

The revivals thus far mentioned occurred chiefly in the Presby- 
terian and Congregational churches. At the same time among the 
Baptists and the Methodists the movement was even more power- 
ful. In the space of three years (1 800-1803) the communicants of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church increased from 64,890 to 104,070.* 

A New Condition. 

How great the contrast as compared with almost any period in 
the previous one hundred and fifty years, if we except the time of 
the Edwardian and Whitefieldian revivals, extending through little 
more than a single decade! Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., said 
that until this time there had been no revival in his church t 
in its entire history. Many New England churches had had no 

* General Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1800-1803. t Washington, Conn. 



374 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

revival for twenty-five, forty, sixty and even one hundred years. 
Rev. Mr. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., had a revival in his church 
in 1 8 1 1 , but could find no evidence of a previous revival in the 
preceding one hundred years. * Rev. Dr. Snell, of North Brook- 
field, Mass., said : f 

From the time that Rev. G. Whitefield passed through this county to 1817, a 
period of about seventy-five years, there was no extensive movement of a religious 
nature upon the minds of the people in this place. The first revival of religion 
with which God ever blessed this people, so far as can be ascertained, commenced 
in the autumn of 1816. 

Rev. E. D. Griffin, D.D., said : % 

Long before the death of Whitefield, in 1770, extensive revivals in America had 
ceased, and except one in Stockbridge, and some other parts £>f Berkshire County, 
Mass., about the year 1772, and one in the north quarter of Lime, Conn., about 
the year 1780, and one in several towns in Litchfield County, Conn., about the 
year 17 S3, I know of none which occurred afterward until the time of which I am 
to speak (about 1 797-1 803). 

Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D., President of Princeton College, said : § 

For the long period of forty years (1773-1813) there was nothing in Nassau 
Hall that had the appearance or name of a religious revival. 

Rev. Luther Hart, of Connecticut, said : | 

From an examination of all the records which we have been able to command, 
and from a pretty extensive inquiry of the living, we cannot find more than fifteen 
places in New England in which there was a special work of grace during the first 
forty years after the " Great Revival " — that is, under Edwards and Whitefield. 

Thus was the spell of worldliness, formalism and unbelief effect- 
uallv broken and 

New Spiritual Movements Ushered In. 

Conspicuous among the evangelists of this period were Rev, 
Asahel Nettleton, of Connecticut, who commenced his ministry in 
181 1, and Revs. Charles G. Finney, Jacob Knapp, and John Lord, 
who came forward later. About the year 1826 certain " new meas- 
ures," as they were called, began to be employed for arresting the 
attention of men and bringing them to Christ. They consisted 
chiefly in a bolder and more denunciatory style of preaching, pray- 
ing for individuals by name, reading at the commencement of a 
meeting notes handed to the preacher by individuals requesting 

* Semi-centennial Sermon. f Ibid. 

\ Lectures on Revivals of Religion. By Rev. Wm. Sprague, D.D. Albany. 1832. Ap- 
pendix, p. 151. 

§Ibid, p. r30. || Christian Spectator, June, 1833. 



FOUR DAYS' MEETINGS. 375 

prayers for impenitent friends, inviting seekers to an " anxious seat," 
and committing seekers to special promises. In the Presbyterian 
and Congregational churches these were new measures, and much 
controversy and estrangement was produced. A convention for the 
consideration of these measures was held at New Lebanon, N. Y., 
July 18-28, 1827, composed of twenty clergymen from New York 
and New England. The discussion was able and spiritual, but no 
agreement was reached ; the revivalists continued to use their 
peculiar methods as before, and the revivals went on. * 

In 1827 " Four -Days' Meetings," so called because usually held 
through four days, the entire time each day and evening being 
sacredly devoted to religious services, were instituted in New 
Hampshire by that remarkable man, Rev. John Lord, and widely 
adopted in other States with great results. From 1826 to 1832 
revivals of religion were very common and of unusual power, con- 
sidered by some " the most general and remarkable work of grace 
recorded in the annals of the American Church." Divine influences 
descended like abundant showers of rain, cities and rural localities 
sharing alike in the blessings. It laid and cemented the foundations 
of many city churches, and filled the colleges and theological semi- 
naries with consecrated young men, who have spent many years 
since in the Gospel ministry. In the city of New Haven in a single 
year(i83i) nine hundred conversions were reported. Revivals of 
religion were intimately connected with the great temperance reform f 
of that time, the two movements mutually supplementing and help- 
ing each other. From about the first of February, 1831, through 
five succeeding months an unusual interest pervaded the whole 
United States. Thousands never before moved gave attention to 
personal religion. It was estimated upon a credible basis of facts 
that during these five months a special revival interest was felt in 
not less than fifteen hundred towns, besides more than as many 
others which shared in some degree in the refreshing, and that more 
than fifty thousand persons professed to have become partakers of 
saving grace, over three hundred of whom were students in colleges. 
Many persons of eminent character and influence shared in the 
quickening. The principal cities were signally favored", all the lead- 
ing denominations kindly and vigorously co-operating. Very few 
extravagances were witnessed, and the practical fruits were numer- 
ous instances of reparation of injuries and restoration of plundered - 
property. In the six years from 1826 to 1832 it was estimated 
that two hundred thousand people united with the leading de- 

* See Christian Spectator for 1827, p. 499. fSee Chapter IV of this period, Section I. 



376 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

nominations as communicants, sixty thousand of whom were young 
men. 

The financial panic of 1836-37 was followed by powerful re- 
vivals ; and, again, revivals accompanied the Millerite excitement 
from 1842-45. In the latter the work was largely abnormal, and 
the churches were filled with converts who soon dropped out of the 
ranks. A serious reaction followed, and a painful declension closed 
the period, extending through about a dozen years, until the revival 
of 1857-58. 



Section 5— College Revivals. 

Nor were the colleges passed by in these divine visitations. 

In Yale College, in 1802, then under the presidency of Rev. 
Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., the Holy Spirit was poured out. 
Infidelity in the college at this time has been elsewhere* sketched. 
In 1795 only eleven under-graduates were members of the college 
church. Four years after the number was reduced to four or five, 
and at one communion only a single student was present, several 
others being absent from town. In 1801 a strong desire for an out- 
pouring of the Holy Spirit prevailed among the faithful few, who 
met in " an upper room " for prayer. Early in the spring of 1802 
promising indications appeared. First a senior yielded to the gra- 
cious influence, followed soon by another senior, Jeremiah Evarts ; 
then by several more, then by fifty more, and others, until seventy-five 
out of about two hundred and thirty students in all professed conver- 
sion and united with the church. About one half became ministers of 
the Gospel. Those were " memorable days." The change in the 
moral and social aspects of the college deeply impressed the city. 
After the usual vacation interruption the same character predomi- 
nated. This revival exerted such a powerful influence in breaking 
the power of the infidelity of that period that it never recovered. 
In 1808 there was a revival in which about thirty students professed 
conversion, three fourths of whom became ministers of the Gospel; 
in 18 1 2 and. 181 3 about twenty students professed conversion, 
among whom was Rev. Elias Cornelius, for many years a promi- 
nent Congregational minister in Boston, of most estimable char- 
acter, and Secretary of the American Education Society; in 1815 
another revival, numbering eighty converts, one of whom was Rev. 
Wm. Nevins, D.D., subsequently a distinguished minister in Balti- 

* See Chapter IV, Period I. 



REVIVALS IN THE COLLEGES. 3/7 

more; in 1823-24, about thirty converts ; in 1827, thirty more, and 
still another in 1828. The spring of 1831 will be long remembered 
for its wonderful revival, and the three following years were char- 
acterized by an abiding religious interest. In the year 1835 about 
fifty students became hopeful converts, and in 1836-37 there 
were spiritual visitations. In the space of ninety-six years (1741- 
1837) this college was favored with twenty distinct effusions of the 
Holy Spirit, of which only three were in the last century. * 

In Dartmouth College, from 1800 to 1830, there were five re- 
vivals—in 1805, 181 5, 1819, 1821, and 1826. In the revival of 181 5 
sixty students professed conversion. There were also revivals in 
1 83 1 and 1834, and later. It was said that in the first sixty-five 
years of this institution, as the result of the revivals, ninety-five 
ministers of the Gospel were thrust out, one of whom, not to speak 
of others, Rev. Dr. Alvan Hyde, gathered into his church more than 
seven hundred converts. 

In Amherst College, founded in 1821, after the Congregationalists 
abandoned all idea of retaining any control of Harvard University, 
there were marked revivals in 1823, 1827, 1828, 1831, and 1835, be- 
sides others of lesser power, making twelve in the first twelve years 
of its existence. Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey has said : f 

During a considerable part of the time three fourths of the under-graduates 
were professors of religion, and there has always been a majority. No class has 
ever passed through the college and graduated without witnessing at least one 
revival and sharing in its blessings. Of the whole number of alumni in 1838, 
which amounts to 556, nearly three fourths are professors of religion, and more 
than half of them are in the ministry or preparing for it, and about twenty have 
gone forth as missionaries. 

In Williams College there were great revivals of religion. Founded 
when morals were low, and when French infidelity was rife, the 
progress of religion was slow at first ; but a revival commenced in 
1805 and progressed slowly through the summer. In the summer 
of 1806 the interest deepened and widened, Messrs. Samuel J. Mills 
and James Richards, subsequently widely known in evangelizing 
labors, being prominent actors. In 181 2, the era of serious national 
embarrassments, the religious interest ran low and intemperance 
appeared among the students. Some hearts were moved to earnest 
prayer, and nearly forty students professed conversion. In 181 5 there 
was another revival ; another in 18 19, and one of wider extent and 

* For a fuller account of Revivals in Yale College see American Quarterly Register, 183S, 
article by Prof. Chauncy Goodrich, D.D. P. 289, etc. 
\ American Quarterly Register, 1839, p. 327, 



378 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

power, under the presidency of Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin, in 1825, 1826, 
and 1827. Revivals also occurred in 1832, 1838, 1840, and still later. 
Those of 1838 and 1840 were very powerful, effecting a great change 
in the morals of the students. * 

In the year 1831 revivals occurred in fifteen colleges, gathering 
in over three hundred students as converts. Similar occurrences in 
numerous years might be stated in the other colleges. The old 
academies at Wilbraham, Mass. ; Newbury, Vt. ; Kent's Hill, Me. ; 
Poultney, Vt. ; Amenia, Cazenovia and Lima, N. Y., and many others 
elsewhere, of all denominations, have seldom passed a year without 
some revival interest. Thousands of young persons have been brought 
into the churches while attending these institutions. 



Section 6.— The Effects 

of the revival of 1799-1803 were extensive, abiding, and in the 
highest degree salutary. 

1. It was the beginning of a reformation from a low state of 
morals and religion which had long and alarmingly prevailed. 

2. It gave the first check to the rampant infidelity of the times. 

3. It exploded from the evangelical churches the remains of the 
" Half- Way Covenant," whose influence had been so deleterious. 
Thenceforth spiritual religion came into greater prominence in the 
churches. 

4. It gave rise to the numerous evangelizing enterprises so con- 
spicuous in the churches during the century. The Home Missionary 
movements, then slightly incepted, were infused with new life, mul- 
tiplied, expanded, and energized. An immediate powerful impulse 
was felt to spread the Gospel in destitute frontiers, among the 
blacks and Indians. Out of this new life also sprang Tract, Bible, 
Sunday-school, educational, city and foreign mission societies. 

Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring f said: 

From the year 1800 down to the year 1825 there was an uninterrupted series of 
these celestial visitations spreading over different parts of the land. During the 
whole of these twenty-five years there was not a month in which we could not 
point to some village, some city, some seminary of learning, and say, " Behold, 
what hath God wrought ! " 

Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey said : 

In looking hack fifty years and more the great revival of that period strikes me 
in its thoroughness, in its depth, in its freedom from animal and unhealthy excite- 

* Am. Quarterly Register, 184T, pp. 472, 473. \ Personal Reminiscences. Vol I, p. 160. 



EFFECTS OF THE REVIVALS. 379 

ment, and its far-reaching influence on subsequent revivals, as having been de- 
cidedly in advance of any that had preceded it. It was the opening of a new 
revival epoch, which has lasted now more than half a century, with but short and 
partial interruptions — and, blessed be God, the end is not yet. The glorious cause 
of religion and philanthropy has advanced till it would require a space that cannot 
be afforded in these sketches so much as to name the Christian and humane so- 
cieties which have sprung up all over our land within the last forty years. Exactly 
how much we at home and the world abroad are indebted for these organizations, 
so rich in blessings, to the revivals of 1800 it is impossible to say, though much 
every way — more than enough to magnify the grace of God in the instruments he 
employed, in the immediate fruits of their labors, and the subsequent harvests spring- 
ing from the good seed which was sown by the men whom God delighted thus to 
honor. It cannot be denied that modern missions sprung out of these revivals. 
The immediate connection between them, as cause and effect, was remarkably 
clear in the organization of the first societies, which have since accomplished so 
much; and the impulse which they gave to the churches to extend the blessings 
which they were diffusing by forming the later affiliated societies of like aims and 
character is scarcely less obvious. 

TAKEN AL TOGETHER THE RE VIVAL PERIOD A T THE CLOSE 
OF THE LAST CENTURY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE PRES- 
ENT FURNISHES AMPLE MATERIALS FOR A LONG AND GLO- 
RIOUS CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.* 

* Dr. Humphrey was a member of Yale College in 1802. See his Revival Sketches. 



880 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER II. 



'HE NEW LIFE EXPANDING-THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



Sec. i. Moral and Religious Condition. I Sec. 4. Roman Catholic Opposition. 

" 2. Ecclesiastical Beginnings. | " 5. Impvoven.ent from 1830 to 1850. 

" 3. Trials of Pioneer Preachers. " 6. Benevolent and Educational Work. 

DURING the fifty years of this period a great change came 
over the vast western valley. Twelve vigorous States with 
rapidly-multiplying people were added to the Union, and still 
larger Territories, with the beginnings of civil order and numerous 
schemes and enterprises, were soon after received into the sister- 
hood of States. The population of this region increased from 
500,000 in 1800 to 8,247,373 in 1850 — a sixteenfold advance. The 
material resources unfolded in a still greater ratio, and the bound- 
less capabilities, outreaching the largest expectations, called for the 
utmost activity and zeal of the churches. It soon became evident 
that there was to be a struggle for the possession of this inviting 
field. At the outset the Roman Catholic Church was the only 
religious occupant. Shall Protestantism enter, and will Protestant 
enterprise keep pace with the growth of society and promptly bear 
her ministrations to the new communities? Such was the question 
— one of great interest and importance. 

The early Roman Catholic occupancy of this region has been 
already noticed at considerable length in previous chapters. In 
Illinois, as early as 1683, the year of the founding of Philadelphia, 
several permanent settlements were made under Roman Catholic 
direction, and in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisi- 
ana and Mississippi, for about one hundred years prior to the 
present century, many points were held by the papists; in Alabama 
nearly as long, and in Florida for more than two hundred years 
prior to this century. Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama 
and Louisiana remained under foreign rule and papal control until 
1803, and Florida until 1 820. <-tt the beginning of this century, 
therefore, all the vast territory from Lake St. Clair to " the howling 



SABBATH DESECRATION. 381 

wilderness " beyond Wisconsin, and from the lakes to the Gulf of 
Mexico, and eastward on the coast line to Florida, was under the 
sole religious control of Roman Catholics. Whatever religious oc- 
cupancy there was, was papal, and in some localities there were very 
considerable populations mixtures of French, Spanish and Indians. 



Section l.—The Moral and Religious Condition. 

of these new regions at the opening of this century was most 
deplorable. Rev. Jacob Young, who went to Illinois in 1804, sa ^d : 
" The bulk of the people are given up to wickedness of every kind. 
Of all places this is the worst for stealing, fighting and lying. 4 My 
soul, come not into their secret places ! ' Rev. Jesse Walker, who 
went to St. Louis in 1820, said "the population was made up 
mostly of Catholics and infidels, very dissipated and wicked." It 
was thought that no Protestant minister could gain access to them, 
and he was advised to return to his family. Rev. Elisha B. Bow- 
man, who went to New Oilcans in 1805, said : 

As for the settlements of this country, there are none that are composed of 
Americans. From Baton Rouge, the Spanish fort, which stands on the east bank 
of the Mississippi, clown two hundred miles, it is settled immediately on each bank 
by French and Spaniards. When I reached the city I was much disappointed in 
finding but few American people there, and a majority of that few may be truly 
called beasts of men. . . . The Lord's day is the day of general rant in this 
city. Public balls are held, traffic of every kind is carried on, public sales, 
wagons running, and drums beating ; and thus is the Sabbath spent. ... I reached 
the Opelousas country, and the next day I reached the Catholic church. I was 
surprised to see race-paths at the church door. Here I found a few Americans, 
who were swearing with almost every breath ; and when I reproved them they told 
me that the priest swore as hard as they did. They said he would play cards and 
dance with them every Sunday evening after mass; and, strange to tell, he keeps 
a race-horse and practices every abomination. 

About twenty miles further he found another settlement con- 
sisting of American people. 

" They knew," he says, " but little more about the nature of salvation than the 
untaught Indians. Some of them, after I had preached to them, asked what I 
meant by the fall of man, and when it was that he fell. They are perishing for 
lack of knowledge and are truly in a pitiable condition." 

Detroit. 

u Although Detroit was visited as early as 1610, and a settle- 
ment effected and a fort erected in 1701, it was not until 1805 that 
a Territorial government was established in Michigan. Among the 
25 



382 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

earliest settlers were emigrants sent out (1749) from France at the 
expense of the Government.* In 1801, when Rev. Mr. Badger, a 
Congregational missionary, reached Detroit he reported that ' there 
was not one Christian to be found in all that region, except a black- 
man who appeared pious.' In 1804 lt was spoken of as ' a most 
abandoned place/ At this time Rev. Dr. Nathan Bangs visited it 
as a Methodist missionary, and a Congregational minister told him 
that he had preached in Detroit until none but a few children 
would come to hear him. ' If you can succeed,' he added — ' which 
I very much doubt — I shall rejoice.' He did not succeed, but 
'shook off the dust of his feet as a testimony against them and took 
his departure.' Barely a month elapsed after this significant expres- 
sion of disappointed effort before the place was almost entirely 
destroyed by fire, a single house only remaining uninjured." f Rev. 
Mr. Monteith, in 1816, said: " There is no Sabbath in this coun- 
try." It was said of Mackinaw, in 1820, that "the Christian Sab- 
bath had not got so far." "The general aspect of manners among 
the troops gave an idea of infernal spirits rather than of human 
beings." J 

Kentucky. 

The low state of morals and the prevalence of infidelity in Ken- 
tucky at the close of the last century have been before referred to. 
This condition was somewhat improved after the great revival of 
1800, but some localities w r ere not reached by its influence, and 
new centers of population were constantly forming in wild regions. 
Professional men were generally avowed unbelievers. In many 
places with a considerably large population there was not a place 
of worship. Mr. Samuel J. Mills, who visited that section in the 
interest of home missions in 18 13, spent a Sabbath in Kentucky in 
a town of two or three thousand inhabitants without being able 
to collect a congregation to listen to the word of life. Negroes 
stood in groups in the streets, laughing and swearing ; boys played 
and hallooed, while the men on the outskirts were shooting pigeons 
and the more respectable class were riding about for amusement. 
The Sabbath was distinguished from other days only by greater 
noise, amusement, profanity and dissipation. This was by no 
means a solitary case. Ten years later there were three large flour- 
ishing churches in that place. In 1818, in Danville, Ky., with a 
population of twelve hundred people, there was not a single male 

* Sketches. 0/ the City of Detroit, p. 3. + Bangs's History 0/ Methodism. 

tGillett's History of the Presbyterian Church in the L'nited States. Vol. II, p. 437. 



DENOMINATIONAL PIOXEERS. S83 

member of the Presbyterian church ; and the only other church 
was the Roman Catholic. There were many deists there. Lex- 
ington had been the head-quarters of Jacobinism in Kentucky, 
and for many years after it remained under the dominion of 
infidelity, which supplanted the Presbyterians in Transylvania Uni- 
versity. This was the predominant influence until 1828, when a 
powerful revival spread through the place, in which five hundred 
persons united with the churches. From that time infidelity lost 
its ascendency. 

Rev. Benjamin Low, who visited Shawnee Town, 111., about 
eight miles below the mouth of the Wabash, in 18 17, said that 
among its two or three hundred inhabitants there was not a single 
one that " made any pretensions to religion." " Their shocking 
profaneness was enough to make one afraid to walk the street, 
and those who on the Sabbath were not fighting and drinking at 
the taverns and grog-shops were either hunting in the woods or 
trading behind their counters." Of the five hundred inhabitants of 
Kaskaskia one half were French and Roman Catholics. Among 
the other half were six professors of religion, two Presbyterians, 
two Methodists, one Congregationalist and one seceder. The 
Sabbath was scarcely recognized.* 



Section £.— Ecclesiastical Beginnings. 

In the preceding period the origin of the leading religious 
bodies in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio was briefly sketched. 
Still more distant frontiers in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, 
Mississippi, etc., were penetrated and occupied by the advancing 
population of the present period, opening new doors for Christian 
zeal and enterprise. 

The Baptists were among the first religious pioneers in these 
new States. In Indiana several small Baptist churches were formed 
along the Whitewater River about the year 1802. Seven years later 
they had increased to nine churches, with 380 members, and were 
organized into an association. In Illinois the first Baptist church 
was organized at New Design, in 1796, and the first association in 
1807, consisting of five churches. The first Baptists in Missouri 
(then Upper Louisiana) consisted of families emigrating from North 
Carolina and Kentucky as early as 1796 and 1797, where they lived 
several years under the Spanish Government without church priv- 

* Gillett's History of the Presbyterian Church. Vol. II, p. 416. 



384 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ileges. Rev. John Clark, an Englishman by birth and originally a 
Methodist, was the first Baptist preacher in this State. No tole- 
ration being allowed to Protestant worship under Spanish rule their 
meetings were often broken up. After this region was ceded to the 
United States, in 1S03, Protestants more freely entered it, and the 
first Baptist church was organized in 1804, at Tywappity. The first 
church of this denomination in St. Louis was constituted in 1818. 
In Arkansas a Baptist church was organized at Fourche a Thomas, 
Lawrence County, in 18 18. In Michigan no Baptist church was 
organized until 1824, and in ten years they had increased to fifty. 
In Mississippi Rev. Richard Curtis organized a church in 1797, 
consisting of Baptist emigrants from South Carolina. Mr. Curtis 
suffered much from Spanish and papal intolerance, and for a while 
was driven from the region. Revs/ Messrs. Cooper, Snodgrass and 
Stamply were some of the early pioneer preachers of this faith, and a 
Baptist Association was organized in 1807 in the south-western part 
of the State. In 181 5 there were two associations, with 46 churches, 
30 ministers, and 2,348 members. A State Convention was formed 
in 1822. From this State Baptist emigrants entered Louisiana. 

The earliest Congregational church in Michigan was organized 
in 1827, in Indiana in 1835, in Illinois in 1833 an d in the other 
States at still later dates. They claim to have suffered much in the 
West as a denomination from the relations which they sustained to 
the Presbyterians, many of their first churches and members being 
absorbed by the latter. 

The Presbyterians. 

The first movement of the Presbyterian Church in Mississippi 
was made in the autumn of 1800 by Rev. James Hall, of North 
Carolina, under a commission of the General Assembly. He began 
a mission in Natchez, assisted by two brethren. Missions were 
subsequently established at Bayou Pierre, Bethany and Amity. In 
1 8 16 the Mississippi Presbytery was constituted with four ministers. 
The first Presbyterian church in Natchez was not formed until 
1 8 17. The oldest church was that at Bethel, organized in 1804. In 
181 5 the General Assembly sent Rev. Ezra Fisk to New Orleans to 
labor four months. The following year Rev. Elias Cornelius was 
appointed by the trustees of the Connecticut Missionary Society to 
visit New Orleans to examine into its moral condition and establish a 
church. He was followed in 1 818 by Rev. Sylvester Earned. By the 
united labors of these men the foundations of Presbyterianism in that 
city were laid. In 1825 the Presbytery of Mississippi and Louisiana 



PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARIES. 385 

consisted of but thirteen ministers, of whom eight were mission- 
aries sent out by the Assembly's Board. The population of these 
two States was then 250,000. One of the earliest Presbyterian mis- 
sionaries in Alabama was Rev. J. W. Piatt, sent out by the Young 
Men's Evangelical Missionary Society of New York. He entered 
upon his labors in Huntsville in 18 19. Revs. Francis H. Porter, 
Lucas Kennedy, James L. Sloss and Highland Hurlburt were also 
early laborers in this field. In 1825 the two presbyteries of Alabama 
and Northern Alabama, covering the whole State, contained seven- 
teen ministers, and in 1830 they numbered 29 ministers, 41 churches 
and 1,713 members.* The first Presbyterian church in Florida was 
organized by Rev. William McWhirin 1824, at St. Augustine. At this 
time there was no other Protestant missionary in that State. A mis- 
sionary of the Methodist Church had been laboring there, but had left. 
For several years this was the only Presbyterian church in Florida. 
The first Presbyterian missionaries sent into Indiana were Rev. 
Thomas Williamson, in 1805, and Rev. Samuel Holt, in 1806. The 
first Presbyterian church was constituted at Vincennes in 1806, by 
Rev. Samuel B. Robinson. Rev. Samuel Thornton Scott, of Ken- 
tucky, was the first resident minister. In 1830 Presbyterianism 
numbered in Indiana 34 ministers, 84 churches and about 3,000 
members. The earliest notice taken of Illinois as a missionary 
field by the Presbyterians was in 1816, when Rev. Backus Wilbur 
was sent to labor in that State. The next year he was followed 
by Revs. John F. Crowe and Eliphalet W. Gilbert. In 1828 the 
Presbytery of Illinois Center was organized. The first Presbyterian 
missionary to Missouri reached St. Lonis in 1816. The population 
was largely French and Roman Catholic, with only two or three 
professed Presbyterians. The first church was organized in 1816, at 
Bellevue, in Washington County. The first in St. Louis was formed 
in 18 17, consisting of only nine members, and it was eight years 
before they were able to complete their house of worship. In 1830 
the Presbytery of Missouri had but 8 ministers, with 86 churches 
and about 400 members. The first Presbyterian missionary, Rev. 
John Monteith, reached Michigan in 18 16, and commenced his 
labors at Detroit. Others were sent soon after. In the course of 
a few years churches were gathered at Monroe, Meigs, Detroit, 
Ypsilanti, Dexter, Farmington, Bloomfield, Pontiac, Mackinaw, 
Strasburg, Ann Arbor, etc. The Presbytery of Detroit was erected 
in 1827, consisting or five ministers. 

* History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D, 
Vol. II, p. 392. 



386 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

" A plan of union between Presbyterians and Congregationalists 
in the new settlements," for the purpose of facilitating the estab- 
lishment of churches on the -frontiers, was arranged and adopted at 
the beginning of the century. It was first agreed upon in 1801 by 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the General 
Association of Connecticut — the only body of the kind then existing 
among the Congregationalists — and subsequently adopted by the 
General Association of Massachusetts. The provisions of this 
" Plan " were, that " Presbyterians and Congregationalists emi- 
grating to the new settlements of the West should be encouraged 
to foster a spirit of mutual forbearance and accommodation ; " that 
a Congregational church settling a Presbyterian minister, or vice 
versa, may still " conduct their discipline " according to their own 
ecclesiastical principles ; and that in case the church should be of a 
mixed character — partly Presbyterian and partly Congregational — 
they should " choose a standing committee from the communicants 
of said church," to issue all cases of discipline without consulting 
any body else, but allowing the condemned member to appeal, if 
he were a Presbyterian, to the Presbytery, if a Congregationalist to 
the Church. This compact is claimed by eminent Congregational 
authority to have been uncongregational, the General Association 
having no right to make it, being merely a body of ministers, and that 
under its operation " scores of churches gradually slid off from the 
Congregational platform, as hundreds have since." * Yet it is 
probable that it was the means of more widely extending the Gos- 
pel. 

The Methodists. 

The Methodists ventured within the present limits of the State of 
Indiana in 1802, f when there were only a few scattered settlers, 
and the first society was organized in Gassaway, Clark County. In 
1 8 10 three circuits had been formed, with four preachers and 760 
members. Rev. Benjamin Young was sent to Illinois in 1804, when 
the population numbered a few hundreds. The following year he 
reported 67 communicants. In 1830, in Illinois and Indiana, there 
were reported 22,000 Methodist communicants. In 1803 a Meth- 
odist local preacher by the name of Freeman found his way to De- 
troit and preached there.. The following year Rev. Nathan Bangs, 
then traveling a circuit in Canada, visited Detroit and preached, 
though without apparent success. He was followed five years later 

* Historical Sketch of the Congregational Church. By Rev. Joseph S. Clark, D.D. Pp. 241-2. 
\ Annals 0/ the Methodist Episcopal Church in Indiana. By Rev. Aaron Wood, 1854. P. 3. 



METHODIST ADVANCES. 387 

by Rev. William Case, and subsequently by an Irish local preacher 
named Mitchell. The first Methodist Society in Michigan was or- 
ganized in 1 8 io, in the town of Monroe, but it was soon broken up. 
The population at that time was a very difficult class to mold. 
The first permanent Society was formed in 1815, and in 1830 676 
Methodist communicants were reported from that State. Method- 
ism was introduced into Missouri in 1804, by Rev. Joseph Oglesby, 
who reconnoitered Missouri Territory to the extremity of the settle- 
ments, preaching wherever he could find a few people. In 1806 he 
was followed by Rev. Jesse Walker — " the Daniel Boone of Western 
Methodism " — one of the most indomitable spirits in its band of 
heroic pioneer preachers. The next year Rev. John Travis, then a 
mere youth, was assigned to this circuit. In 18 16 Missouri and 
Illinois were united in a Conference, and called the Missouri Con- 
ference, with no western boundary, but " including the last Meth- 
odist cabin toward the setting sun." 

About 181 5 or 1816 Methodism was introduced into Arkansas. 
In 1799 Rev. Tobias Gibson, a native of Georgia, commenced to 
lay the foundations of Methodism in Natchez, Mississippi. It was 
a far-off region, reached by several hundred miles of travel on horse-' 
back through the wilderness, mostly along Indian trails, until he 
struck the Cumberland River, thence down that river and the Mis- 
sissippi in a canoe six or eight hundred miles further. " The new 
Society here organized was like a new sign in the far-off southern 
heavens. To the pioneer preachers of Kentucky and Tennessee it 
was as the constellation of the cross to spiritual mariners in the 
southern seas. It opened a boundless prospect of progress, and 
the word Natchez sounded like a new order of march to the itiner- 
ants and their cause — that march which they have since made over 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and even to the Pacific boundary of 
California."* Eight years later five circuits were reported in that 
south-western region, with six preachers and 41 5 members. In 1803 
the eccentric Lorenzo Dow penetrated into the present limits of 
Alabama, and was there again in 1804. Colonel Rickett, in his His- 
tory of Alabama, says that he preached the first Protestant sermon de- 
livered in that State. In 1807 missionaries were sent there by Bishop 
Asbury from the South Carolina Conference. The term " mission- 
ary " in those days implied that " they were to push to regions be- 
yond." They commenced their labors between the Oconee and the 
Tombigbee rivers, an Indian country of four hundred miles extent.f 

* Stevens's History 0/ the Methodist Episcopal Church. Vol. IV, p. 131. 
f Ibid. Pp. 201-2. 



388 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In 1805 Rev. Elisha W. Bowman was sent by Bishop Asbury to intro- 
duce Methodism into Louisiana. He made his way to Opelousas 
and New Orleans, traversing the whole country, preaching and 
warning the people, whom he found in a very low state of morality, 
thus laying the foundations of the Church in that region. In 1807 
Rev. Jacob Young was sent to preside over the work in Mississippi 
and Louisiana, and was successively followed by Revs. John Mc 
Clure and Miles Harper, and soon after by Rev. William Winans, 
a noted name in the history of that country. 

In 1830 there were 37 Presbyterian churches in Indiana, with 
1,700 members; in Illinois, 13 churches, with about 500 mem- 
bers; in Missouri, 17 churches, with 605 members ; in Michigan, 6 
churches ; in Mississippi and Alabama, 64 churches, with about 
2,500 members. The Protestant Episcopal Church had 16 clergy- 
men in Ohio, 4 in Mississippi, 5 in Kentucky, 3 in Tennessee, 3 in 
Louisiana, 1 in Arkansas, 3 in Missouri, and 5 in Michigan. The 
Cumberland Presbyterians numbered about 7,000 communicants 
and 70 churches in all the West. At this time the German Reformed 
Church had organized a Synod in Ohio ; the Tunkers had 40 or 50 
churches in the West ; the Shakers had two churches in Kentucky 
and 2 in Ohio ; and there were a few other small sects. The 
Friends were established in Ohio in 18 12 and in Indiana in 1821 



Section 3.— The Trials of the Pioneer Preachers. 

and missionaries in the West, often of the most disheartening char- 
acter, deserve mention. Their labors extended through sparse vil- 
lages and open prairies, with individual settlers widely scattered. 
They traveled by Indian trails and marked trees. In the winter 
the roads were so bad and the bridges so few that they were some- 
times obliged to desist from traveling. Often sleeping in the woods 
or on the open prairies on their saddle blankets ; cooking their 
coarse meals by the way ; fording streams on horseback with saddle- 
bags and blankets lifted to their shoulders; exposed without shelter to 
storms, and drying their garments and blankets by camp-fires when 
no friendly cabin could be found, in a few years they became sal- 
low, weather-beaten arid toil-worn, and appeared among their 
brethren in the occasional ministerial gatherings without decent ap- 
parel and unused to the amenities of civilized society. A pioneer 
preacher in Louisiana in 1805 wrote: 



LARGE CIRCUITS. 389 

Every day I travel I have to swim through creeks or swamps, and I am wet 
from head to feet, and some days from morning to night I am dripping with water. 
I tie all my " plunder " fast on my horse, take him by the bridle and swim some- 
times a hundred yards and often further. My horse's legs are now skinned and 
rough to his hock joints, and I have rheumatism in all my joints. . . . What 
I have suffered in body and mind my pen is not able to communicate to you; but 
this I can say, while my body is wet with water and chilled with cold my soul 
is filled with heavenly fire, and I can say with St. Paul, " But none of these things 
move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course 
with joy." 

These bold emissaries of the cross often lost their way and 
widely wandered over unbroken fields. They constantly encoun- 
tered the most godless, reckless and degraded men — sometimes more 
malicious and savage than the wild Indians and ferocious beasts — 
who had fled thither from the retributions of justice in the older 
settlements. Often prostrated by fevers or wasted by malaria 
the years of pioneer service with many were few and severe, while 
others, endowed with extraordinary constitutions, lived to become 
apostles of moral heroism, venerable in years and weighty in 
words and character. Peter Cartwright, Peter Akers, Alfred Brun- 
son and Aaron Wood came down to our times, while James B. 
Finley, Jacob Young, William Winans, James Axley, Jesse Walker, 
Tobias Gibson, and a long list of other honored names, belonged 
to the militant ranks that fell in the earlier struggles. 

Much has been said of the large circuits of the early itinerant 
preachers of the West. The following careful statement will convey 
a very clear view of them. Rev. Alfred Brunson, who traveled one 
of these large circuits in 1822-3, says that it "extended to all the 
white settlements of the Territory (Michigan), except the one at St. 
Mary's, the outlet of Lake Superior, which was perhaps hardly white. 
From Detroit we went north to Pontiac, then but a small village. 
From thence we went down the Upper Huron, now the Clinton 
River, to Mount Clemens, and thence down Lake St. Clair and river 
to Detroit, and thence again to the River Rouse, and up that stream 
some seven miles to the upper settlement, thence back to the river 
and lake-road leading to Monroe on the River Raisin ; up that nine 
miles, mostly on an Indian trail, to the upper settlement, and back 
by the same path to the lake-road, and on to the Maumee at the 
foot of the rapids, and thence right back on the lake-road fifty-eight 
miles to Detroit. It required four weeks to get round, though we 
had but twelve appointments."* 

*A Western Pioneer, or Incidents in the Life of Rev. Alfred Brunson, D.D. Cincinnati. 
1872. Hitchcock & Walden. Vol. I, pp. 267-8. 



390 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 4.— Roman Catholic Opposition. 

It has been already stated that as late as 1803 the region now 
comprised in the States of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missis- 
sippi and Alabama (and until 1820 Florida also), was subject to 
foreign sway, which tolerated only the Roman Catholic faith. For 
a long period, too, in Michigan and other localities in the North- 
west the papal religion held the ascendency among the early mixed 
populations, greatly embarrassing Protestant efforts. In Missouri 
the early Baptists suffered from severe privations and were denied 
freedom of worship. Their ministers were threatened with the 
Calaboza (Spanish prison), but through the leniency of the com- 
mandant they were permitted to escape. They were wholly 
surrounded by the rites and laws of Romanism. " In these times 
of restriction Rev. Abraham Musick applied to Zeno Trudeau, the 
commandant at St. Louis, an officer quite friendly to the Protestant 
emigrants, for leave to have preaching at his own house. The 
commandant was secretly inclined to favor the Americans, but was 
compelled to reject all such petitions openly, and replied promptly 
that such a petition could not be granted." * 

St. Louis in 1820. 

The religious sentiment of St. Louis was almost wholly Roman 
Catholic, and it was not until 1818, fifteen years after ancient f 
Louisiana was ceded to the United States, that the first Protestant 
society was organized in that city. This was a Baptist church. An 
Episcopal church was erected about that time, and the first move- 
ment to collect and organize a Methodist society was made in 1820. 
The struggle for its accomplishment has had but few parallels in the 
modern history of Christianity. Any other man than Jesse Walker 
would have been appalled and left the city. He had resolved to 
plant a Methodist society in the Romish metropolis, where, up to 
that time, the Methodist itinerants had " never found rest for the 
soles of their feet." He laid his plans and selected two young min- 
isterial brethren of undoubted courage to go and stand by him "to 
the bitter end." 

When they reached St. Louis the Territorial Legislature was in session there, and 
every public place appeared to be full. The missionaries preferred private lodgings.. 
but could obtain none. Some people laughed at them and others cursed them to their 
face. Thus embarrassed at every point, they rode into the public square and held 

* American Quarterly Register, 1840-1, p. 173. Article by Rev John M. Peck, A.M., of Illinois. 
+ Louisiana, in the earlier period, comprised Missouri, Arkansas, and all the country west of 
the Mississippi River. 



JESSE WALKER IN ST. LOUIS. 391 

a consultation sitting on their horses. The prospect was gloomy enough, and every 
avenue seemed closed against them. The young preachers expressed strong 
doubts as to their being in the path of duty. Their leader tried to encourage 
them, but in vain. They thought, if the Lord had any work for them to do there, 
there would surely be some way to get to it. They thought it best immediately 
to return to the place from which they had come, and, though their elder brother 
entreated them not to leave him, they deliberately shook off the dust of their feet 
for a testimony against the wicked city, and, taking leave of Walker, rode off and 
left him sitting on his horse. Perhaps that hour brought with it more of the feeling 
of despondency to Jesse Walker than he ever experienced in any other hour of his 
eventful life; and stung with disappointment he said in his haste, "I will go to 
the State of Mississippi and hunt up the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He 
immediately turned his horse in that direction, and with a sorrowful heart rode off 
alone. Having proceeded about eighteen miles he came to a halt and entered into 
a soliloquy in this wise, "Was I ever defeated before in this blessed work ? Never. 
Did any one ever trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and get confounded ? No ; and 
by the grace of God I will go back and take St. Louis." Then reversing his course, 
without seeking either rest or refreshment for man or beast, he immediately 
retraced his steps to the city, and with some difficulty obtained lodgings in an 
indifferent inn, where he paid at the highest rate for every thing, The next morn- 
ing he commenced a survey of the city and its inhabitants. He met with some 
members of the Territorial Legislature who knew him, and said, " Why, Father 
Walker, what has brought you here ? " His answer was, "I have come to take St. 
Louis." They thought it a hopeless undertaking, and to convince him that it was 
so remarked that the inhabitants were mostly Catholics and infidels, very dissipated 
and wicked, and that there was no probability that a Methodist preacher could 
obtain any access to them. They seriously advised him to abandon the enterprise 
and return to his family, then residing in Illinois. But to all such expressions 
Walker returned one answer, " I have come in the name of Christ to take St.. 
Louis, and by the grace of God I will do it." * 

His first public experiment was in a place occupied by the 
Baptists, but he was soon excluded from this. He then rented an 
unfinished dwelling-house. This he fitted up himself with his own 
hands. Five days in the week he taught, without fee or reward, the 
rudiments of education to the children who would come; and several 
evenings each week he gave instruction to servants and other adults. 
Gradually his rude chapel was filled with hearers and the school with 
children. Then the hired house changed hands and he was com- 
pelled to vacate it. A gentleman gave him permission to cut 
timber for a chapel in his forest, a little way off across the Missis- 
sippi, and he built a house of worship. New friends rose up to 
aid him. At the close of the year he reported seventy members 
and the chapel erected and paid for. He was reappointed to St. 
Louis the next year, and in 1822 the Missouri Conference held its 
first session in that city. 

* Sketches. By Rev. Thomas A. Morris, D.D , Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 



392 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Similar struggles attended the introduction of Protestantism into 
Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi, amid the formidable opposition 
of Romanism. In Mississippi the first Baptists were driven away 
by the papists. 

Michigan has been alluded to. It has been noticed that the 
Methodists did not obtain a permanent foothold there until 1815, 
and even after that time until 1830 their growth was very slow. 
The first Protestant church edifice was not erected until 1818. The 
first Baptist church was organized in 1824, and the first Con- 
gregational church in 1827. The Presbyterians entered the State 
about 1820. Rev. Alfred Brunson says* that in 1822 there were 
only fourteen Methodist communicants in Detroit, and that in his 
whole circuit, which embraced the entire settled portion of the 
Territory, and, in addition, the Maumee settlement in Ohio, there 
were only 130 communicants of that denomination. The only other 
Protestant minister at that time in the Territory besides himself and 
colleague was a Presbyterian licentiate who was unordained, and 
to whose flock Brunson was accustomed to administer the sacra- 
ments. So slow amid the early papal influences of that region was 
the introduction and spread of Protestant Christianity. 

We have prepared the following exhibit of the ecclesiastical sta- 
tistics of the Valley of the Mississippi, reckoning from the Alleghany 
Mountains westward, and south to the Gulf of Mexico for the year 
1830: f 

Denominations. Ministers. ""churches* Communicants. 

Presbyterian 614 924 60,407 

Methodist 638^: 1,500 173^83 

Baptist 1,063 1,701 90,000 

Protestant Episcopal 51 60 § 2,000 § 

Cumberland Presbyterian 40 § 70 § 7,000 g 

Other small sects 70 § 200 16,000 § 

Total 2,476 4,455 348-49° 

The population of this region was about 4,000,000 at that time. 

Testimonies as to the Moral Condition of the West, 

dating about 1830, show that notwithstanding all that had been 
done, and the numerous religious bodies organized and established 
in the Mississippi valley, yet in many localities great immorality 
and religious destitution still prevailed. 

* A' Western Pioneer. Cincinnati. 1872. Hitchcock & Walden. Vol. I, p. 265. 
+ In part from the American Quarterly Register, 1 830-1, p. 135. 
X Traveling preachers. § Estimated. 




101 XiOngitudt- West 




from Greenwich 93 



RELIGIOUS DESTITUTION. 393 

A gentleman, writing from Louisiana, said : 

It is no uncommon thing to find families who have not heard the Gospel for 
five, or even ten, years. The part which lies west of the Mississippi is in a very 
great degree destitute of all the means of grace. Infidelity and other destructive 
errors extensively prevail, and as a consequence dueling, gambling, horse-racing, 
profaneness, intemperance, and Sabbath-breaking often cause the Christian's 
heart to bleed, and in many places seem almost to have incorporated themselves 
with the fashionable, approved customs of society. 

A Baptist clergyman, writing from Ohio, said: 

We visit whole neighborhoods sometimes where there has not been a sermon 
preached for ten or fifteen years. 

A gentleman from West Virginia said : 
The whole country, to an astonishing extent around, is destitute of almost every 
kind of religious information. The people are generally indifferent to religious 
subjects. 

A clergyman from Arkansas wrote : 

In my seclusion here in these western wilds my heart at times is ready to sink 
within me at the slowness of evangelical movements toward poor, neglected, un- 
known Arkansas. As to the religious and moral condition of this country, it is 
deplorable indeed. On this subject I could tell you a tale which would cause your 
hearts to bleed. 

Said another gentleman : 

I have seen enough of the West to know that, in a spiritual sense, large por- 
tions of it are growing up with briers and thorns. 

Said another : 

The progress of Romanism, together with open and disguised infidelity, in the 
great valley of the Mississippi, will require, according to present appearances, but 
a few years, to prepare from your presses a tract, which you may entitle, The 
Last Hope of the World Fallen — America Ruined. Be assured that in all the de- 
partments of benevolence unprecedented efforts must be made, and made soon, 
or our country is lost. Our civil and religious institutions, all the blessings of a 
free government, will be swallowed up as with a flood, and Woe ! Woe ! will be 
written, in tears and blood, all over this once fair and happy land. 

Said another : 

The truth is that Satan, plotting the destruction of our nation, and the over- 
throw of Christianity in it, has fixed his eye on our new settlements, and has erected 
and fortified his strongholds, and if they are not wrested from him his object in 
a few years will be inevitably attained. 

In some parts of the West at that time it was said that any 
one " might travel hundreds of miles and in vain look for a single 
temple dedicated to Jehovah or a preacher of the Gospel to break 
the bread of life to its perishing inhabitants. The consequence is 



394 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

that many of them, in regard to religious information, are 
approaching a state but little batter than heathenism." 

Rev. Alfred Brunson went to Detroit in 1822. In a sketch of 
his life* he says : 

When 1 first came to the place Sunday markets were as common as week-day 
ones. The French brought in their meats, fowls, vegetables, etc., on Sunday as 
regularly as on any week-day. After selling out they would go to church, attend 
mass, and perhaps confess, and pay for absolution out of their market money, and 
then go home apparently in good spirits. Nor did the American and foreign pop- 
ulation generally pay any more respect to the day, for they patronized the thing to 
the fullest extent. On this practice I proclaimed a war of extermination. At first 
it made a stir. But a young Presbyterian minister who was there joined me in the 
denunciation of the practice, and in a short time the city council decreed that Sun- 
day markets should cease, and in the place thereof a market should be opened on 
Sunday night. This raised a great fuss among the French, who from time imme- 
morial had thus broken the Sabbath and after the market gone to mass, then to 
the horse-races in the afternoon, and fiddled and danced and played cards at night. 
But they made a virtue of necessity, and soon yielded to authority and gave up the 
Sunday market, but adhered to the other practices. 

The following statement in regard to a western locality appeared 
in the Annual Report of the American Tract Society for 1830. 

A circuit judge, residing here, told me that in trying a certain case two individ- 
uals were brought in as witnesses, one 15 and the other 11 years of age. On 
questioning them respecting the nature of an oath he found that they had never 
seen a Bible, had never attended a school or religious meeting, had never heard 
of future punishment, of God, or the devil. The father of the children was con- 
fused at the questions asked, and upon inquiry the judge found him to be a justice 
of the peace in the county, though he could neither read nor write. 

In Kentucky, with a population of 687,917 in 1830, there were 
only about 550 ministers, and they had access to about 250,000 
inhabitants, leaving more than two thirds of the people of the State 
unprovided for. Mississippi and Alabama had a population of 
446,148 souls and about 275 ministers, who had access to not far 
from 150.000 inhabitants, leaving two thirds unprovided for. Ohio 
had 937,903 inhabitants and about 600 ministers, who had access to 
not far from 400,000 souls, leaving over half of the people unpro- 
vided for. Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana were in a 
still more destitute condition. But the attention of the churches 
in the older States was aroused to the urgent necessities of this 
field, and home missionary, Sunday-school, and tract societies were 
sending numerous laborers into it. 



4 Western Pioneer. Vol. I, p. 273. 



WISCONSIN, IOWA, TEXAS. S9S 

Section 5.- Condition from 1830 to 1850. 

The Methodists and Baptists entered Wisconsin simultaneously. 
The first Baptist church was constituted in 1836, and the first Asso- 
ciation in 1838, composed of the churches at Rochester, South- 
port, Milwaukee, Lisbon, Sheboygan, Jefferson, and Salem. In 
1840 there were 15 Baptist churches in the State, with 11 ordained 
ministers and 455 communicants.* In 1836 two Methodist preach- 
ers were appointed in this State, Rev. M. Robinson, to Milwaukee, 
and Rev. W. Royal, to Fox River. In 1837, 172 members were 
reported, and in 1850 there was an Annual Conference, with 75 
preachers and 8,400 communicants. Congregationalism entered 
the State in 1838, and in 1850 numbered 53 churches. 

The first settlements in Iowa began soon after 1830. In 1840 
the population of the State was 43,000. The first Baptist church 
was formed at Long Creek, Des Moines County, in 1834, and the first 
Association in 1839, consisting of 3 churches. An Anti-Mission 
Baptist Association was formed the same year. In 1840 there were 
12 regular Baptist churches, 8 ministers, and 300 members in Iowa. 
Methodism entered the State in 1833. Next year the appointment 
in the Minutes stood, " Dubuque and Galena Mission, Barton Ram 
die, J. T. Mitchell." In 1850 there was an Iowa Conference, with 5 
Presiding Elders' Districts, 62 preachers, and 11,420 communicants. 
The Congregationalists entered the State in 1838, and in 1850 
they had 32 churches. 

Methodism entered Texas in 1836. In 1838, 450 members were 
reported, and a Presiding Elders' District was constituted with 7 
preachers, among whom was Rev. Abel Stevens,f who was appoint- 
ed to Houston and Galveston. In 1840 the Texas Conference was 
organized, with 19 preachers, 25 local preachers, and 1,878 members. 
The first Baptist Association was organized in Travis, Austin County, 
in 1840, consisting of 3 churches, located at Travis, Lagrange, and 
Independence. 



Section 6.— Benevolent and Educational Work. 

During the year 1829-30 the American Home Missionary Soci- 
ety sent 62 missionaries into the State of Ohio, who served 90 
congregations or mission districts; 18 to Indiana, who served 26 
congregations or districts ; 3 to Louisiana, who served 4 congrega- 
tions or districts; 12 to Illinois, who served 15 congregations or 

* American Quarterly Register, 1841, p. 182. t The distinguished historian of Methodism. 



396 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

districts ; 10 to Michigan, who served 14 congregations or districts; 
and 19 to other Western States and Territories, who served 28 
congregations or districts — total, 124 missionaries, serving 177 
congregations or districts. The Board of Missions of the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church the same year sent to Ohio 
45 missionaries; to Indiana, 1 1 ; to Illinois, 4; to Alabama, 42; to 
Kentucky, 6; to Tennessee, 6; to Mississippi, 5 ; to Missouri, 3, and 
to the North-west Territory, 1 — total, 85. The American Tract 
Society also entered this field. Prior to 1827 only $700 worth of 
tracts had been sent to the West. In the year 1829-30 it reported 
57 auxiliary societies in the West and 6 general agents. One 
hundred thousand pages of tracts had been gratuitously distributed 
in Mississippi, and 500,000 pages had been granted for distribution 
in Louisiana. Permanent depositories were established in some of 
the principal towns. The whole amount of tracts sent into the 
Mississippi valley during the year were 24,099,800 pages, of which 
2,655,067 were for gratuitous distribution. The American Temper- 
ance Society reported about 200 temperance organizations in the 
West, with about 20,000 pledged members. The American Bible 
Society reported 12,944 Bibles, besides about 11,000 Testaments, 
sent into Ohio during the year 1829-30; into Kentucky, 14,404 
Bibles and about 5,000 Testaments; into Tennessee, 6,757 Bibles and 
about 4,000 Testaments; into Indiana, 7,761 Bibles and about as 
many more Testaments. Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Alabama, etc., received some, but the difficulty of obtaining agents 
and making other preliminary arrangements had retarded the work. 
In all the West there were 192 auxiliaries. The American Sunday- 
school Union had about 700 Sunday-schools and 43,659 scholars in 
the West, and the Methodist Sunday-school Union had about 600 
more schools and about 30,000 scholars in those regions. The 
Dutch Reformed, the Baptist, Congregational, and other denomina- 
tions were also making strenuous efforts in this direction ; but con- 
siderable difficulty was experienced on account of the scarcity of 
ministers of the Gospel with stated religious services to give a per- 
manent nucleus to these organizations. 

Educational Institutions. 

Notwithstanding the arduous labors, privations, and poverty of 
the early settlers of these regions they did not overlook the work 
of education, but began to lay the foundations of these institutions 
simultaneously with the organization of the communities. In the 



EDUCATIONAL PROVISION. 397 

year 1800 there were 2 of these higher institutions of learning be- 
yond the Alleghanies — 1 at Greenville, Green County, Term., founded 
in 1794, and the other, the Transylvania University, at Lexington, 
Ky., founded in 1798. From 1800 to 1830, 24 others were estab- 
lished ; namely, the University of Nashville, at Nashville, Tenn., in 
1806; another at Knoxville, Tenn., and the South and West Theo- 
logical Seminary, at Maysville, Term., in 1821 ; 3 in Kentucky — at 
Danville, Princeton, and Augusta; 2 in Illinois — Illinois College at 
Jacksonville, and the Theological Seminary at Rock Spring ; 2 in 
Indiana — at Madison and Bloomington ; 6 in Ohio — a medical col- 
lege and Lane Seminary at Cincinnati, and at Oxford, Athens, 
Hudson, and Gambier ; 5 in Pennsylvania, beyond the mountains — 
Washington College at Washington, Jefferson College at Cannons- 
burg, Western University at Pittsburg, Alleghany College at 
Meadville, and the Western Theological Seminary near Pittsburg ; 
1 in Alabama — the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa ; 1 in 
Mississippi — Jefferson College, at Washington ; 1 in Louisiana — at 
Jackson. In 1830 there were 26 institutes of this class connected 
with the Protestant churches in the great Mississippi valley, and 2 
Catholic institutions — at Bardstown, Ky., and at New Orleans. Seven 
hundred and sixty-six young men had then graduated from these 
institutes, and they contained 1,430 under-graduates and had 
38,666 volumes in their libraries ; * a most remarkable beginning, 
when all the circumstances of the country are considered. This 
work, however, had been greatly aided by grants of public lands by 
Congress, amounting to 583,840 acres, which, at the minimum price, 
were worth §1,064,000. 

* These facts were gathered at that time by Rev. Elias Cornelius, and published in the Amer- 
ican Quarterly Register iox 1830-31, p. 131. 
26 



898 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE NEW LIFE ORGANIZING 



Sec. i. Evangelizing Agencies. I Sec. 3. Religious Educational Agencies. 

" 2. Religious Publication Agencies. 

THE beginning of the nineteenth century is one of the most 
strongly illuminated points of all Christian history. There 
were numerous indications of extraordinary events. Napoleon was 
astonishing the world, and awakening enlarged conceptions of the 
possibilities of human power, and commerce was stretching out her 
giant arms as never before, encircling far-off lands in her embrace. 
Every department of human activity was being enlarged, and enter- 
prises vaster and sublimer than ever before dreamed of were being 
inaugurated. 

Such was the period chosen by Him who is the " head over all 
things unto his Church " for the ushering in of a better day — an era 
of new developments of Christian character, of new departments 
and methods of religious labor, and new combinations of moral in- 
fluence, linking in bonds of fellowship nations and tribes as well as 
individual hearts all over the earth, and assimilating human senti- 
ments and laws to the spirit of his universal kingdom. These new 
religious agencies maybe classified as the evangelizing, the religious 
publication, the educational, in all of which the vital spirit of the 
Gospel organized itself into concentrated forms to enlighten, ameli- 
orate and save the world. These numerous benevolent societies 
have become so prominent every-where as to justly claim a large 
share of our attention. 

The incipient stages of the great benevolent organizations which 
have characterized the age afford many instructive lessons in the 
great volume of divine providence. The early actors in these move- 
ments found that even the pathway of benevolence is beset with 
trials and difficulties. Incredulity, covetousness, and lethargy were 
every-where encountered, so that for many years the pecuniary offer- 
ings of the American churches were very meager. To lay the foun- 
dations and to conduct these enterprises in their infancy required 



DOMESTIC MISSIONS. 399 

great wisdom, an invincible energy and extraordinary strength of 
character, developing such illustrious examples of inflexible purpose, 
directness of aim and faith in God as the records of the Christian 
Church have rarely disclosed. The names of Messrs. Jeremiah Evarts, 
Samuel J. Mills, Revs. Elias Cornelius, Samuel Worcester, D.D., 
Justin Edwards, D.D.. Nathan Bangs, D.D., Elias Boudinot, Samuel 
Spring, D.D., Samuel Miller, D.D., and hosts of others, the foster- 
fathers of these children of Providence, engraved in the structures 
of these great institutions of Christ's imperishable Church, can never 
be forgotten. 

Section 1— Evangelizing Agencies. 
i. Home Missionary Societies. 

The American population from the beginning was migratory 
in its habits. Settling at first upon the easternmost border of a 
vast continent, which opened numerous new and inviting fields 
extending into an almost limitless interior, but few of the sons 
of the early colonists allowed themselves to live and die upon 
the spot which recorded their birth. The enterprising spirit 
which had prompted the adventures of the fathers was inherited 
by the sons, and thus field was joined to field and State to 
State. To this were added constant accessions from other shores. 
Thus it was early seen that the new Republic gave promise of be- 
coming a great nation, numbering many millions in its population 
and covering millions of square miles. It soon became evident also 
that such a rapid diffusion of the population must be attended with 
a general decline in the power of Christianity, unless it should be 
followed by energetic religious influences. Many of -those who 
emigrated to the wilderness, separated from the Christian restraints 
of home society and institutions, and subject to the temptations of 
worldly enterprises and increasing wealth, soon forgot their spiritual 
interests. Others, however, retained their steadfastness, and showed 
their abiding interest in the Redeemer's kingdom by calling often 
and loudly for missionaries and for aid in sustaining them. Liberal 
responses were made, and the records of the older New England 
churches afford interesting evidences of their efforts in behalf of 
their brethren in the new settlements.* This was the commence- 

* In the earlier period of Massachusetts, when there were but four or five churches outside of 
the " standing- order," frequent applications for aid came before the Legislature of the State. In 
the archives of the State are to be found fifty applications from feeble parishes, presented to the 
Legislature between 1695 and 1711, and a record of appropriations amounting to ^1,000 for 
their relief in supporting the ministry. 



400 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ment of the work of domestic missions among the older de- 
nominations in this country. It had its beginning in the action of 
Legislatures and individual churches in behalf of particular neigh- 
borhoods whither their former neighbors had migrated, to which 
they were accustomed to grant aid for the support of the Gospel. 

As the new settlements multiplied, and their wants became 
greater and were better known, it was apparent that the separate 
efforts which, among the older denominations, had been hitherto put 
forth by the individual churches were inadequate to the demands. 
The increasing spiritual and moral desolation of the frontiers was 
vividly portrayed and became the subject of just alarm. Christians 
and Christian ministers conferred and prayed together. The grossest 
infidelity ever known had become rampant, and it was felt that 
vigorous and combined efforts must be put forth to propagate the 
institutions of religion, or both the civil and the religious privileges 
must be lost. In consequence of the interest thus awakened several 
home missionary societies were organized. 

For nearly one hundred and fifty years the only heathen for 
whom any of the colonists attempted missionary efforts were the 
North American Indians. The policy of the English Government 
did not allow the incorporation of societies in America for the work 
of missions, and not until after the Revolution did the first asso- 
ciation of this kind receive a charter. The Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, organized in 1701, in London, 
extended its operations through most of the colonies in the interest 
of the Established Church of England. 

Connecticut Home Missions. — As early as 1724 the General Court 
of Connecticut allowed a brief to " be emitted " to " encourage the 
building and finishing of a meeting-house in Providence," R. I. In 
1774 the General Association of Connecticut recommended subscrip- 
tions among the people for supporting missionaries " to the scattered 
back settlements in the wilderness to the north-westward," in what 
is now Vermont and the northern part of New York, the settlements 
being composed chiefly of emigrants from Connecticut. Rev. Messrs. 
Williams, of Northford ; Goodrich, of Durham, and Trumbull, of 
North Haven, were a committee to receive funds and take charge of 
the supplies. The Revolution interrupted the work; but in 1788 
and 1 791 the subject came again before the Association. In 1792 
Rev. Joseph Vaill was missionary to the new settlements, and an- 
nual contributions in aid were taken in the churches. Pastors left 
their flocks temporarily to .minister to the destitute in the wilder- 



MISSIONARY PERIODICAL LITERATURE. 401 

ness. Seventeen pastors are known to have gone on these mission- 
ary tours before 1800, and more are supposed to have gone. Some 
of the points visited " were north and south of the Mohawk River, 
in Otsego and Herkimer counties," at Manlius and Pompey, N. Y., 
and Utica, consisting in 1794 of "a log tavern and two or three 
other buildings." In 1798 a constitution for the " Missionary Society 
of Connecticut" was adopted, the object of which was declared to be 
" to Christianize the heathen in North America and to support and 
promote Christian knowledge in the new settlements of the United 
States." But the work of this Society formally dates back to 1792. 
In 1800 Retf. David Bacon, father of Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., was 
sent to explore the condition of the Indian tribes and settlements 
on the southern shore of Lake Erie. 

In 1787 the " Society for Propagating the Gospel among the 
Indians and others in North America " was organized in Massachu- 
setts. Gradually it passed into the hands of the Unitarians. A 
similar society was formed in New York city November 1, 1796, 
Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D., participating actively in it. The officers 
comprised three Presbyterian, four Reformed Dutch, one Associate 
Reformed, and one Baptist minister. On the day of its organization 
Rev. Alexander McWhorter, D.D., of Newark, preached a sermon 
on the " Blessedness of the Liberal." The field of its labors was in 
the frontier settlements and the Indian tribes, but chiefly the latter; 
and hence its missions were called " foreign missions." The Con- 
necticut Evangelical Magazine was started in July, 1800, and four 
such periodicals are said to have been in existence in 1805. 

The Presbyterian "Home Missions" began in 1789, when the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was organized, and 
from that time until 1802 missionary operations were managed by a 
committee annually appointed by that body. In the latter year, 
owing to a great enlargement of the work, a standing committee 
was appointed which conducted this work until 18 16, when the 
powers of this committee were extended and it received the desig- 
nation of " Board of Missions." In 1801 the Sandusky Mission was 
established, and in 1805 tne Synod of Pittsburg reported missions 
on the Alleghany, and on the Lake Erie shore among the Wyandots 
and Senecas. In 1803 a mission was established among the Catawbas, 
and in 1805 among the Cherokees. In the year 1828, 101 mission- 
aries were employed by this Board in 21 States and Territories. 

The New York Missionary Society was formed November 1, 1796, 
In 1798 the Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society was organ- 



402 CHRISTIANITY IX THE U XI TED STATES. 

ized for the purpose of propagating the Gospel in the new settle- 
ments and among heathen nations. It originated in Berkshire County, 
Mass., and Columbia County, N. Y., receiving about an equal share 
of patronage from each State. Subsequently most of the New York 
members became connected with other organizations in that State, 
and the society then became an auxiliary to the Massachusetts Home 
Missionary Society. Up to that time it had supported four mission- 
aries annually, besides distributing religious books. In 1802 the 
Western Missionary Society at Pittsburg commenced operations. 
Some of these early home missionary societies were characterized 
by the union and fraternal co-operation of different denominations. 
The Xew York Society sustained a Baptist missionary among the 
Indians of central Xew York. A plan for social prayer was adopted 
(January 18, 1798J by this Society, and the second Wednesday 
evening of each month was observed by a concert of prayer in the 
Reformed Dutch. Presbyterian and Baptist churches. The Congre- 
gationalists and Presbyterians co-operated very extensively in Xew 
York and Ohio, on a " Plan of Union " which was entered into. 

On the 23d of January, 1809. young men of different denomina- 
tions in the city of Xew York formed themselves into a society to 
raise funds to aid in promoting the objects of the Xew York Mis- 
sionary Society. So unexpected was its success, and so hopeful the 
promise of this institution, that on the 14th of February. 18 16. it 
resolved on the future management of its own funds independently 
of the parent society, and was no longer the Assistant Xew York 
Missionary Society, but the Young Men's Missionary Society of 
New York. Subsequently serious differences arose, which led to the 
organization of the " Xew York Evangelical Missionary Societv of 
Young Men," numbering four hundred persons. Mr. Samuel H. 
Cox was employed as missionary, and the city and State of Xew 
York were designated as the field of labor. 

The Massachusetts Home Missionary Society was organized May 

28, 1799. Rev - Dr - N. Emmons, president. The Massachusetts Mis- 
sionary Magazine started in 1 803. The field of this Society was 
Western Xew York. Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and among 
scattered Indian tribes. In 1826 it was united with the Massachu- 
setts Domestic Missionary Society, which had been formed in 18 18, 
and both thus united became auxiliary to the American Home 
Missionary Society. Similar societies were organized in Xew Hamp- 
shire in 1801, in Rhode Island in 1803: in Vermont in i8i8:in 
Maine in 1807; all subsequently becoming auxiliaries of the Amer- 



THE CIRCUIT SYSTEM. 403 

ican Home Missionary Society. In process of time intelligent ob- 
servers were impressed with the conviction that a stronger impulse 
must be given to the work of home evangelization. The strong, 
steady, onward march of the population into the Territories rapidly 
enlarged the field of spiritual needs, called for larger plans, the 
multiplication of resources and a concentration of effort. How to 
accomplish this end was a topic of frequent and extensive consul- 
tation, and guidance was sought from on high. The organization 
of the American Horn: Missionary Society in 1826 was the result, 
the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Dutch Reformed and Asso 
date Reformed churches participating, in a convention called foi 
consultation. In the first three years of its existence, it extended 
aid to more than six hundred congregations in twenty-two States 
and Territories. (See Period III.) 

The Methodist Home Missionary Work has been chiefly performed 
in connection with the regular operations of the itinerant circuit 
system, by which one, two or three ministers, aided by local 
preachers and exhorters, extended their labors over a territory 
sometimes of several hundred miles around. This system was pre- 
eminently adapted to this work. Visiting each of the scattered 
hamlets of the new settlements once in two or three weeks, zealously 
appealing to their spiritual convictions, laboring for immediate 
results, organizing new converts in classes for weekly meetings 
under leaders, they occupied the new Territories with societies in 
advance of the older denominations, which, according to their 
methods, must wait for communities of sufficient population to 
maintain a settled pastor. Every Methodist presiding elder, having 
the oversight of several of these large circuits, was a home mission- 
ary manager and director, under whose watchful eye aggressive 
evangelizing operations were carried forward and new mission- 
ary circuits were planned. Such labors developed a large class 
of ministers of heroic endurance and sublime courage, such 
as Finley, Young, Cartwright, Akers, Brunson, and a host of 
others, whose sufferings, deeds and triumphs have awakened 
universal admiration. In consequence of this essentially mission- 
ary character of early Methodist labors, whether in the older or in 
the newer settlements, no distinct organization for home missionary 
purposes was formed at this early period. In prosecuting its work 
in this way the Methodist Church made a liberal outlay of men 
and money, and extended its influence among the aborigines and 
the slaves as well as the needy white population. 



404 CHRISTIAN! TY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

It 1819 the Methodist Missionary Society was organized in 
New York city, for the purpose of giving more distinct form and 
efficiency to this work. Until 1832 its work was wholly confined to 
our own country, in frontier circuits, among the slaves, the free 
colored people and the Indian tribes. In 1831, in Upper Canada, 
it had twenty mission stations and 2,000 Indians under instruction, 
most of whom had become communicants in the Church. Among 
the Cherokees in Georgia it employed seventeen missionary laborers 
and had about 1,000 Indian communicants. Among the Choctaws 
there were about 4,000 communicants, embracing all the principal 
men of the nation, their chiefs, captains, etc. Mission stations were 
established among the Indians all along the frontier. Meanwhile 
throughout the domestic work, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf 
of Mexico, there were numerous stations yearly passing off from the 
missionary list to the catalogue of self-supporting churches. 

Some others of the younger denominations, which had no old- 
established churches — the Free-Will Baptists, the Cumberland 
Presbyterians, etc. — were, from the first organization, home mission- 
ary bodies in almost their entire work. 

The Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church was 
organized in 1820, for both foreign and domestic purposes, and 
reorganized in 1835. The meetings of the Society were long held 
in connection with the triennial session of the General Convention. 
Bishop Meade has given the following account of its origin : 

" The first impulse given to us was the tender of some pecu- 
niary help from the Church Missionary Society of our mother 
country, if we would enter upon the work. The missionary charac- 
ter of the Colonization Society did much to excite our Church to 
action. The plea for Africa was a pathetic one, addressing itself to 
all hearts. But it was not heard at once by all. Even after our 
first efforts in behalf of that unhappy land I heard an old and 
respectable clergyman of our Church, preaching at one of our Gen- 
eral Conventions, designate the foreign missionary effort as a wild 
crusade, and another of high standing express the opinion that the 
foreign missionary work was for other denominations and the 
domestic for Episcopalians. In three years after, however, I heard 
the latter plead zealously for the foreign missionary cause. An 
effort for preparing colored missionaries for Africa was made at 
Hartford, under the patronage of Bishop Brownell and Dr. Wain- 
right, but from various causes it proved of but little avail. The 
efforts of our Virginia Seminary commenced with preparing Mr. 



THE FOREIGN EVANGELICAL SOCIETY. 40S 

and Mrs. Hill for the Greek mission, and have ever since success- 
fully continued." * 

The American and Foreign Christian Union f was organized May 
10, 1849, by merging three previously-existing societies into one 
body. The first of these formed was The Foreign Evangelical 
Society. Very soon after 1830 "a number of persons in different 
parts of our country — some of them distinguished for their high 
standing and great influence in the churches — began to think that 
the state of the papal world, and other portions of Christendom in 
which a corrupted Christianity exists, was such as to demand the 
attention and the help of churches so highly favored as are those 
of this country, which God has so remarkably blessed with his 
Word and the means of salvation." With this view they organized 
"The French Association," in 1834, and sent to France as its repre- 
sentative the late Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., instructing him to inform 
himself upon the spot with reference to the prospects of success of 
evangelical labor in that country and elsewhere upon the European 
Continent. Up to this time the interest of American Protestants in 
the conversion of Roman Catholics had lain almost entirely dormant. 
The result of Dr. Baird's inquiries was so encouraging that the 
scope of the " French Association " was enlarged to embrace mis- 
sionary work in all parts of papal Europe, and its name was changed 
to the " Foreign Evangelical Society," which, during the ten years 
of its existence, not only continued to prosecute its labors in France, 
but was also called " to extend them to Belgium, Italy, Poland, 
Russia, and in some measure to Sweden and Germany, in the Old 
World, while it aided the work of evangelization in Canada and 
commenced missions in South America, Hayti, and among the 
Mexicans in Texas and the French population of New Orleans and 
New York." 

The American Protestant Society, the second, and by far the 
most important, of the three organizations that were merged in 
the American and Foreign Christian Union, came into existence 
in 1843, as the successor of the " Protestant Reformation Society," 
which had been in operation for a number of years previous, under 
the presidency of that distinguished and uncompromising champion 
for the truth, the Rev. William C. Brownlee, D.D., LL.D. The aim 
of the American Protestant Society during its prosperous independ- 

* Old Families and Churches of Virginia. 

t For a fuller account see sketch prepared by Rev. Professor Henry M. Baird, D.D., in 
Christian Worlds March, 1873. 



406 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ent existence of six years was to further the conversion of Roman 
Catholics in this land, and to forestall those perils to which our 
country was exposed from the great emigration setting in upon us 
from the Old World. Among the most interesting incidents con- 
nected with the last two years of its separate history was the aid it 
rendered to the poor Portuguese exiles from Madeira. 

The Christian Alliance. — The third association — first named the 
Philo-Italian Society and afterward the Christian Alliance — was 
founded in 1842, with special reference to Italy, but subsequently 
enlarged so as to take in a wider field of usefulness. It had shown 
promise of doing so much good that it had been specially honored 
in calling forth a bull of condemnation from Pope Gregory XVL 

The Union Consummated. — The existence of three distinct organ- 
izations, all having kindred and often identical aims, was felt to 
be a mistake, and great pleasure was felt at their consolidation, 
in 1849, under the mos t auspicious circumstances. " We think," 
said the directors, in their address to the Christian public, " that 
the times call for the formation of such a society." 

The Home Field. — The new Society from the very first adopted 
a large and generous policy. At home it sought out Roman Cath- 
olics of all nationalities in every part of our wide territory. In the 
second year of its existence it already had in its employ in the 
United States 78 laborers, belonging to six different religious denom- 
inations and using not less than seven distinct languages in the course 
of their missionary work. The next year this number had increased 
to 85 laborers in 15 States of the Union, and in i860 its 73 laborers 
were to be found in not less than 23 States. At the same time 
there were under its care in Sabbath and day schools 18,860 chil- 
dren, instructed by 406 teachers — mostly volunteers whom the 
Society's agents had enlisted in this glorious work. And this home- 
work — both the purely evangelistic and that prosecuted by means 
of schools — was crowned with the evident blessing of God. 

The American Missionary Association should receive more than 
a passing notice. Its decided devotion to the cause of humanity, 
and the magnitude of the work which it has accomplished in differ- 
ent and most important departments of Christian philanthropy, 
entitle it to a prominent position before the Christian public. It 
is a child of Providence, and was brought into existence in a time 
of most urgent needs. The story is well told in its Quarter 
Century Report : * 

*i87i. Pp. 16, 17, 18, 19. 



THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 407 

"Twenty-five years ago slavery ruled in this land in the pleni- 
tude of its power. Texas had just been annexed, the Mexican war 
was in the first flush of an unbroken series of victories, the inso- 
lence of the slave-holder was at its height, and the truckling of his 
minions at the North was scarcely less abject than the cowering of 
his slaves under the lash in the South. . . . 

" It was under these circumstances that a handful of men 
gathered at Albany, N. Y., September 3, 1846, to form the Ameri- 
can Missionary Association. The number present did not greatly 
exceed two hundred. The meeting was held in the small Baptist 
church south of the Capitol. The gathering excised no local or 
public attention either of opposition or approval. The discussions 
were harmonious and spirited. The inducement to ignore an 
evangelical basis was kindly, not factitiously, made, and the young 
organization gained its first victory in the hour of its birth by 
rejecting the proffer. We now can hardly realize the relative 
numbers and wealth which it thus rejected, nor how sorely it then 
needed these elements of strength ; but it marked out its future life 
by adopting a liberal but unequivocally evangelical creed. It was true 
to Christ as well as the slave, and Christ has not deserted it. 

"Thus quietly was planted this grain of mustard seed, but its 
germination was rapid and its growth vigorous. The celebrated 
Amistad captives and the missionaries that went back with them 
to Africa were fittingly transferred to the care of the new organ- 
ization. Congenial fields were opened in the West Indies, among 
the newly-emancipated slaves ; in Canada, among the refugees from 
slavery ; in our western wilds, among the wronged and cheated 
Indians; and the deep interest it felt for the slaves in the South 
impelled it to enter that dark land with the Gospel, preached alike 
to bond and free. Its missionaries there had a stirring experience 
— apostolic in the two elements of zeal and persecution. After 
enduring stripes, imprisonment and threatened death they were at 
length cast out by the tumultuous heavings which preceded the 
volcano of war. 

" The home missionary department of this Association was one 
of its marked features, giving aid at one time to about one hundred 
churches, whose sympathy for the slave threw them upon the Asso- 
ciation for the support they could not get or would not ask 
elsewhere." 

The Baptist Home Missionary Society was organized in 1832, and 
in a short time it embraced a large number of auxiliaries in all 



408 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

parts of the Union. In 1843 lt na d in its employ 93 agents and 
missionaries, besides 275 more, through its auxiliaries — total, 368 
ministers preaching on 762 stations, traveling 175,035 miles annu- 
ally, reporting 4,920 conversions, and 50 churches organized. 

2.— City Missionary Societies, 

a kind of organization unknown before, also sprang up in this period 
in some of the larger cities. After 1850 they became common in 
every part of the country. One of the earliest organizations of this 
class was the Boston City Missionary Society, whose early history is 
full of interest. 

"On the 29th day of September, 1816, a few gentlemen met at 
the house of Rev. Joshua Huntington, pastor of the Old South 
Church, to consult together upon the expediency of attempting to 
do something for the moral and religious welfare of the poor of 
Boston. Ten days later, on the 9th of October, they met at the 
house of Mr. Charles Cleveland, and there foimed a new benevolent 
organization, to which they gave the name of ' The Boston Society 
for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Poor.' On the 8th 
of October, 18 17, they held their first anniversary and presented 
their First Annual Report. 

" Nine of the eleven Congregational churches of Boston had de- 
clined from the faith of the fathers, and the controlling influence in 
the metropolis of the State, by wealth, by social position, by intel- 
lectual culture, and by political power, was unfriendly to vital relig- 
ion. It was a day when fervent piety was ridiculed, and when the 
animosity manifested toward evangelical truth was sometimes bitter. 

" At the beginning of the century the Old South Church stood 
fast, 'faithful found among the faithless.' In 1809 Park Street 
Church arose, coming out of great tribulation, and stood up, ' fair 
as the moon, clear as the sun,' and sometimes, in the days of Dr. 
Griffin and ' Park Street Lectures,' ' terrible as an army with ban- 
ners.' In 18 1 5 a heavy artillery pamphlet-war opened, conducted 
by Evarts, Channing, and Worcester. The conflict went on into 
1820, and the Andover professors came into the field. . . . 

" One of the first fruits of the organization of this Society was 
the establishment of Sunday-schools in Boston. A committee ap- 
pointed at the preliminary meeting, held September 29, 1816, 'to 
ascertain facts in relation to the poor and destitute, and form a plan 
for their instruction and relief,' reported ten days after that out of 
540 families visited 141 were in want of Bibles, and 801 children 
and 37 adults would attend Sunday-schools should they be opened. 



BOSTON CITY MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 



409 



Two such schools were established in 1817, one in Mason Street 
and the other in School Street. During the same year aid was 
also rendered to a Sabbath-school already established in South Bos- 
ton. These schools rapidly multiplied, and in 1828 the Society had 
18 under its care, containing 325 teachers and 2,400 scholars. The 
following year they were transferred to the care of the * Boston 
Sabbath-school Union,' which continued in existence for twelve 
years. For the last twenty-five years our Sunday-schools have been 
conducted and sustained by the churches with which they are sev- 
erally associated. Several mission schools have been formed, and in 
this wide and important field of usefulness our missionaries are vig- 
orously engaged. 

" In the year 1818 a meeting for seamen was established on 
Central Wharf. Investigations were made as to the character and 
condition of sailors, the treatment they received at their boarding- 
houses was exposed, and efforts were made for their improvement 
by the distribution among them of tracts and Bibles, and by open- 
ing a Bethel boarding-house. These labors were efficiently carried 
on by this Society for ten years, when the Boston Seaman's Friend 
Society was formed, to whose hands the care of this work was com- 
mitted." 

Such was the origin of this, probably the oldest city mission 
society in the United States. 



Table* Showing the Work of this Society in Ten Years. 



<A 

> 


V 

a 

s 

I 



>»ui 

.0 V 

-0 rt 
re C 
6.2 

:1*6 


3 



> 




O V 

el 

> S) 

3-g 


d 

-0 

c 

£ 

H 


"8 

- j 

a 

"="2* 

Pi 

a o-c 
5 ~ 

OH 


1 

J. a ir. 

rt n O 
B.S & 

111 

U 


it 

to 2 

5-S- 2 . 

lc U*r3 
O 


«2 

.2.2 

If, M 
u = 

■§6 

C/J 


a> 
C 

A s 

3h 


"-5 ft ■ 
B-2-1 

rt « re 

fen 


■ 5 <L> 

CI r^*2 

O rtj 

u - re 
P aj re 

5 a? 


T3 

•1 

U <*- . 

re ^ u 
=3-°^ 
Q 


0.2 

<u a .« 
>- a.;2 
£ S 6 

rt i. i) 

■3 .2 -5 

Q 


184I 

1842 
1843 
1844 
1845 
1846 
1847 
1848 
l8 4 y 
1850 


3 
4 
4 
4 
5 
4 
4 
5 
3 
5 

41 


5,668 

7,04* 

6.591 
8,816 
8,7*5 
6,820 
6,213 
7,109 
4,5™ 
8,501 


1,366 
1,764 
1,578 
1,827 
2,310 
2,049 
1,527 
1,485 

868 

'^,596 


35i 
478 
5i8 
446 

4S8 
527 
3/2 
339 
202 
1,071 


69,580 
206,366 
206,412 
232,656 
240,771 
223,746 
267,529 
261,591 
221,000 
191,600 


124 
172 
169 
164 

98 
90 
199 
161 
95 
176 


71 
97 
57 
87 
50 
53 

100 
9i 
24 

149 


174 

493 
240 
3^5 
264 
209 
268 
421 
205 
306 


596 
278 
345 
435 
330 
239 
472 
532 
171 
547 


104 
63 
51 
79 
54 
61 
121 
109 

44 
404 


378 
414 
54o 
39^ 
363 
317 
230 

325< 

129 
401 


49 
119 
x 5 
25 
23 
11 
15 
3 

14 


J 55 
178 
200 
300 
421 
261 
304 
259 
180 

555 


465 

534 
610 
905 

*,i75 

702 
820 
710 
522 
1,075 


$ 225 

354 
422 

43 T 

586 
584 
612 
343 
260 
850 


$ 3,463 
3,596 
3,5oi 
3,013 
3,824 
3,79* 
4-351 
3,832 
2,795 
7,269 




70,014 


■^,37^ 


4,792 


2,121,251 


1,448 


779 


2,895 


3,945 


1,090 


3,493 


2 JO 


2.813 


7,5i8 


$4,667 


$39,443 



Other City Missions. 

City missionary societies began to be more numerous during 
the latter part of this period. Nothing like a complete statement 



of them can, however, be given. 



A few statistical items in regard 



*See Half Century Report, 1866. 



410 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

to another of the leading societies of this class at this time will 
be of some value. 

New York City Mission and Tract Society. — About the close of 1825 the New 
York Young Men's Auxiliary Tract Society was formed. On the 19th of Febru- 
ary, 1827, the New York City Tract Society was formed, chiefly by the agency of 
the officers of the Young Men's Society, and the Young Men's Society was 
merged into it. In 1829 the New York City Female Tract Society, which had 
been directly auxiliary to the American Tract Society, transferred its relation, and 
became a branch of the City Society. The City Society, for two years from the 
time of its formation, devoted its efforts to supplying with tracts the shipping, 
markets, humane and criminal institutions, the outskirts of the city, etc. On the 
20th of October, 1828, a meeting of gentlemen was held at the Tract-house for 
raising funds with a special view to extending the American Tract Society's opera- 
tions in the West, and the question was asked, Why not supply the accessible 
population on this side of the mountains and immediately around us, as well as 
the West? The result was that in March, 1829, a city committee was appointed 
by the New York City Tract Society, consisting of one member for each of the 
fourteen wards into which the city was then divided, who, in connection with dis- 
tributers from the churches, entered upon monthly distribution, each member of 
the committee being the agent for his ward. In January, 1832, was introduced, 
especially by the lamented Harlan Page, the subject of concentrating effort and 
prayer for the salvatio7i of individuals, which gave directness and efficiency to 
the Society ; and in March, 1833, an agent (Mr. S. B. Hallidayj was employed in 
connection with Mr. Moses Allen, member of the committee for the Eighth Ward, 
to devote himself to labors in that ward ; -and previous to April, 1834, an agent 
(Mr. D. M. Moore) had been employed for a short time in the Fifth Ward, in con- 
nection with Mr. A. R. Wetmore. In November, 1834, the plan of employing 
missionaries throughout the respective wards was adopted, and in March, 1835, 
twelve missionaries were employed, whose number in December of the same year 
had been increased to fourteen. 

Since 1850 this society has greatly enlarged its operations and 
become one of the great evangelizing institutions of New York city. 

3. Foreign Missionary Societies. 

The missionary idea is as old as Christianity. In this country 
long before Mills, Hall, Judson and Newell had offered themselves 
for the work of Christian missions, from 1643 to 1808, the churches 
had put forth earnest and successful efforts for the conversion of the 
native Indian tribes ; and the Mayhews, Eliot, Sargent, Brainerd 
and Wheelock had toiled in these self-sacrificing labors. But soon 
after the opening of the present century it became obvious that the 
missionary spirit was rising and extending, and that new channels 
must be opened for the diffusion of the Gospel ; yet no leader ap- 
peared. The Massachusetts Missionary Society had been organized 
in 1799. In 1804 its constitution was amended so as to allow a 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 41 1 

wider scope of effort among the Indians and also in the distant parts 
of the earth. In the annual sermons, preached about this time, 
before this Society and before the General Assembly of the Presby- 
terian Church there was a very general outcropping of the mission- 
ary spirit. The same thing appeared in the Connecticut Evangelical 
Magazine, established in 1800; in the Massachusetts Missionary 
Magazine, established in 1803; in the Massachusetts Baptist Mission- 
ary Magazine, first published in the same year ; and in the General 
Assembly s Missionary Magazine, or Christian Intelligencer, which 
commenced in 1805. It was also diffused among the churches, and 
from 1806 to 1 8 10 individual donations, amounting to $6,000 in 
some years, had been made to the mission at Serampore. Such 
were the indications. 

The American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions. " In 

1806 Samuel J. Mills became a member of Williams College. While 
a child he had heard his mother say, ' I have consecrated this child 
to the service of God as a misssonary,' and from the time of his con- 
version, in 1802, he had ardently desired to engage in the mission- 
ary work. In college, while laboring faithfully to promote true 
piety among the students, he kept this work constantly in mind. In 

1807 he invited Gordon Hall and James Richards to a walk, and led 
them to a retired spot in a meadow, where they spent all day in 
fasting and prayer, and in conversing on the duty of missions to the 
heathen. He was surprised and gratified to learn that the subject 
was not new to these brethren, but that their hearts were already 
set upon engaging in such a work. September 7, 1808, a society was 
privately formed at Williams College by these and a few other pious 
students, the object of which, the constitution says, ' shall be to 
effect, in the persons of its members, a mission or missions to the 
heathen.' The 5th article provided that ' no person shall be admit- 
ted who is under an engagement of any kind which shall be incom- 
patible with going on a mission to the heathen ; ' and the 6th 
article was, ' Each member shall keep absolutely free from every 
engagement which, after his prayerful attention, and after consul- 
tation with the brethren, shall be deemed incompatible with the 
objects of this Society, and shall hold himself in readiness to go on 
a mission when and where duty may call.' 

" In the autumn of 1809 Richards became a member of the 
Theological Seminary at Andover, and ' labored with diligence and 
success in promoting a spirit of missions among the students.' Mills 
followed him to Andover in the spring of 18 10, and Hall soon joined 



412 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

them. At least one other young man was there also, whose 
thoughts had been independently directed to the same great subject 
— Samuel Nott, Jr. i There seemed now to be,' says one who was 
there, ' a movement of the Spirit, turning the attention and the 
hearts of the students in the seminary to the condition of the perish- 
ing heathen.' Several had already come, or soon came, to the reso- 
lution of spending their lives in pagan lands, among whom were 
Adoniram Judson, and Samuel Newell. The faculty of the sem- 
inary were consulted, and approved the design, and on the 25th 
of June, 1810, according to previous arrangement, Rev. Dr. Spring, 
of Newburyport, and Rev. Samuel Worcester, of Salem, met with 
the professors and a few others for further consultation. It was 
thought that the time for action had come, and the young men were 
advised to present their case to the General Association of Massa- 
chusetts, which was about to meet at Bradford. The next day Rev. 
Messrs. Spring and Worcester rode together in a chaise to Bradford, 
and, during that ride, between those two men ' the first idea of the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was sug- 
gested ; and the form, the number of members, and the name were 
proposed.' On Thursday, June 28, Messrs. Judson, Nott, Newell, 
and Hall, came before the Association and presented a written 
paper in which they stated ' that their minds had been long- 
impressed with the duty and importance of personally attempting a 
mission to the heathen ; ' and they solicited the opinion and advice 
of the Association as to their duty and as to the source to which 
they might look for support in their contemplated work. The 
subject was referred to a committee, who reported the next day, 
recommending ' that there be instituted by this Association a Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, for the purpose of devising 
ways and means and adopting and prosecuting measures for pro- 
moting the spread of the Gospel in heathen lands.' The report was 
adopted, and the following persons were chosen to constitute, in 
the first instance, that Board : His excellency John Treadwell, Esq., 
Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., General Jedediah Huntington, and Rev. 
Calvin Chapin, of Connecticut ; Rev. Joseph Lyman, D.D., Rev. 
Samuel Spring, D.D., William Bartlet, Esq., Rev. Samuel Worces- 
ter, and Deacon Samuel H. Walley, of Massachusetts. 

" The commissioners had their first meeting at Farmington, 
Connecticut, on the 5th of the following September, five only being 
present. A constitution was adopted and officers were chosen. The 
Prudential Committee appointed consisted of William Bartlet, Esq., 
and Rev. Messrs. Spring and Worcester. Mr. Worcester was 



THE AMERICAN BOARD. 413 

chosen Corresponding Secretary, and an address to the Christian 
public was prepared, accompanied by a form of subscription." * 

Mr. Judson was sent to England to confer with the London 
Missionary Society and ascertain whether the young men who 
desired to be sent abroad could be supported, for a time, wholly or 
in part by that Society. They declined to do it, and expressed a 
hope that the American churches when appealed to would send out 
not four but forty foreign missionaries. On the 1 8th of September, 
1 8 1 1 , the Board at its meeting in Worcester resolved to found their 
first mission in India, and on the 19th of February, 1812, Judson, 
Newell, and their wives, set sail from Salem, Massachusetts, and on 
the following day Hall, Nott and Rice, from Philadelphia. Up to 
this time the Treasurer of the Board had received $6,ooo. During 
the following summer the Board was duly incorporated by an act of 
the Legislature of Massachusetts. After a few years two other 
denominations, the Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches, 
united with this Board in its foreign missionary work. The 
Old School Presbyterians withdrew in 1837, and the Dutch Re- 
formed Church in 1857. The New School Presbyterians continued 
until 1870. 

Such was the origin of the first foreign missionary board in the 
United States, whose subsequent history has been a record of most 
honorable and successful enterprise for the advancement of Christ's 
kingdom. In 1 829 the American Board numbered 68 elected mem- 
bers, 446 honorary members, and the receipts were $106,928 26. 
During the first nine years (1811-1819) the average annual income 
was $18,103 29. From 18 19 to 1829 the average receipts were $64,- 
424 70, and the total receipts from 181 1 to 1829, inclusive, were 
$826,17667. 

The American Baptist Missionary Union was organized May 
18, 1814. This Society entered at once upon the work of propa- 
gating the Gospel among the heathen, and its first missionaries were 
Revs. Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. Rev. Messrs. Judson 
and Rice Avere two of the first missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M., 
and became Baptists on their way to India. Mr. Judson was sup- 
ported by the English Baptist Mission, while Mr. Rice returned 
to America to attempt the organization of a Board of Missions 
among the Baptists. The intelligence of the change of opinions 
in Judson and Rice reached this country in February, 1813. The 
effect was electrical, and a missionary society was organized in 

* NewcomVs Cyclopedia of Missions, 1854. Pp. 107-8. 

27 



414 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Boston soon after, and in May, 1814, the General Missionary Con- 
vention of the Baptists was organized in Philadelphia. At first it 
met triennially, and its Board of Managers annually. During the first 
year of its existence this Society received $13,476 10, and up to 
1830 its total receipts were $124,251 57. . 

The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was or- 
ganized in 1819, but its work was exclusively domestic until after 1832. 

The Episcopal Board of Missions was organized in 1820. It was 
partly domestic and partly foreign. From 1820 to 1835 $50,683 
had been received by this Society for foreign missions. 

The Presbyterian Board of Missions was not organized until 1837. 
Previous to that time some foreign mission w r ork had been done by 
the "Western Foreign Missionary Society," formed by the Synod of 
Pittsburg, and also in connection with the A. B. C. F. M. But from 
181 7, when the United Foreign Missionary Society was formed, it 
had carried on extensive missions among the Indians of our country. 

The Foreign Missionary Society of the Lutheran Church was 
organized in 1837, and the Home Missionary Society in 1845. The 
Free-Will Baptist Missionary Society was organized in 1833. The 
Seventh-Day Baptist Missionary Society was organized in 1842. 
The American Indian Missionary Association was formed in 1842; 
the Baptist Free Missionary Society in 1843, tne Board of Foreign 
Missions of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, an d the Do- 
mestic and Indian Mission Board in 1846. The Board of Foreign 
Missions of the Presbyterian Church was constituted in 1837. The 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian 
Church was organized in 1844. In 1832 the Reformed (late Dutch) 
Church organized boards of domestic and foreign missions. In 
1845 the Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South was organized. 

All the early missionary societies devoted considerable attention 
to the Indian tribes within our borders. In 1830 their work was 
distributed as follows : 

Societies. Stations. Missionaries, 

Moravians ,. 6 20 

Episcopalians I I 

Cumberland Presbyterians 1 1 

Baptist Board 7 15 

Methodist Episcopal Church 12 48 

A. B. C. F. Missions 29 23 

Total 56 108 

The number of Indian communicants was 7,142. 



MISSIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN 1830. 41 S 
Missions Throughout the World in 1830. 

Missions f 22 

Principal Mission Stations 5° 2 

Ordained Missionaries 656 

Assistants from Europe and America 776 

Communicants 70, 2S9 

Scholars in Day Schools 80,656 

Home Missionaries in Christian Lands 2,000 

4.— Societies for the Benefit of Seamen. 

Soon after the war of 1812 individuals began to inquire what 
could be done for the evangelization of seamen. In 18 16 a society- 
was organized in New York city for promoting the Gospel among 
seafaring men who visited that port, and in 1819a church was erected 
for their accommodation. Other cities soon followed this example. 
In October, 18 19, in Philadelphia, Rev. Joseph Eastburn com- 
menced to hold religious meetings for the benefit of seamen ; a 
house of worship was built in 1824, and a church was organized in 
1830. In 1823 the first efforts were put forth in Baltimore, a house 
was erected in 1825, and a society was formed the same year. In 
18 19 Christian men in Boston began to bestow labor upon seamen ; 
the Seamen's Friend Society was organized in January, 1828, and a 
meeting-house was soon after erected. In 1823 similar operations 
were commenced in Portland, Me. 

The American Seamen's Friend Society was organized in New 
York city in 1826, by men who had had a large experience in labors 
in behalf of sailors. During the first two years not much was 
accomplished. In 1828 Rev. Joshua Leavitt, of Stratford, Conn., 
was appointed its permanent agent, and entered upon his labors 
with that extraordinary efficiency for which he was ever noted in 
his long and useful life. In 1828 he started the Sailors' Magazine, 
a monthly periodical of thirty-two pages. This Society soon became 
a recipient of aid, not only from the inhabitants on the sea-coast, 
but also from those residing in the interior. It provided sailors 
with religious instruction while in port, and also established board- 
ing-houses, where they might be kept from intoxicating liquors and 
from squandering their money. They were encouraged to deposit 
their earnings in savings banks and to respect themselves. Chapels 
and boarding-houses were opened for sailors in all the prominent 
commercial cities on the Atlantic coast, and also in Havre, Canton, 
Honolulu, and Sidney. Registration offices were also opened, by 
means of which worthy seamen might avail themselves of the 
advantages of a good character. In 1829 there were ten places of 



416 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

worship for sailors in the United States, and missionaries were early 
sent for the benefit of seamen into all the leading seaports of the world. 
For more than forty years Rev. Edward T. Taylor, a man of 
remarkable genius and power, ministered to the seamen in the 
Mariners' Bethel, in Boston. He was characterized by Charles 
Dickens as a " cataract of eloquence," and was one of Boston's 
celebrities. 

5.— The American Jews' Society. 

This Society was formed in New York in 1820, for the purpose 
of establishing a colony or an asylum in this country to which Jews 
who had embraced Christianity might resort, and thus avoid the 
persecution and oppression to which they were subject in some 
parts of the world. A farm was purchased by the Society at New 
Paltz, on the west side of the Hudson River, comprising five 
hundred acres. The plan did not prove successful. The farm was 
subsequently sold and the money put to interest, but the Society 
has continued until this time, and has performed a good work in 
leading many Jews to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah 
and Saviour of men. 



Section £.— Religions Publication Agencies. 
1.— The Tract Societies. 

One of the new features of the great onward movement in the 
American churches was the seizing of the power of the press and 
subsidizing it for Christ. It had its origin in England, springing out 
of the great Wesleyan revival, and organizing in two distinct forms — 
Tract and Bible Societies. 

In tracing these new measures to their source many persons 
have looked no further than to the Religious Tract Society, organ- 
ized in London, in 1799, an< ^ the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
in 1804. In a general sense they are the fruits of the invention of 
printing. But both of these had their immediate inception from 
Rev. John Wesley's efforts to elevate the masses, whom he and his 
efficient co-laborers were leading to Christ, into a higher intellectual 
and Christian life. As early as 1749 Mr. Wesley published religious 
books and "Tracts," and all of his preachers, besides many other 
excellent persons, both male and female, became " colporteurs." * 

*See Life of Wesley. By Rev. Richard Watson. Chap. 8. History of Methodism. By- 
Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D, Vol. I., p. 326. Some of his early "Tracts" were entitled, ''A 
Word to a Swearer,'' " A Word to a Sabbath Breaker," etc., etc. 



TRACT SOCIETIES. 417 

In 1782 Wesley and Coke organized a " Society for the Distribution 
of Religious Tracts among the Poor." Its " plan " was sent out in 
a printed sheet, * and comprehended the essential features of the 
tract societies since organized. In 1779, a quarter of a century 
before the organization of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a 
" Naval and Military Bible Society" was organized by the Wesleyan 
Methodists, "which afterward obtained high patronage." f Rev. 
Dr. Dobbin, of Dublin University, himself a Churchman, alluding 
to the origin of these early societies, has said : 

Never was there such a scene before in the British Islands ; there were no 
Bible, # tract, or missionary societies to employ the Church's powers and indicate 
its path of duty ; but Wesley started them all ; the Church and the world were 
alike asleep ; he sounded the trumpet and awoke the Church to work. % 

Religious tracts were also issued in 1780, in London, by Dr. John 
Stamford; in 178 1 by Rev. George Burder, and in 1792 by Hannah 
Moore. The Religious Tract and Book Society was formed in Scot- 
land in 1794. 

But there was another cause which indirectly stimulated to these 
great movements in Great Britain — the work of the French infidels. 
The splendid talents of Voltaire were devoted to writing small tracts 
against Christianity, and a society was organized in France for their 
dissemination. Three million francs were raised for their distri- 
bution. Whole editions of these publications were sent to America 
and other countries. The efforts of the French skeptics had an 
influence in awakening the zeal of the British Christians " to foil the 
enemy in his own weapons." But the immediate impulse to this 
work in the United States was the great revival movement inau- 
gurated in 1800, awakening the spirit of religious activity in the 
churches and leading to a union of the power of the press with the 
living voice. 

The first efforts in the United States were of an individual and 
local character. Rev. Alexander Proudfit, D.D., of Salem, N. Y. ; 
Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., of Charlestown, Mass. ; Rev. D. Tappan, 
DD., of Harvard, Mass., and others, led in this movement, issuing 
tracts as early as 1802. Dr. Morse published not less than thirty 
thousand, which were chiefly circulated in Maine, Kentucky and 
Tennessee. In 1803 the Massachusetts Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge was formed by Rev. Drs. Morse, Tappan, and 

* See the November number \ f the Arminian Magazine, 1784. History of Methodism. By 
Rev. Abel Stevens, LL.D, Vol. II, pp. 492, 493. 

+ See. Jackson's Centenary of Methodism. Chap. 6. 

% See Kitto'' s Journal of Sacred Literature. London, 1849. 



418 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Holmes, at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Governor Phillips, of Massa- 
chusetts. This was the first tract society organized in America, and 
within twelve years it printed 8,224 volumes and more than thirty 
thousand tracts. In 1807 the " Connecticut Religious Tract Society " 
was formed at New Haven, by Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., 
Jeremiah Evarts, and others, publishing in a brief time a series of 
twenty- six tracts, of which one hundred thousand copies were cir- 
culated. In 1808 the "Vermont Religious Tract Society" was 
organized at Middlebury. In 18 10 the Protestant Episcopal Tract 
Society was established in New York city through the agency of 
Bishop Hobart. Then followed in rapid succession, in 181 1, the 
Evangelical Tract Society in Boston and the Religious Tract Society 
at Albany; in 18 12 the " New York Religious " in New York city; 
in 181 5 the " Religious," at Philadelphia, subsequently absorbed into 
the American Sunday School Union; in 18 16, the "Religious," at 
Baltimore, and the "Hartford Evangelical; " in 1817 the New York 
Methodist, the " Protestant Episcopal Female," at Baltimore," and 
the "Newark Religious," of New Jersey; in 1819 the "Western 
Navigation Bible and Tract Society; and in 1824, the "Baptist 
General," at Washington, and the " New York State," at Albany. 

In 1 8 14 the "New England Religious Tract Society," afterward 
known as the American Tract Society (Boston), was formed for the 
purpose of combining and directing the tract cause in New En- 
gland. Revs. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., and Justin Edwards, of An- 
dover, were its prime movers. It became incorporated in 1816, and 
assumed the name of the American Tract Society in 1823. Andover, 
Mass., was the center of its publishing operations in its earlier 
history. 

Toward the close of 1824 the Religious Tract Society of New 
York and the American Tract Society of Boston initiated measures 
for the formation of a National Society, in which the local societies 
of the country should be united as auxiliaries. Delegates from the 
principal societies were invited, and a convention was held May 10, 
1825, in the " Session Room " of the " Brick Church," corner of 
Ann and Nassau Streets, New York city, Rev. James Milnor, D.D., 
Chairman, and Rev. Howard Malcom, Secretary. A constitution 
was adopted, and on the following day the Society was organized, 
Hon. S. V. S. Wilder, Esq., President, and Rev. Wm. A. Hallock, 
D.D., Secretary. The New England Society became a branch of 
the new Society, taking the stereotyped plates and publications at 
cost. This union continued until 1859, when the New England 
Society withdrew on account of the unwillingness of the New York 



BIBLE SOCIETIES. 4 19 

Society to publish productions against slavery, and the Boston 
Society resumed an independent existence. 

In 1824 the Baptist General Tract Society was organized in Phila- 
delphia. In 1829 it had 136 auxiliaries and three branch societies. 

In 1808 the Methodist General Conference voted § 1,000 for print- 
ing tracts for free distribution. Later, some local tract societies 
were formed, the "Book Concern" printing the tracts. In 1840 
the present Methodist Episcopal Tract Society was organized. 

2.— Bible Societies. 

The scarcity of Bibles during the Revolution and the action of 
Congress in providing for a supply have been referred to, and also 
the action of Robert Aiken, of Philadelphia, who printed the first 
edition of Bibles ever published in this country.* Thus it has been 
well said, " The first Congress assumed the right and performed the 
duty of a Bible society long before such an institution had an exist- 
ence in the world." In 1804 one of the most glorious achievements 
of modern Christianity dates its occurrence — the organization of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society \ — of which Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring 
said, *' England has no brighter jewel in her crown." The Jubilee 
Volume of the American Bible Society says: 

The Bible-diffusion spirit was developed early in this century in this country, 
and with great rapidity after the British movement. The first organization was 
that in Philadelphia, in 1808 ; the second, that of the Connecticut State Society in 
May, 1809; the third, that of the Massachusetts Society in July, 1809; the fourth, 
that of the New Jersey Society late in the same year; and the fifth, that of the 
New York (City) Society in 18 10. At the commencement of 18 16 there were one 
hundred and thirty-two societies in our country, each independent in its work and 
entirely local, classified thus : 



In New Hampshire 2 

Massachusetts 9 

Rhode Island 2 

Connecticut 2 

Vermont 12 

New York 35 

New Jersey 7 



In Pennsylvania 15 

Delaware i 

Maryland 5 

District of Columbia. . . 1 

Virginia 12 

North Carolina 1 

South Carolina 2 



In Georgia t 

Ohio 7 

Kentucky 3 

Tennessee 1 

Louisiana 1 

Mississippi 1 

Indiana 12 



Besides these there were numerous Bible associations. 

The supply of the destitution within their own range was all that these societies 
aimed at, and this was very imperfectly met. It is matter of history that the 
Christian heart of our own country was first effectively moved in behalf of the mul- 
titudes perishing in the newly and sparsely settled West and South-west, through 
the agency of one of the devoted band of young men who, in the shadow of the 

* P. 350, note. 

t Thirty years before, Baron Kasner, at Halle, in Prussian Saxony, formed a Bible Society, 
which Count Zinzendorf also joined. Also the Cranstein Institute was formed in 1712, in the 
same country. 



420 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

haystack in the meadow near Williams College, p'anned the foreign missionary 
movement (and gave themselves to it), whose results have been most blessed. 
Samuel J. Mills, whom we refer to, having completed his theological studies at the 
Andover Seminary in 1812, was moved, in his large benevolence, at once to under- 
take a tour of investigation into the spiritual condition of the western and southern 
parts of the land. He made two tours — the first in 181 2 and 1813, in company 
with the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, a minister of the Reformed Dutch Church ; 
the second in 1 814 and 181 5, in company with Rev. Daniel Smith, of the Congrega- 
tional Church. 

Correspondence and addresses in large cities followed. Appeals 
were made to the public in the Panopiist, * calling for the co-oper- 
ation of the Christian people in the work of Bible supply. The 
practicability of such a union was illustrated early in 1 8 16, by the 
organization of two Sunday-school unions in New York city. In 
response to a call issued by Hon. Elias Boudinot, at the advice of 
leading Christian gentlemen, on the 8th of May, 18 16, an assemblage 
of sixty clergymen and laymen gathered in the lee ture-ro 3.11 of the 
Collegiate Dutch Church in Garden Street, New York city. They 
represented twenty-eight Bible societies, and the Congregational, 
Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, 
and Reformed Dutch churches and the Society of Friends. They 
were men of highest character and wide influence. The occasion 
was momentous, the scene most solemn, the interchange was free 
and fraternal. The Jubilee Volume says : 

Differences there were, as was to be expected in so novel a movement ; but 
they were happily adjusted, and the result was the adoption of the Constitution 
prepared by their own committee by a unanimous vote, and the full organization 
by the choice of a Board of Managers, and subsequently of the officers according 
to the Constitution, at the head of whom was placed the venerable man whose call 
had convened them, and who regarded the whole action as the most blessed event 
of his long life. . . . All Bible-loving hearts throughout the country were 
looking anxiously for the final action, and when it came there ascended the sweet 
incense of praise from many an altar, and soon there followed large accessions of 
auxiliaries from all quarters of our land. Thus the period from the 8th to the nth 
of May inclusive, 1816, has become memorable in the annals of the Church of 
Christ and of the world, as opening an era for good whose range only the revela- 
tions of the last day can fully exhibit. 

In 1829 the Society undertook to supply every destitute family 
in the United States with a copy of the word of God. In 1832 it 
was announced that the work was nearly completed. Several times 
since this work has been repeated. + 

The American and Foreign Bible Society % was formed by the 

* A religious monthly publishe i at Boston, Mass. f Seeal-o Peri >d III., Chan. VII, Sec. 3. 

X See Christian Retrospect and Register. By Robert Baird, D.D. New York, M. W. 
Dodd. Pp. 240 2. 



PUBLICATION HOUSES. t 421 

secession of members of the Baptist denomination from the Amer- 
ican Bible Society in 1836, because the Board declined to render aid 
in printing the Bengalee Scriptures translated on the principle 
adopted by the American Baptist missionaries in Burmah, involving 
the Baptist translation of the word baptize. The seceding parties 
organized the American and Foreign Bible Society May 12, 1836. 
Its efforts were expended chiefly in foreign fields, in the missions of 
the Baptist denomination. In 1850 its receipts amounted to 
§41,625. In 1849 a controversy arose in this Society, occasioned 
by its refusal to publish a new translation of the Bible in the English 
language, giving renderings in accordance with Baptist ideas of 
immersion, which resulted in the formation of the American Bible 
Union, June 10, 1850, under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Cone, who 
had been president of the older Society. 

3— Denominational Publication Houses. 

The Methodist Book Concern was the first of this class. From 
the year 1773 different individuals had taken a deep interest in the 
publication of Methodist books and tracts. Robert Williams has 
the credit of being the leader in this movement, publishing Rev. 
John Wesley's books and sermons, many of them in small pamphlets, 
which were widely distributed. After the full organization of the 
Church, in 1784, a new impulse was given to this work. It was 
enacted that the publication of books should be done under the 
supervision of the Conference, and that the profits of the sales 
should be devoted " to the college, the preachers' fund, the deficien- 
cies of preachers, distant missions, and debts on the churches." In 
1788 John Dickins was appointed to Philadelphia, and was officially 
designated as " Book Steward." He was the first editor and pub- 
lisher, beginning his work with a capital of $600, which he loaned 
to the Church. The first entry in the books of the institution is in 
his handwriting, dated August 17, 1789. This may be regarded as 
the beginning of that great publishing house, the Methodist Book 
Concern. The first book that was issued was a Kempis's Imitation 
of Christ. Mr. Dickins died in 1798, and was succeeded by Rev. 
Ezekiel Cooper in 1799, under whose administration during six years 
the business was more fully organized and extended, and " the cap- 
ital stock rose from almost nothing to $45,000."* In 1804 the 
" Concern " was moved to New York city. Previous to 1822 its 
publication work was carried on by contract, but during that year it 

* Stevens's History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Vol. Ill, p. 132. 



422 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

established a bindery, and in 1824 added printing-presses and 
also secured premises of its own. It was located in Crosby Street 
until 1833, when it removed to 200 Mulberry Street, where, in 
the great fire of 1836, it was burned. It was immediately rebuilt 
and greatly enlarged its work. Soon after the Western Methodist 
Book Concern was established in Cincinnati, Ohio. * 

The Baptist Publication Society. — In the first quarter of the 
present century most of the older Baptist State Missionary conven- 
tions or associations were organized. The first local Baptist Pub- 
lication Society was formed in New England in 181 1, under the 
name of the Evangelical Tract Society. It was "not, however, strongly 
denominational, never became vigorous, and long since ceased to 
exist except in name. The necessity of some means for the pub- 
lication of Baptist tracts was very generally felt in different sections 
of the country. Mr. John S. Meehan and the students for the 
ministry under the care of Dr. Stoughton, in Philadelphia, as early 
as 1820 discussed the question of organizing a society for this pur- 
pose. But Mr. Median's sudden removal to Washington, D. C, pre- 
vented the consummation of their plan. Rev. Samuel Cornelius, of 
Virginia, and others seriously contemplated a movement in this 
direction. But it was reserved in the providence of God for Rev. 
Noah Davis, a young minister ordained at Salisbury, Maryland, 
December 21, 1823, to take the first effectual steps toward the organ- 
ization of a tract society. Very soon after his ordination he wrote 
a letter on the subject to Mr. J. D. Knowles, his former class-mate, 
a student at Columbian College, Washington, D. C, and the editor 
of the Columbian Star." This letter was the occasion of much con- 
versation, and led to a meeting on the 25th of February, 1824, at 
the house of Mr. George Wood, in Washington, for the purpose of 
organization, which was accomplished. It was originated " as a 
national society, a center around which the Baptists of every section 
of the country might rally, a fountain from which should go out 
streams of blessing to every corner of the land. Its support, how- 
ever, for the first few years came almost exclusively from southern 
Baptists." Of the $1,010 33 received the first two years, all but 
$133 73 came from the Southern States. 

" About six weeks after the Society's organization a few tracts 
were printed, and the first Depository was opened April 2, 1824, in 
the office of the Columbian Star, Washington, D. C. At first it was 
under the care of Mr. John S. Meehan, afterward in charge of 



* See also Chap. VII, Sec 3, the last period in this volume. 



PUBLICATION SOCIETIES. 423 

Mr. Baron Stow, then a student in Columbian College. On Novem- 
ber 14, 1S26, a special meeting of the Society was held in Washing- 
ton city, at which it was resolved to transfer the head-quarters of the 
Society to Philadelphia. This was done that better facilities for 
shipping to southern cities and elsewhere might be secured. A 
committee of brethren residing in Philadelphia was appointed to 
act in behalf of the Board, and on the 25th of December of the same 
year that committee convened at the house of Dr. J. L. Dagg. The 
first meeting of the Society in that city was held January 3, 1827, 
Dr. J. L. Dagg acting as chairman and Dr. Howard Malcom as 
secretary." * 

The Evangelical Knowledge Society of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church was formed in 1847. Bishop Meade,f of Virginia, has left the 
following record of its origin : " When tractarian publications began 
to multiply in our own mother Church the character of the issue of 
this Society became more and more tinctured with the false doctrines 
of that school. Complaints became so numerous and heavy that in 
the summer of 1846, when a number of bishops were in New York 
at the annual meeting of the General Missionary Society, the Exec- 
utive Committee of the Union was convened and the complaints 
stated. An order was then passed that a set of all the books of the 
Society should be sent to each bishop for examination. . . . . 
Seeing that there was no promise or hope of amendment, a number 
of those who believed that better books and tracts might be pro- 
cured determined to form another voluntary society, in which those 
who agreed in sentiment might with more harmony and efficiency 
benefit the Church by the press, and resist that torrent of evil which 
was pouring itself over our own and mother Church. Wherefore, a 
number of bishops, clergy and laity, who met together at the Con- 
vention of 1847 m New York, united in forming what is called the 
Evangelical Knowledge Society." 

The Congregational Publishing Society came into existence 
through a tortuous course. The Congregationaiists, the Baptists, 
the Episcopalians, and the Methodists co-operated in the organ- 
ization of the Massachusetts Sabbath-School Union, May 24, 1825, 
auxiliary to the American Sunday-School Union, organized in Phil- 
adelphia the previous year. The Episcopalians and the Methodists 
soon withdrew from the Massachusetts Society, but the Baptists and 

* For a fuller sketch of the early history of this Society see the Fiftieth Annual Report 
(1874), pp. 7-T2, from which the above account has been abbreviated. For later information see 
section on Publication Houses in the last period in this volume. 

t Old Churches and Families of Virginia. 



424 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the Congregationalists continued to work together until 1832. On the 
30th of May of that year they made an amicable separation, and the 
Society was dissolved. The next day the Congregationalists formed 
the Massachusetts Sabbath-School Society, which, for a time at least, 
co-operated with the American Sunday-School Union. The Amer- 
ican Doctrinal Tract Society was organized in 1829. Its name was 
changed in 1850 to The Doctrinal Tract and Book Society, and 
further changed in 1854 to The Congregational Board of Publication. 
This Society united with the Massachusetts Sabbath-School Society 
in 1868, under the name of the Congregational Sabbath-School and 
Publishing Society, and the present name, The Congregational 
Publishing Society, was assumed in 1870* 

The Old School Presbyterian Board of Publication was organized in 
1840, although considerable had been done in the publication of 
books and tracts during the eight years previous, under the 
direction of a committee annually appointed by the General As- 
sembly. The New School Board of Publication was organized about 
1840. 

The Southern Methodist Book Concern at Nashville had its origin 
soon after the great division in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
1844. 

4.— Religious Periodicals 

in the United States were first published during this period. The 
earliest were monthly journals — the Connecticut Evangelical Maga- 
zine, a valuable religious periodical, commenced in i8oo,f at Hartford, 
and continued ten years ; the Massachusetts Missionary Magazine, 
in Boston, in 1803 ; the Pa noplist, in Boston, in 1805, was joined with 
the former in 1808, and the name changed to the Missionary Herald 
in 1822, under which title it has continued to the present time ; the 
Christian Disciple, a Unitarian monthly, originated in Boston, in 
1813, changed to the Christian Examiner (a quarterly) in 1825, and 
continued about forty-five years ; the Christian Spectator, first pub- 
lished in 1 8 19, and after twenty years merged into the American 
Biblical Repository, at New York ; and the Methodist Magazine, at 
New York city, in 181 8, subsequently changed to the Methodist 
Quarterly. These were some of the valuable periodicals which 
came into existence during this fruitful period, and shared in the 
great work of molding the public mind. It is believed that the 

* Congregational Quarterly, October, 1876. Pp. 546. 

f See note, p. 310. Also, the Universalist Magazine, 1818. 



RELIGIOUS PERIODICALS. 425 

whole number of this class of religious publications in the United 
States in 1830 was not far from fifty. 

For a list of the religious magazines published in the United 
States in 1828, see American Quarterly Register, 1828, p. 132. 

Religions newspapers soon followed the first religious magazines. 
As nearly as can be ascertained there were in the United States in 
1800 about 200 newspapers. In 1810 they had increased to 359, and in 
1830 to 1,000. But no religious newspaper* was published in Amer- 
ica, and probably in the world, until January 3, 18 16, when the 
Boston Recorder, a Congregational (orthodox) paper, was first issued, 
superintended and published by Nathaniel Willis. Mr. Sidney E. 
Morse edited the paper for one or two years and, in 1849, claimed 
to be the originator of this class of publications. In 1849 ^ was 
joined with the New England Puritan, a paper commenced in Lynn, 
in 1840, under the editorial care of Rev. Parsons Cooke, D.D., and 
was thenceforth called the Puritan Recorder. It should be men- 
tioned that the Religious Remembrancer, commenced in Philadelphia, 
in 1 8 10, and several others elsewhere were published weekly and 
devoted to religious intelligence, but in form and matter they were 
more like monthly periodicals of a later day. 

The following religious newspapers come next in order: The 
Religious Intelligencer, at New Haven, in 18 16; The Watchman (Bap- 
tist), at Boston, in 1819; the Christian Mirror, at Portland, Me., in 
1822; Zion s Herald (Methodist), at Boston, January 9, 1823; the 
New York Observer, May 17, 1823; the Tract Magazine, Boston, 
1824; the Wesleyan Journal, at Charleston, S. C, September 30, 
1825 ; the Christian Advocate, New York city, September 9, 1826; 
the Morning Star (Free- Will Baptist), Dover, N. H., 1826; The 
Reformed Church Messenger, Philadelphia, 1827; the Youth's 
Companion, Boston, 1827; the Presbyterian, Philadelphia, 1827; the 
Christian Intelligencer (Dutch Reformed), New York, 1829, and the 
New York Evangelist, in 1829. 

These are some of the leading religious newspapers started 
between 1800 and 1830. This class of publications soon became 
very popular, and in 1830 nearly every denomination had one or 
more of these papers devoted to its interests. In 1832 there were 
said to be eighteen of these religious papers west of the Allegha- 
nies, and probably there were not less than fifty in the whole country, 
besides the fifty magazines published monthly or quarterly in the 
quarto or octavo form. Thus did the Christian churches contribute 
to the advancing intelligence of that rapidly-expanding period. 

* The Christians claim their first paper started in September, 1S0S. See p. 517. 



42 6 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 3— Religions Educational Agencies. 
I.— Sunday-schools and Sunday-school Societies. 

Prior to the existence of the modern Sunday-school the instruc- 
tion of the young in religious knowledge had been by no means 
overlooked, and in the minds of some eminent Christians and 
divines it had assumed considerable prominence. As early as 1680 
the children of the Plymouth Church had received religious instruc- 
tion on Sundays, during the intermission, from the pastor and 
deacons. The same custom prevailed for a time in Rev. Dr. 
Belamy's society, in Connecticut, as early as 1740, and also at 
Ephratah, Pa., between 1750 and 1760. In these examples the 
germinal idea of the modern Sunday-school must be recognized. 

After Mr. Raikes had founded his Sunday-schools for gratuitous 
secular instruction with paid teachers, Rev. John Wesley conceived 
the idea of Sunday-schools for gratuitous religious instruction by 
unpaid teachers, and introduced them into his societies. Acting 
upon this suggestion, Rev. Francis Asbury, the first Bishop of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in America, organized the first Sunday- 
school in the United States, in the year 1786, in the house of Mr. 
Thomas Crenshaw, in Hanover County, Va. " In 1787 George 
Daughaday, a Methodist preacher in Charleston, S. C, was drenched 
with water pumped from a public cistern ' for the crime of conduct- 
ing a Sunday-school for the benefit of the African children in that 
vicinity.' "* In the year 1790 the Methodist Conference passed an 
ordinance establishing the institution of Sunday-schools. " Let 
us,'' say the Minutes of that year, " labor as the heart and soul of 
one man to establish Sunday-schools in or near the place of wor- 
ship." " The Council shall compile a proper school-book to teach 
them learning and piety." f This is believed to have been the first 
official recognition of Sunday-schools by an American church. 

In 1790 Bishop White is said to have established a Sunday-school 
in Philadelphia, and in December, 1790, the "First Day" or Sun- 
day-school Society was organized in that city, among whose found- 
ers were Bishop White, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Robert Ralston, Paul 
Beck, Jr., William Rawle, Thomas B. Cope, Matthew Carey, etc. It 
was composed of persons of different denominations and derived its 
support from voluntary contributions. In 1791 Oliver Lane started a 



*Dr. John McClintock in the Methodist Quarterly Review, 1857. pp. 516, etc. 

t See Early History 0/ the Methodists. By Rev. Jesse Lee. Baltimore. 18 10. Pp. 162-5. 
Also History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. By Rev. Abel Stevens, D.D., LL.D. Vol. 
II, pp. 503-4 % Rev. John Eliot had a Sunday-school in 1650. See p. 179. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNIONS. 427 

school in Boston. In 1797 Mr. Samuel Slater established a Sunday- 
school for his operatives in Pawtucket, R. I. It is also said that a 
poor colored woman in New York city established the first Sunday- 
school in that locality in 1793, which was held in her own humble 
dwelling. In the years 1801 and 1804 three Sunday-schools were 
formed in the city of New York by Mrs. Isabella Graham. In 1806 
Rev. S. Wilmer commenced a Sunday-school in Kent, Mel., and in 
1808 the same person opened a similar school in Swedesborough, 
N. J. In 1809 a Sunday-school society was organized in Pittsburg, 
Pa., by which a school was opened in September of that year, con- 
taining two hundred and forty scholars. In 181 1 Rev. Robert May, 
a missionary from London, was active in organizing Sunday-schools 
in Philadelphia. In 181 3 a Sunday-school was established in 
Albany, N. Y. ; and in 1814 in Wilmington, Del. From this time 
they rapidly multiplied in every direction. 

Sunday-school societies next began to be organized. The New 
York Sunday-school Union was formed February 26, 1816. In 1818 
the " Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union" was founded, 
and continued in operation seven years. About the same time 
similar unions for Sunday-school work were organized in Boston, 
Baltimore, Albany, and elsewhere, and Sunday-schools soon existed 
in all the larger towns and the cities. At first they continued only 
through the warm season of the year, and comprised learning to 
read and spell in their list of studies. 

The American Sunday-School Union was formed in May, 1824, 
absorbing the Philadelphia and other societies as auxiliaries, in 
compliance with a widely expressed wish of the friends of Sunday- 
schools in many States. This organization extended its work 
throughout the country, making charitable donations of books and 
other Sunday-school requisites, and collecting valuable information 
in regard to the religious situation in the land. In 1824 the Amer- 
ican Sunday-School Union commenced the publication of the 
Sunday-School Magazine, a monthly periodical. In 1828 it began its 
labors in the great valley of the Mississippi, and did much to 
awaken an interest in the religious education of the young in the 
new settlements. 

The Massachusetts Sunday-School Union was organized in 1825, 
embracing chiefly the Congregational and Baptist denominations, 
and was an auxiliary of the American Sunday-School Union. In 
1828 it employed a secretary and a general agent and became a 
publishing society. This union was amicably dissolved in 1832, and 



428 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

two denominational societies were organized in its stead — the Mas- 
sachusetts and the New England Sunday-school societies — the first 
a Congregational and the other a Baptist society. 

The Sunday-School Union of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
says Bishop Meade, was established in the General Convention of 
1826, though the printed journal contains no record of it. He fur- 
ther says : 

The Episcopal Sunday-School Union was, therefore, as has been since formally 
and publicly admitted by itself, a voluntary institution. Several attempts were 
made at different general conventions to have it enrolled and recognized among 
the general institutions of the Church ; but they failed, the Convention being 
reminded that it was only a voluntary society. . . . There was, however, from the 
time of its formation, a general disposition to encourage the Episcopal Sunday- 
School Union as a voluntary society. 

The American Sunday-School Union and the American Tract Society were 
noble institutions, and furnished many excellent and suitable works for individuals, - 
families, and Sunday-schools; but they could not supply certain books setting forth 
the peculiarities of the different denominations connected with the Gospel. It 
was therefore desirable that Episcopalians, as well as others, should have some 
organization for supplying such. It was distinctly understood, at the establishment 
of ours, in 1826, that it should assume no party character, but be conducted on 
libera], comprehensive principles, setting forth only those common truths about 
which Episcopalians are agreed — which platform has been repeatedly declared 
since then. 

The Sunday-School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church. — ■ 
For many years this denomination made no provision for the gen- 
eral organization or affiliation of its Sunday-schools. The Book 
Concern, however, issued some volumes suitable for their libraries, 
under the direction at first of Rev. John P. Durbin, D.D., who pre- 
pared its first library-book and its first Question Book. Thus things 
went on until the 2d day of April, 1827, when the Methodist Sun- 
day-School Union was formed in New York city. This organization 
was hailed with delight, at once received the indorsement of the 
Annual Conference, and of the General Conference also the follow- 
ing year. In 1833 it was merged into a " Bible, Sunday-School, and 
Tract Society." The present Methodist Sunday-School Union was 
formed June 3, 1840. In 1844 Rev. D. P. Kidder was appointed the 
first corresponding secretary, and editor of Sunday-school publica- 
tions, holding the office until May, 1856, when he was followed by 
Rev. Daniel Wise, D.D. The Sunday-School Messenger, originally a 
magazine, started in Boston, in 1837, by Rev - D- S. King, was the 
first Sunday-school paper published by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The Sunday-School Advocate was started in 1841. 



EDUCATIONAL AID SOCIETIES. 



429 



Summary of Sunday-Schools, 1830. 
In the United States. 

Connected w/th 

The American Sunday-School Union 

Methodist Sunday-School Union 

All others (estimated) 



Schools. 


Teachers. 


Scholars. 


5.90I 


52,663 


349,202 


2,000 


34,000 


130,000 


1,500 


15,000 


go, 000 



Total. 



9,401 101,663 569,202 



/// Other Parts of the World. 

Schools. Teachers. 

In Great Britain and Ireland 9,423 92,866 

Continent of Europe .... 

" " Asia 

" Africa 

New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land and 

Isles of the Pacific 

Islands of Mauritius and Madagascar 

Canada 

Nova Scotia 

Newfoundland 

West Indies 

Buenos Ay res 



Scholars.. 

922,282 

4.500 

15,000 

3,600 

28,000 

2,IOO 
1,200 
3,678 
1,500 
8,000 
TOO 



Total 989,960 

Total Sunday-school scholars in the whole world in 1828-9,* I )559> 1 62. 



2.— Educational Aid Societies. 

Another secondary effect of the great revival of 1800 was the 
development of educational societies for the aid of indigent young 
men in preparing for the Christian ministry. First, we have noticed 
the impulse to Christian activity leading to efforts to occupy new 
and distant fields, and the formation of home and foreign missionary 
societies and numerous local church enterprises. With these came 
a great demand for ministers. Simultaneously, under the impulse 
of the new life in the churches, numerous young men were moved 
to preach the Gospel. Out of these twofold demands grew up 
another great Christian organization whose special function was to 
furnish pecuniary aid to candidates for the ministry while pursuing 
their preliminary studies. 

In the first forty years after the first settlement of Massachusetts 
there was one liberally-educated clergyman in every 600 souls, f 
But in 1816, when the American Education Society commenced its 

* The data embraced in the above summary has been collected partly from official sources 
and in part from the American Quarterly Register, 1829-30, for which they were prepared, 
under the careful hand of Rev. B. B. Edwards, D.D. 

t American Quarterly Register, 1831, 1832, p. 337. 
o. ft 



430 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

work, it was authoritatively declared * that in nine of the south- 
western States and Territories, containing a population of 1,078,815, 
there were but 116 liberally-educated ministers. In four of the 
-Southern States, with a population of 2,197,670, there were but 126 
educated ministers, or one in 17,400 inhabitants. Even in New 
England there were then only 803 educated ministers for a popu- 
lation of 1,471,927 souls, or one to a little less than 2,000 inhab- 
itants. By a liberal estimate there were not more than 2,000 
educated ministers in the whole United States and Territories. 
Such was the condition of the field in which were to be widely 
laid the foundations of Christ's kingdom. The safeguards of the 
Republic — virtue and intelligence — demanded the higher education 
of those who were to act so prominent a part as the instructors 
of the nation. 

The country was rapidly filling with people, a very large part of 
whom were without intellectual and moral culture. Institutions of 
learning must be established and manned, and the churches must 
largely do this work. They must have well-qualified ministers, that 
they might identify themselves with the advancing intelligence of 
the age, and lead and mold the best thought. The fathers of this 
period, as wise master builders forecasting these things, acted from 
intelligent convictions of the necessities both of the present and 
the future, and laid broad and deep foundations for God's kingdom 
in true knowledge and vital piety. 

The custom of aiding pious young men of meager pecuniary 
means while pursuing their studies for the ministry was not a new 
one. It had been done in the older colleges. It became much 
more common after the founding of the theological seminaries. 
At the Theological Seminary in Andover, Mass., valuable pecuniary 
assistance had been furnished by its patrons and founders from the 
date of its establishment in 1807. The same was true at 7 Princeton, 
N. J., Auburn, N. Y., etc. But the first society formed for this 
specific purpose in the United States was organized in Dorset, Vt., 
in 1807. In 18 1 3 another, called the " Benevolent Education 
Society," was formed in the three counties of Plymouth, Bristol, 
and Barnstable, Mass. It aided young men by loaning them money 
without interest. Others were formed on a similar basis. The 
Baptists organized education societies in Massachusetts in 1 8 14, in 
New York in 18 17, in Connecticut in 1820. In 18 19 the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church formed a board of education, 
which soon became the official organ of that body. The Western 

* Discourse before the Society by Rev. Dr. Pearson. See Report, 1866, p. 9. 



THE AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY. 431 

Education Society was also a- very efficient body at this early 
period, and in common with many others was subsequently merged 
into the American Education Society. 

The organization of the latter Society was effected in 1815. It 
soon became, for many years, the leading body of its kind, combining 
in its organization and work a large number of prominent gentlemen, 
among whom were Revs. Eliphalet Pearson, LL.D., Jedediah Morse, 
D.D., Samuel Worcester, D.D., etc. Rev. Elias Cornelius was an 
early secretary, and Rev. B. B. Edwards his assistant. In July, 
1827, the Quarterly Journal of this Society was started; it was 
subsequently changed to the American Quarterly Register — a most 
valuable periodical, to which frequent reference is made in these 
pages. In the first eleven years of its existence this Society received 
5S9 different young men as beneficiaries. It received numerous 
auxiliary bodies in 1827, which greatly augmented its scope. In 
1830 its receipts amounted to §204,01 1, and it aided 872 beneficiaries. 
Rev. I. N. Tarbox, D.D., was for many years its secretary. 

The first Education Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
had its origin under circumstances very similar to those which had 
given rise to the other societies elsewhere. 

11 In the year 1818 a number of clergymen, with several lay- 
gentlemen of character and influence, had assembled at George- 
town, in the District of Columbia, to witness the services connected 
with the laying of the corner-stone of an Episcopal Church then 
about to be erected. Among the gentlemen of the laity then 
present there was one who had taken under his protection an 
indigent youth of piety, with the view of educating him for the 
Christian ministry, which he earnestly desired to enter. The topic 
of preparatory and theological education was familiar to the minds 
of all the churchmen of Virginia, and, the case of this young man 
having led to an interchange of opinion, they found that all were 
ready for action. Accordingly those present agreed to support the 
youth whose case was before them by their voluntary contributions, 
and scarcely was this determined on before their minds were led to 
^the reflection that there were probably many other young men 
whose situation was similar to that of their newly-adopted bene- 
ficiary, This thought gave rise to a suggestion that a society might 
be advantageously formed for the purpose of educating any number 
of pious young men desirous of entering the ministry of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. The suggestion was so favorably 
received that the individuals present resolved to meet shortly 



432 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

thereafter in the city of Washington and form a society. They did 
meet, and the Society was duly organized. As soon as the existence 
of the Society was known young men from various parts of the 
Union sought and received its bounty. The plan adopted in the 
commencement of its operations was one suited to what it was 
supposed would be the Society's limited sphere of action. If an 
applicant required preparatory education he was placed in some 
college most convenient to himself, and if ready to pursue his 
theological studies he was commonly put under the supervision of 
the clergyman to whose congregation he belonged. The expenses 
in either case were defrayed by the Society. . . . These considera- 
tions led to measures which contributed in part to a result not 
dreamed of in the fondest expectation of the Society — this was the 
establishment of the theological school at Alexandria/' 

This Society steadily pursued its course of usefulness and com- 
mended itself to the affectionate interest and cordial support of its 
friends, both in Virginia and elsewhere. In 1835 nearly one tenth 
of the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States had in whole or in part been aided by this Society. One 
sixth of the clergy of Ohio, one eighth of those of Pennsylvania, 
one fifth of those of Maryland, and a large portion of those of 
Virginia derived aid from its funds.* 

In 1 83 1 the principal education societies in operation were the 
Baptist Education Society of New York, the Northern Baptist 
Education Society, the Education Society of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church, the Connecticut Church Scholarship Society, the 
Board of Education of the General Assembly, the Presbyterian 
Education Society and the American Education Society. The 
Baptist Education Society of New York, besides the appropriate 
duties of an education society, supplied the place of a board of 
trustees of Hamilton Theological Institution. It was formed in 
1817. In 1820 it started the institution at v Hamilton. Up to 1832 
it had aided 251 students. The Northern Baptist Education Society 
embraced the New England States, except Connecticut, in the sphere 
of its operations. Rev. Ebenezer Thresher was its secretary for 
many years. Educational boards were organized by the Reformed 
Dutch Church in 1832, by the Lutherans in 1835, by the Penn- 
sylvania Baptists in 1839. 

Another form of educational aid were societies for furnishing 



* History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D.D. 
New York. , Harper & Brothers. 1836. Pp. 260, 26 1. 



MISS BEECHERS PLANS. 433 

the West with accomplished and well-qualified common-school 
teachers.* 

About 1836 Miss Catherine E. Beecher established a Female Sem- 
inary in Cincinnati, the chief object of which was to educate teachers 
for the West. She entertained the idea that much good might be 
done by locating in western towns and cities well-educated teachers. 
She employed herself in collecting facts and making inquiries 
respecting what could be done, and, in 1845, published a small 
volume, entitled The Duty of American Women to TJieir Country, 
which was distributed gratuitously. This volume contained a 
graphic description of the low state of education at the West, and 
in it she expressed her belief that there were at the East a thousand 
females qualified and willing to go West and teach, provided their 
traveling expenses could be borne and a school gathered ready for 
them on their arrival. This volume announced that a committee 
was selected, to whom application might be made by persons at the 
West in want of good teachers, and called upon ladies in eastern 
cities to appoint committees to select and send out teacheis to 
supply the wants of those who should make application. At the 
same time she offered the profits arising from the sale of two 
volumes she had published toward defraying the traveling expenses 
of teachers, and called upon females to purchase the volumes and 
to extend the sale of them. In the beginning of 1846 the ladies in 
Boston organized a society for promoting education at the West. 
This Society was independent of Miss Beecher, though it was called 
into existence in consequence of her appeal. It received applications 
from western towns, selected teachers, and bore their expenses to 
their fields of labor. The Board of National Popular Education 
was organized at Cleveland, Ohio, in April, 1847, which was an 
enlargement of the committee announced by Miss Beecher at 
Cincinnati in 1845. The first annual meeting was held in January, 
1848. Ex-Governor Slade was the general agent of the Society. 
This Society collected a class at Hartford, Conn., in the spring, and 
another in the autumn, and sent out about fifty annually. 

The Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Edu- 
cation in the West has performed a great work during the forty years 
of its existence. The circumstances leading to its organization were 
as follows : f 

In the month of June, 1842, a convention was held in the city of Cincinnati 
composed of about one hundred delegates from the States of Ohio, Kentucky, 

* See the Half Century Tribute. By Rev. Emerson Davis, D.D. Pp. 128, 129. 
t Report of the Quarter Century Anniversary of the Society in 1868, pp. 39, 40. 



434 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Ever since the disruption of the Presbyterian Church 
in 1837, matters had been very much afloat at the West, and the object of the 
Convention was to compare notes and decide upon the best methods, under the 
altered circumstances of the churches, to promote the interests of Christ's kingdom 
in the " Great Valley." It was organized by the appointment of the Rev. J. H. 
Linsley, D.D., of Marietta College, President, and Rev. Thornton A. Mills, then 
pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, as Secretary. The first four 
of the nine special topics proposed for consideration by the Committee of Arrange- 
ments were the following, namely : Education for the Ministry, Home Missions, 
a Religious Newspaper as an Organ of the Western Churches, and Colleges. The 
reports on the state of religion, which occupied one whole afternoon, furnished 
manifold evidence of the wide-spread destitution of the West, and almost every 
speaker called energetically for more laborers. The condition of western colleges 
was also fully considered. 

Nothing, however, was done at this first meeting beyond the 
passing of preliminary resolutions. Soon after this meeting Rev. 
Theron Baldwin visited the East, and held interviews with the late 
Hon. William W. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, Rev. Leonard Bacon, 
D.D., Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D., Rev. Edward Beecher, D.D., and 
others. He also conferred with prominent educators in the West 
on the subject of organizing a society for the purpose of carrying 
out the educational ideas of the Convention at Cincinnati. The 
result was that the second Convention was called to meet in Cin- 
cinnati. The Convention assembled at the house of Rev. Dr. Lyman 
Beecher, on the 27th of March, 1843 — -present, Rev. Drs. Beecher 
and Stowe, and Professor Allen, of Lane Seminary ; Professor Henry 
Smith and Colonel John Mills, delegates from Marietta College; 
Rev. J. H. Johnston, a delegate from Wabash College, and Pro- 
fessor Sturtevant, of Illinois College. The following exhibit of the 
institutions in the West was reported to the Convention : 

Resources. Debts. 

Marietta College $59,000 $18,000 

Wabash College 30,000 15,000 

Illinois College 112,000 25,000 

Lane Seminary 100,000 11,000 

Western Reserve College 107,000 32,000 

A large, part of the above property had but little value except 
for educational purposes. 

A plan of association was agreed upon, and arrangements were 
made for the organization of a society at New York, in connection 
with the May anniversaries. The Society was finally organized on 
the 29th of June, 1843, m the iecture-room of Rev. Dr. Skinner's 
church, in New York city. The receipts for 1849 anc ^ I ^S° amounted 



COLLEGES AND THE CHURCHES. 435 

to $44,623 31, which was divided among six institutions. After a 
varying history of a quarter of a century this Society was, in 1874, 
united with the American Education Society, under the name of 
the American College and Education Society. 

3. The Colleges and the Churches. 

True Christianity has ever been associated with intellectual 
progress and culture.* It has been the active factor and promoter 
of the best enlightenment, a powerful quickener of thought, a 
leader and inspirer of all true inquiry. It is its function to lift up 
the masses into a higher intelligence and to share a primary part 
in the advancement of society. From the beginning of its career 
it has manifested an original instinct for education. In the earlier 
period the fathers, Clement, Origen, etc., diffused the elements 
of sound learning in church schools. The great Reformation 
allied itself with the universities. Wycliffe, Luther, and Melanch- 
thon, men of eminent learning, turned their lecture-rooms into 
preaching-places, and Wittemburg, Heidelburg, the great Sor- 
bonne, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, with their thousands 
of students, made those countries Protestant. We have no- 
ticed that within ten years after the Puritan Fathers landed in 
Massachusetts they made an appropriation out of their scanty 
funds for the establishment of a college. " CJiristo et Ecclesice" 
was their motto, and at every period of its progress down to our 
times Christianity has planted and fostered colleges as her allies. 
They have been the fastnesses of true religion — centers of its influ- 
ence and power. It will be impossible within our limits to sketch 
a history of these educational institutions. We can give only a few 
tabular exhibits. 

At the present time, in the investigation of many questions of 
progress, it is desirable to find definite and reliable bases of com- 
parison with former periods. The educational progress of the 
country as a whole, and the part the churches are performing in 
the good work, are topics which start many important inquiries and 
call for information not easily accessible to many. The author has 
therefore availed himself of the data furnished in the following 
tables, taken from the American Quarterly Register, ,f and prepared 
with great care and faithfulness by Revs. Elias Cornelius, D.D., and 
Bela Bates Edwards, D.D., Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the 
American Education Society: 

* See pp. 229-252. t May, 1830. Pp. 238, 239. 



436 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Colleges in the United States in 1830. 

[" Our information is derived the present year, 1830." — Ed. of Register^ 



Name. 



Waterville 

Bowdoin 

Dartmouth 

University of Vt. . . 

Middlebury 

Williams 

Amherst 

Harvard University 
Brown University. 

Yale 

Union 

Geneva 

Rutgers 

College of N. J 

University of Penn 

Jefferson 

West Univ. of Pa. . . 

Madison 

Alleghany 

Wm. and Mary's 

University of S. C. . 

Charleston 

University of Ga.. . . 

Greenville 

Univ. of Nashville. 

Center 

Cumberland 

Augusta 

Transylvania Univ. 

West. Reserve 

Miami University., 



Location. 



Waterville, Me 

Brunswick, Me 

Hanover, N. H 

Burlington, Vt 

Middlebury, Vt 

Williamstown, Mass. 

Amherst, Mass 

Cambridge, Mass. . . 

Providence, R. I 

New Haven, Conn. . 
Schenectadv, N. Y.. 

Geneva, N. Y 

N. Brunswick, N. J. 

Princeton, N. J 

Philadelphia, Pa.... 
Canonsburg, Pa.... 
City of Pittsburg. .. 
Union Town, Pa... 
Mead. Township, Pa. 
Williamsburg, Va. . . 

Columbia, S. C 

Charleston, S. C... 

Athens, Ga 

Green Co., Tenn. . . 
Nashville, Tenn 

Danville, Ky 

Princeton, Ky 

Augusta, Ky 

Lexington, Ky 

Hudson, Ohio 

Oxford. Ohio 



President or Provost. 



Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin, D.D.. . 

i 794 !Rev. William Allen, D.D 

: i77oiRev. Nathan Lord, D.D 

1791'Rev. James Marsh, D.D. . . 

i8oo|Rev. Joshua Bates, D.D 

1793 Rev. Edward D. Griffin. D.D . . 
i82iRev. Heman Humphrey, D.D. 
1638 Hon. Josiah Quincy, LL.D.... 
i764|Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D... 

1700 Rev. J. Day, D.D. LL.D 

1795 Rev. E. Nott, D.D. LL.D 

i82 3 Rev. R. S. Mason 

1770'Rev. Philip Milledoller, D.D. . . 
i746;Rev. James Carnahan, D.D.... 
1755'Rev. W. H. De Lancey, D.D.. 

1802 Rev. M. Brown, D.D 

1820' Rev. R. Bruce, Principal 

1829' Rev. Henry B. Bascom 

18 15; Rev. Timothy Alden 

i 1693 j Rev. Adam Empie 

'1801 Thomas Cooper, M.D. 

i 7 S 5 lRev. Jasper Adams, D.D 

1785 Rev. Alonzo Church 

1794 Henry Hoss, Esq 

: i8o6 ( Rev. Philip Lindsley, D.D . . . . 
ii822;Rev. Gideon Blackburn, D.D.. . 

182 5 ' Re v. F. R. Cossitt 

Rev. Martin Ruter, D.D 

Rev. Alva Woods, D.D 



,2 rs 

o ^ i « 

0.5 §. 

E - * 



£ 



tr. ^ 



v E ^■- i 

|-a iafgi 



54 

373 

1,600 

178 

495 

695 i 

177 

5,538 

i,76S 

4,355 

1,202 



319 

34 



17 
35 

397 

193 
196 

361 
,377| 

238, 

,257 

2 4 8 ! 

6 



1823 
1798 
1826 
r824^Rev. Robert H. Bishop, D.D | 12 ' 42' 29 



3i 

112 
137 

39 

86 

90 
207 
247 
105 
359 
227 

29 

60 

73 

97 
120 

50 

7°! 

6. 

100 . 

97 

69 
117 

30 

7 1 

66 . 
120 
102 

81. 

17 

56 



— ■ 
, c 

- z 



8 
24 
35 
18 
40 
39 
102 

26 
9i 



Additional. 



Name. 



Location. 



Washington 

Columbia 

Hamilton 

Dickinson 

Washington 

St. Mary's 

Columbia 

University of Va. . . 

Ham. Sidney 

Washington 

University of N. C. . 
East Tennessee. . . . 
University of Ohio. 

Bloomington 

Kenyon 



Hartford, Conn. . . 
New York city.. . . 
Clinton, N. Y.... 

Carlisle, Pa 

Washington, Pa. . 
Baltimore, Md. . . 
Washington, D. C 
Charlotteville, Va 
Prince Ed. Co., Va 
Lexington, Va. . . . 
Chapel Hill, N. C 

Knoxville 

Athens, Ohio. . . 
Bloomington, la.. 
Kenyon, Ohio. . . . 



a 

3 1 
I I 

a o 
33 D 

— a 



President. 



[826, 
J 754 
1812 
1783' 
1806 
1805 



828-9 
1827-8 
1826-7 
1828-9 
1827-8 
1827-8 
1828-9 
1828-9 
1827-8 
1828-9 
1828-9 
1828-9 
1828-9 



Rt. Rev. T. C. Brownell, D.D. 
Hon. William A. Duer, LL D. . 

Rev. H. Davis, D.D 

Rev. Samuel B. Howe 



Rev. E. Damphoux. D.D.. . 
Rev. Stephen Chapin, D.D. 

Hon. James Madison 

James Cushing Esq 

Rev. G. A. Baxter, D.D. . . . 

Rev. J. Caldwell, D.D 

Rev. Charles Coffin, D.D. . . 
Rev. R. G. Wilson, D.D. ... 

Rev. A. Wylie, D.D 

Rt. Rev. P. Chase. D.D.... 



til T. ,p 



E £i: ~ -3.1 £ 

= — « o = - g 



25 



6 
3 
18 

6i.... 
8 538 



60] 20 

43! 26 



74 - 

'.'.'A'.'. 

72 12 



60 .. 
13* 3 



23 2 
69 .. 
5 
45 ■ 



By an examination of the preceding tables it will be seen that we have returns 
from thirty-one colleges for the present year (1829-30), and that for fifteen col- 
leges we were obliged to use the returns of 1828-9, 1827-8 and 1826-7. I R making 
out a general estimate, therefore, we shall make a small addition to most of the 



STATISTICS OF COLLEGES. 437 

sums total in the returns made previously to this year. In so doing we shall come 
very near the truth ; certainly we shall not go beyond it. 

Colleges in the United States 46 * 

Instructors at thirty-nine colleges 290 

Whole number of alumni at thirty colleges 21,693 

Alumni living at twenty-six colleges 12,784 

Alumni ministers at twenty-three colleges 4.671 

Total under-graduates at forty colleges 3, 582 

Professors of religion at twenty-seven colleges 683 

Volumes in twenty-seven college libraries 149,704 

" in social libraries in thirty colleges 69.281 

— Ed. American Quarterly Register. 

Of the foregoing forty-nine colleges only nine were State insti- 
tutions, all the others having been founded and sustained under 
the direct supervision of the American churches ; namely, eight 
Congregational, nine Presbyterian, five Episcopal, four Baptist, 
two f Methodist, two German and Dutch Reformed, four Roman 
Catholic, one Unitarian, and seven are supposed to have been non- 
denominational, though five of them were under the presidency 
of Christian ministers. These facts show that the American 
churches were the leaders in the cause of higher education. Twen- 
ty-eight of these institutions were established between 1800 and 
1830 and the remainder prior to 1800. 

4. Theological Schools. 

We have noticed that it was formerly customary for young men 
in America, qualifying themselves for either of the learned profes- 
sions, to spend some time with an individual distinguished for his 
professional knowledge, who directed their reading and by conver- 
sation furnished them with such information as his time and circum- 
stances would permit. J 

But the rapidly-increasing demands for ministers in our large 
territory, and fast expanding population, and the inadequacy of the 
libraries and lectures of these single private teachers to furnish 
their pupils with a full and systematic view of all the topics on 
which it was desirable that students for the Christian ministry 
should have extended and thorough information, suggested the 
importance of systematizing the work of ministerial education, by 
organizing institutions for this purpose with several instructors and 

* There should be three other Roman Catholic colleges, though at that time in their incipiency. 
t Neither of which became permanent institutions. The Wesleyan University at Middletown, 
Conn., founded in 1831, was the first permanent Methodist College. 
\ See pp. 250-252. 



438 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

a regular course of study. The transition, however, from the single 
divine to the full theological seminary, as now existing among us, 
was not at once realized. There seem to have been a few instances 
where an intervening link for a time existed — a theological depart- 
ment with a single professor in collegiate institutions. 

The first movement toward the establishment of a theological 
department in a collegiate institution was in Harvard College, 
where a professorship of theology was established, in 1722, by Mr. 
Thomas Hollis, a wealthy London merchant. A professorship of 
divinity was continued until 18 16, when definite measures were 
adopted for a more general and systematic instruction in theology, 
and in 1826 a building was finished at a cost of $25,000, which was 
called Divinity Hall. The Dutch Reformed Church took the next 
step in this direction. As early as 1773 it proposed to establish a 
professorship of theology in connection with its college at New 
Brunswick, N. J., and Rev. Dr. Livingston was appointed professor 
by the Classis of Amsterdam. The movement, however, was inter- 
rupted by the Revolutionary War immediately following. In 1784 
the appointment of Dr. Livingston was confirmed by the Conven- 
tion of the Dutch Church, and he began his lectures in the city of 
New York to young men preparing for the ministry. Rev. Drs. 
Dirck Romeyn and Solomon Froeligh were afterward associated 
with him. In 1807 the college at New Brunswick, which had been 
in a languishing condition, was revived, a professorship of theology 
was soon after established, and Dr. Livingston was appointed both 
professor and president. In 18 10 the theological class at New York 
was removed to New Brunswick, and the theological depart- 
ment in that institution was more .formally established. It 1793 
Rev. John Anderson, D.D., of Beaver County, Pa., a minister of the 
Associate Presbyterian Church, began to devote special attention 
to the instruction of students in theology. He was the sole instruc- 
tor, and the movement was a private affair, in eight years introducing 
only six men into the ministry. He continued in this way until 1818, 
when the theological seminary at Canonsburg was opened. From 
1804, through a period of about fifteen years, Rev. John M. Mason, 
D.D., a distinguished Associate Reformed Presbyterian minister in 
New York city, gave theological instruction and became the first pro- 
fessor in the Union Theological Seminary. But all of these begin- 
nings prior to 1807 were only single professorships, and can hardly 
be designated as theological seminaries until some time afterward. 

The Andover Theological Seminary was established by the 
"Orthodox" Congregationalists, in 1807, immediately after the 



THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 



439 



election of Rev. Henry Ware, a Unitarian, to the professorship of 
theology in Harvard College. It was endowed by the donations of 
Mr. John Norris and his widow, of Salem, Mass. ; of Widow Phebe 
Phillips, John Phillips, and Samuel Abbott, of Andover ; Moses 
Brown and William Bartlet, of Newburyport. 

Theological Seminaries in the United States in 1830.* 



Name. 



Location. 



Bangor Theological Seminary. .. Bangor, Me 

Academy and Theological Inst.. New Hampton, N. H. 

Theological Seminary Andover, Mass 

Theological School Cambridge, Mass 

Theological Institute Newton, Mass 

Theol. Dep. in Vale College New Haven, Conn. . . 



New York city 



Gen. Theol. Sem. Prot. I 

Epis. Ch. U. S ) 

Theological Seminary of Auburn. Auburn, N. Y 

Hamilton Lit. and Theol. Inst.. . Hamilton, N. Y 

Hartwick Seminary Hartwick, N. Y 

Theol. Sem. Dutch Ref. Ch .... New Brunswick, N. J... 

Theol. Sem. Pres. Ch. in U. S. . . Princeton, N. J 

Sem. Gen. Synod Evan. | Gettysburg, Pa 

Luth. Ch. L. s. ) J b 

German Reformed York, Pa 

Western Theological Seminary. . Alleghenytown, Pa 

Epis. Theol. School of Virginia.. Fairfax County, Va 

Union Theological Seminary. ... Prince Edward Co., Va. 

Southern Theological Seminary . Columbia, S. C 

Southern and West. Theo. Sem.. Maryville, E. Tenn 

Lane Seminary Cincinnati, Ohio 

Rock Spring Rock Spring, 111 

Hanover Near Madison, la 



Denomination. 



Congregational 

F.-W. Baptist 

Congregational 

Unitarian. 

Baptist 

Congregational 

Protestant Episcopal 

Presbyterian 

Baptist 

Lutheran 

Dutch Reformed 

Presbyterian 

Evangelical Lutheran . . . 

German Ref. Church.... 

Presbyterian 

Episcopal 

Presbyterian 

Presbyterian 

Presbyterian 

Presbyterian 

Baptist 

Presbyterian 



E ft 



t8i6 
1829 

1808 
1824 
[825 
[822 

1819 
1821 
1820 
1816 



[812 

1826 

1825 

1020 



lr_-4 

182 

I 82 

1829 

[827 

£829 



501 



If 

"3 c 
> 



I,2CO 

IOO 

6,000 

1,400 



8,oco 

3,650 
3,550 

1,300 

900 



6,000 
6,000 
3, 5co 



5,500 



; number educated in thirteen seminaries, 1,558 ; number of 
3o ; total at thirteen seminaries, 639 ; volumes in fourteen semi- 



Total. — Theological seminaries, 
graduates in 1829 at thirteen seminaries, 
nary liuraries, 45,300. 

The Theological Seminaries founded from 1830 to 1850 were the 
following: By the Congregationalists, Gilmanton, N. H., in 1835, 
at East Windsor, Conn., 1833, at Oberlin, Ohio, 1834; by the 
Presbyterians, at Columbia, S. C, in 1832, in New York city, in 
1836, at Cincinnati, Ohio, 1832 ; by the Baptists, at Thomaston, 
Me., in 1837, at Richmond, Va., in 1832, at Eaton, Ga., in 1834, 
at Granville, Ohio, in 1832, at Marion, Ala, unknown, at Cov- 
ington, Ky., in 1840, at Rochester, in 1850; by the Lutherans, 
at Lexington, S. C, in 1835, at Columbus, Ohio, 1830; by the 
Associate Reformed Church, in New York city in 1836; and by the 
Methodists, at Concord, N. H., in 1847 — total, seventeen. The 
evangelical churches had 37 theological seminaries in 1850 with 
1,150 students; and the Unitarians one. 



* See American Quarterly Register, May, 1830. P. 247. 



440 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE NEW LIFE-REFORMATORY. 



Sec. i. The Temperance Reform. I Sec. 3. The Sabbath Reform. 
" 2. The Antislavery Reform. I 



Section 1.— The Temperance Reform and the 

Churches. 

WHEN this century opened the evil of intemperance was near 
its culmination — the darkest time in respect to the use of 
alcoholic intoxicants in American history, and probably in all his- 
tory. In such a period the temperance reformation had its inception 
(1785-1825). Had it been undertaken six centuries earlier, when the 
only alcoholic liquors used were beer, cider, ale, wine and metheglin, 
the task would have been easier. Prior to that time there were no 
distilled liquors, except the little employed by Mohammedan alche- 
mists in search of a universal solvent. About the year 1260 Ray- 
mond Lully, an eminent physician of southern Europe, conceived 
the idea that a spirit distilled from wine possessed life-giving prop- 
erties, and under the name aqua vitce introduced it as a medicine. 
For about three hundred years brandy was thus used. In the mean- 
time whisky, and gin also, to some extent, had been introduced into 
materia medica. In the last half of the sixteenth century these 
spirits passed into common use as beverages. West India rum came 
into being with the development of sugar-cane and molasses, about 
the middle of the seventeenth century, and about the year 1700 New 
England rum was first manufactured. 

Thus within the short period of about three centuries those most 
fiery, potent, and vitiating of all beverages, whisky, brandy, gin and 
rum, became thoroughly domesticated in all ranks of society. How 
much easier to have emancipated humanity from bondage to intem- 
perance before distilled spirits were added to the milder intoxicants! 
In those centuries, too, the reform impulses were wanting, or were 
expended in other directions, and humanity was left to suffer on 



REFORMATORY MOVEMENTS. 441 

until, by its very sufferings, it was goaded to resistance against the 
deadly inflictions. Midway in the period in which this giant evil 
was culminating (1750-1825)* the struggle for deliverance from its 
merciless grasp commenced. 

The Nineteenth Century 

is conspicuous as the first of all the long Christian centuries to wit- 
ness any perceptible amelioration of the giant evil of intemperance. 
The great temperance reformation as we now witness it, filling so 
large a place among the best endeavors of the age, organized in a 
great variety of forms, combining in its swelling ranks multitudes 
of earnest, intelligent men, women, and children among all Anglo- 
Saxon peoples, was in the feeble stages of its incipiency when this 
century opened. In the previous period we traced the first links, in 
the connected chain of this reform, back to the publication of Dr. 
Benjamin Rush's celebrated essay on The Effects of Ardent Spirits 
Upon the Human Mind and Body, in the year 1785. Soon after its 
issue as a tract it appeared in several newspapers, and subsequently 
in tract editions in 1794, 1804, 181 1, etc., etc. Later the American 
Tract Society sent out repeated editions, aggregating, down to 1850, 
172,000 copies. 

After the opening of this century there appeared sporadic move- 
ments looking toward a reform. Almost simultaneously, and 
widely separated, clergymen, physicians and civilians, impressed by 
the reading of Dr. Rush's essay, and by the painful facts of their own 
observation, spoke out against intemperance, and began to confer 
together in reference to some kind of organization for reform. 

This reform has not been, either in its inception or in its later 
stages, a merely humanitarian movement, springing up and moving 
on independently of Christianity and the churches. In the begin- 
ning it grew out of the religious life of the churches. Dr. Rush was 
a devout, practical Christian gentleman. The first most conspicuous 
efforts were put forth by clergymen ; clergymen were leading advo- 
cates and actors in the first organizations ; the first and most com- 
plete organizations were effected pursuant to formal action by ec- 
clesiastical bodies and through committees appointed by them ; and, 
moreover, through all the struggles in the first half of this century, 
as well as in more recent years, the reform received its best impulse, 

* For a fuller account of the inception of the temperance reformation see Liquor Problem in 
all Ages. By Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt. New York city. 1884. Pp. 
159-216. 



442 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

its surest support and its chief pecuniary supplies from the Chris- 
tian churches. 

In 1805 Rev. Ebenezer Porter, of Washington, Connecticut, 
preached a temperance sermon, the earliest now extant in a printed 
form. In 1808 Rev. Lyman Beecher, then in his first parish at East 
Hampton, Long Island, similarly moved, preached his first temper- 
ance sermon and " blocked out " a fuller discussion of the subject, 
which he subsequently expanded and delivered in a series of six ser- 
mons at Litchfield, Connecticut. These sermons were published in 
1826, and republished in large editions and in half a score of lan- 
guages. In 1808 the first temperance society was organized in a 
village on the borders of the towns of Moreau and Northumberland, 
Saratoga County, New York, by a clergyman, a physician, and a 
lawyer, and the following year another society, which became per- 
manent, reaching even to the present day, in the town of Greenfield, 
in the same county. In 18 10 Rev. Heman Humphrey, then of 
Fairfield, Connecticut, subsequently for twenty-two years president 
of Amherst College, preached a series of very able sermons on intem- 
perance. The same year Jeremiah Evarts,* Esq., a devoted 
Christian layman in Boston, in the Panoplist, began to direct public 
attention to the great evil of intemperance. The following year 
Rev. Nathaniel S. Prime, father of Dr. Prime, of the Neiv York 
Observer, preached a pungent sermon against intemperance before 
the Presbytery of Long Island. All these efforts were inspired by 
reading Dr. Rush's essay, as could be definitely proved. 

At the session of the 

General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 

in Philadelphia, May 16, 18.i1, the report on the state of religion 
deplored the alarming prevalence of intemperance in the following 
words : 

We are ashamed hut constrained to say that we have heard of the sin of 
drunkenness prevailing- — prevailing to a great degree — prevailing even among some 
of the visible members of the household of faith. What a reflection on the Chris- 
tian character is this, that they who profess to be bought with a price, and thus 
redeemed from iniquity, should debase themselves, by the gratification of appetite, 
to a level with the beasts that perish ! 

At the same session, two years before his death, Dr. Rush pre- 
sented to the General Assembly one thousand copies of his essay on 
the Effects of Ardent Spirits, for general distribution, accompanying 

* Father of Hon. William M. Evarts, nf New York. 



TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 443 

the donation with a letter urging them, as he had repeatedly done 
before, to take some decisive action on this question. A committee 
was appointed, who favorably considered the subject and reported 
the following resolution ; 

Resolved, That Rev. Drs. Miller, Milledoller, Romeyn, and Rev. Messrs. James 
Richards, M'Neice, E. S. Ely, Gardner Spring, Dr. John, R. B. Rogers, Colonel 
Henry Rutgers, and Mr. Davie Bethune, be a committee to endeavor to devise 
measures which, when sanctioned by the General Assembly, may have an influence 
in preventing some of the numerous and threatening mischiefs which are expe- 
rienced throughout our country by the excessive and intemperate use of spirituous 
liquors; and that this committee be authorized to correspond and act in concert 
with any persons who may be appointed or associated for a similar purpose, and 
report to the next Assembly. 

This action of so influential a body of ministers awakened con- 
siderable attention. The General Assembly set in motion a ball 
whose onward progress was destined never to cease. The nail was 
at last " driven in a sure place." The result of this action can be 
traced, through certain and definite links, to the present time. 
There now exists in the State of Massachusetts an incorporated 
temperance society, organized as one of the direct results of this 
movement in the leading religious body of the land ; namely, the 
" Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance." * 
All other later temperance movements may be clearly traced, link 
by link, to the movement of Dr. Rush. 

This Massachusetts Society 

was organized by a committee, Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D., of 
Salem, chairman, appointed by the General Association of the Con- 
gregational churches of Massachusetts at their annual session in 
June, 1 8 1 1 , and in response to an appeal by the committee of the 
Presbyterian General Assembly just referred to, who personally 
appeared before the Massachusetts body. Some other societies 
grew out of this action in Connecticut and elsewhere, but the Mas- 
sachusetts Society alone became permanent. Hon. Samuel Dexter, 
LL.D, formerly Secretary of War and also of the Treasury of the 
United States, was elected the first president. Numerous auxiliaries 
were formed in Massachusetts and in Maine, and the annual meetings 
were occasions of great interest. Mr. Dexter was followed in the 
presidency of the Society by Hon. Nathan Dane, 1816-1821 ; Hon. 
Isaac Parker, 1821-1827; John Collins Warren, M.D., 1827-1856. 

* Hon. Jacob Sleeper is now the President, and Rev. J. W. Chickering, D.D., Corresponding 
Secretary of this old Society. 



444 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Annual addresses of extraordinary ability were delivered by the 
most eminent clergymen and citizens : 



1 8 14, Rev. J. T. Kirkland, D.D. 
1 81 5,* Rev. Abiel Abbott, D.D. 
1816,* Rev. Jesse Appleton, D.D. 
1817,* Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D. 

1818, Rev. Wm. E. Channing, D.D. 

1819, Hon. Samuel Haven. 

1820, Rev. Eliphalet Porter. D.D. 



1 82 1,* Rev. Wm. Jenks, D.D. 

1822, Hon. Edward Everett. 

1823, Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., D.D. 

1824, No address. 
1825,* John Ware, M.D. 
1826,* Gamaliel Bradford, M.D. 



Under such eminent leadership the movement, inaugurated in 
1811-13, did not lack social prestige. It had the benefit of the per- 
sonal attention and counsel of the most prominent divines and 
statesmen, and the churches of the largest influence were fully 
committed to it. The best physicians also lent their aid, and 
money was not wanting. 

The moral basis of this Society, viewed in the light of the present, 
seems very low. It only aimed to restrict " the too free use of 
ardent spirits," as distilled liquors were then called, and put no re- 
straints upon the use of wine, beer, or cider. Dr. Lyman Beecher, 
referring to these beginnings, said, "We began as well as we knew." 
But, as might be expected, little improvement in respect to in- 
temperance was realized. 

In the year 1825 the necessity of organizing a temperance 
society with more radical principles, on a broad national basis, was 
widely felt. This feeling found a clear expression in an able prize 
essay by Rev. Cyrus Yale, of New Hartford, Connecticut, and also 
prompted the personal efforts of Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., then 
pastor in Andover, Massachusetts, and Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D., 
of the Andover Theological Seminary. They personally visited 
Boston, and held consultations with prominent Christian gentlemen 
preparatory to the organization of 

" The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance," 

which was effected on the 13th of February, 1826. Drs. Edwards 
and Woods, Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., and others who participated in 
the formation of this Society had been among the most active 
members of the Massachusetts Society formed in 1813, and Mr. 
Evarts was one of the committee appointed with Dr. Worcester by 
the General Association of the Congregational churches in 181 1, so 
intimate was the connection of the two Societies. 



These addresses were published. 



TEMPERANCE LEADERS. 448 

No pledge was at this time adopted, nor were the movers of this 
advance, though fully intent upon a more radical reform, prepared 
to formally insist upon entire abstinence, even from distilled spirits, 
by any direct obligation or vow. They were personally total 
abstainers ; and in all their public addresses they unequivocally 
advocated this course. But considerations of prudence held them 
back from pledging the people. Writing to Rev. William A. Hal- 
lock, of New York city, March 3, Dr. Edwards said : " A society is 
formed not for the suppression of intemperance, but for the promo- 
tion of temperance. . . . We want for members holy men who do 
not use intoxicating liquors unless prescribed by a physician as a 
medicine." 

In the years immediately following the organization of the 
Society the active laborers, either in counsel or in the field, 
were Revs. Justin Edwards, D.D., Leonard Woods, D.D., Nathaniel 
Hewett, Lyman Beccher, D.D., Timothy Merritt, Wilbur Fisk, 
D.D., Phineas Crandall, Heman Humphrey, D.D., Jeremiah Day, 
D.D., LL.D., Thomas C. Brownelle, D.D., LL.D., William Collier, 
Calvin Chapin, D.D., William Goodell, William A. Halleck, William 
Jenks, D.D., Joshua Leavitt, D.D., William A. Drew, John Pierpont; 
and among the laity, Hons. Marcus Morton, Samuel Hubbard, 
George Sullivan, John Cotton Smith, LL.D., Thomas S. Williams, 
LL.D., Reuben H. Walworth, LL.D., William Ropes, Esq., John 
Tappan, Esq., James Harper, Esq., Edward C. Delevan, Reuben 
D. Muzzey, M.D., Amos Twitchell, M.D., Thomas P. Hunt, etc., 
and a long list of other names scarcely inferior or less effective in 
service. 

In 1830 eleven State societies, with numerous county and local 
auxiliaries, had been formed. Thenceforth for twenty years the 
movement was very prominent and powerful. Soon after 1830 
the immorality of the liquor traffic was a topic of frequent elabo- 
rate and sharp discussion, and the business was sternly repro- 
bated. Then followed a strong 

Revulsion Against the License System, 

as immoral in principle and an impediment in the way of the temper- 
ance reform. The utterances of such eminent gentlemen as Hons. 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, Gerritt Smith, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, 
John Cotton Smith, Mark Doolittle, George Sullivan, Rev. Drs. 
Heman Humphrey, Justin Edwards, John Pierpont, Joseph Tuck- 

crman, W. E. Channing, etc., against the license system were of the 
29 



446 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

clearest and most incisive character. * Gradually, from 1833 to 1845, 
by local option methods, those old offensive laws were thrown off in 
many localities. In the meantime great advances were also made in 
respect to the principle of total abstinence ; and, from 1826 to 1836, 
many individuals and some local societies adopted the rule of total 
abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. In 1836, total abstinence, 
as the only practicable and reliable measure of reform, was formally 
adopted by a large national convention of citizens of the first rank, 
held at Saratoga Springs. 

At this time the cause was advancing with great rapidity, rally- 
ing to its support many of the first citizens, statesmen and divines. 
Public meetings, with large audiences, were held in all localities, in 
churches, halls and neighborhood school-houses. From 1838 to 
1840 a slight diminution of interest was perceptible, but 

The Washingtonian t Movement, 

beginning in 1840, swept over the land like a tidal-wave, carry- 
ing the reform to a greater height than ever before, and reaching 
large masses not hitherto touched. The effects, however, were 
largely transient. The return of 450,000 of the 600,000 professedly 
reformed drunkards to their cups, as was estimated by Mr. John B. 
Gough, after the Washingtonian wave had passed, awakened a new 
interest in the question of legislation for the suppression of the liquor 
traffic. With liquor saloons tempting the reformed men at every 
turn, they easily lapsed into inebriety and were swept away in the 
maelstrom of drink. It came, therefore, to be a general conviction 
that more stringent laws must be enacted to protect society against 
the temptations and inflictions of the liquor traffic. Out of such 
convictions the advanced movements for the prohibition of the traf- 
fic in alcoholic beverages by legal enactments had their origin, 
culminating in the adoption of the Maine Laws in more than a 
dozen States, between 1850 and 1856. 

In this rapid sketch many very important matters in the history of 
this reform have been reluctantly but necessarily omitted. The action 

* These utterances covered two points : that the licensing of the traffic in alcoholic beverages is 
wrong in principle, and that it promotes the evil of intemperance. These men had never lived 
under any other system than the license system, and uttered their mature convictions. 

t Mr. Hawkins, one of the prominent leaders in the Washingtonian movement, often gratefully 
acknowleged the indebtedness of the movement to religious influences. Mr. Hawkins and his 
comrades had been in attendance upon the revival meetings then conducted in Baltimore by the 
famous evangelist, Elder Jacob Knapp, and greatly impressed by them. It was on coming 
together late in the evening, after one of the meetings in which the terrible evil of intemperance 
was a prominent topic, that the first step was taken. The author of this volume often heard Mr. 
Hawkins's sjtory of his reform in public and by the fireside. See also Life of Haivkins. 



THE WASHINGTONIAN MOVEMENT. 447 

of the medical societies in opposition to the use of alcoholic beverages; 
the resolutions of the ecclesiastical bodies ; the valuable facts in the 
annual reports of the National Temperance Society and of the State 
Societies ; the reform literature published in large quantities ; the 
critical examination of the Bible view of wines; the elaborate dis- 
cussions upon total abstinence, license and prohibition ; the testi- 
monies of eminent civilians and divines against the license system ; 
the Congressional Temperance Society and its valuable reports; the 
action of the Navy and War departments of the General Govern- 
ment in regard to spirit rations, etc.; the simultaneous temperance 
meetings in 1833 in Great Britain and the United States; the Na- 
tional Temperance Conventions; Rev. Dr. Baird's efforts for tem- 
perance in Europe ! Rev. John Pierpont's trials with the liquor 
dealers of his congregation ; Rev. Thomas P. Hunt's exposure of the 
adulterations of liquors ; Rev. Dr. George B. Cheever's contests 
over Deacon Giles's distiller)-; Lucius M. Sargent's effective pen por- 
trayals; Hon. Edward C. Delevan's exposure of the Albany brewers, 
and his legal defense; the liberal pecuniary offerings for the cause; 
the details of the Washingtonian and the Father Mathew move- 
ments ; the rise of the secret temperance brotherhoods ; Dr. Thomas 
Sewall's physiological discoveries and stomach plates; the World's 
Temperance Convention in London ; the rise of inebriate asylums; 
the judicial vindication of the principle of prohibition by the highest 
court of the United States ; the commencement of John B. Gough's 
wonderful career ; the Cold Water armies, etc., etc. can only be 
briefly mentioned in these crowded pages."* 

During the forty years from 1810 to 1850 there was a very 
great reduction in the average quantity of intoxicating liquors con- 
sumed in the country. The consumption of distilled spirits, includ- 
ing those imported and those manufactured in the United States, 
and also foreign wines (the exports of each kind being deducted), 
was as follows : 

Year. Gallons Consumed. Average per each Inhabitant. 

1810 33.273.505 4.60 gallons. 

1823 75,000,000 7 . 50 " 

1830 77,196.120 6.00 " 

1850 5I.S33.473 2.23 " 

The above figures have been carefully computed from data 
selected from official sources, except those for 1823, which are given 

* For fuller information upon these points the reader is referred to the Liquor Problem in All 
Ages. By Rev. D. Dorchester, D.D. Phillips & Hunt, 805 Broadway, New York city. Pp. 
656. 8vo. 



448 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

on the authority of the Boston Recorder, and for 1830, on the 
authority of the Old American Cyclopedia. They show a decrease 
of nearly one half, on the average, in the consumption of alcoholic 
liquors from 18 10 to 1850, and one third as much drank in 1 850 as 
in 1823. Cider is not included, but was probably reduced one half. 
The average consumption of other liquors in 1850 was, wine, 0.27 
gallons per capita; malt liquors, 1.58 gallons per capita. 

Such a decrease of the average consumption of all kinds of in- 
toxicants in the country was a great gain. Governor Briggs is 
reported to have said before he died that the temperance reforma- 
tion had been worth one hundred millions of dollars to Massachu- 
setts alone. 



Section 2.— AntislaYery and the Churches.* 

In the first part of this century the invention and general intro- 
duction of the cotton-gin into the South, the rapid increase of 
cotton manufacturing, and the growing mercantile and commercial 
interests connected with southern products, all combined to make 
slave labor more profitable than formerly, and to deteriorate the 
moral sentiment in regard to the institution. Under such circum- 
stances a determined purpose was formed to retain slavery where it 
already existed and to extend its domain in the Territories. Hence 
laws prohibiting emancipation, the Missouri Compromise, and the 
intense excitement attending its adoption. After this the fires of 
agitation declined; a general condition of stupor followed; the 
public conscience was clouded, and southern legislatures repealed 
the more humane provisions of the slave codes. Large numbers of 
all classes bowed in subserviency to the slave power, and treated 
the discussion of slavery as dangerous to the perpetuity of the 
Union. During this period the radical pro-slavery theories, for the 
advocacy of which Hon. John C. Calhoun was noted, were echoed 
by many divines and statesmen, and became a common sentiment 
in the South, and even with some at the North. It was contended 
that slavery was a divine institution, defensible from the Bible, and 
" the corner-stone of all enduring political institutions." From about 
1805 to 1830 the general tendency of sentiment in regard to slavery 
deteriorated. The disciplinary regulations of the churches against 
slavery became more or less a dead letter, seldom enforced, and 

* So much adverse criticism has been bestowed upon the attitude of the churches in regard to 
slavery that a larger space has been given to this topic. See also p. 360, from which this sketch 
is continued. 



ANTISLAVERY WORKERS. 449 

perhaps never, in large sections, and the advocacy of antislavery 
principles was often severely denounced. In the North many sym- 
pathized with the South, and co-operated with them in even- 
possible way, in the legislative councils of the States and of the 
churches. 

But even in this period of decadence strong antislavery senti- 
ments burned in many Christian hearts. Among the Quakers, in 
1 8 14, Elias Hicks published a volume on slavery, containing the 
most radical principles of abolition. About 1820, in Kentucky and 
Tennessee, some ministers proclaimed with great clearness and force 
the distinctive doctrines of abolition. Dwelling in the midst of 
pro-slavery communities, increasingly intolerant toward emancipa- 
tion, the residence of these ministers became uncomfortable and 
unsafe. Accordingly such men as Rev. John Rankin, a Pres- 
byterian minister, and others, removed with their flocks to Ohio. 
The Methodist itinerants sometimes spoke freely in public against 
slavery. Rev. Jacob Gruber, of the Baltimore Conference, was 
especially outspoken, and while presiding elder, in 181 8, at a camp- 
meeting preached plainly against the slave system, for which he 
was arrested and tried for felony. He was defended by Roger B. 
Taney, Esq., subsequently Chief-Justice of the United States 
Supreme Court, and acquitted. In his eloquent plea Mr. Taney 
affirmed that " the Methodist Church had steadily in view the aboli- 
tion of slavery," that " no slave-holder was allowed to be a minister 
in it," and that " its preachers were accustomed to speak of the 
injustice and oppression of slavery." 

Several Other Active Antislavery Workers 

appeared between 181 5 and 1832. Near Wheeling, Va., resided a 
man of stanch New Jersey Quaker stock, who had deep convictions 
of the wrongs of slavery and clear views of duty in regard to the 
great evil. Benjamin Lundy seized the trailing banner of anti- 
slavery, and, for about a score of years, was a conspicuous standard- 
bearer. From 181 5 to 1830 his labors were immense, involving 
great personal hardship and sacrifice, placing him in advance of all 
contemporaneous abolitionists. From him Mr. Garrison derived 
his first positive antislavery convictions. 

Residing in Wheeling, a great thoroughfare of the interstate 
slave-trade, Mr. Lundy was powerfully stirred by the atrocities of 
the slave system, and could obtain no peace of mind until he 
espoused the cause of the oppressed. In his own house, in 18 15, he 



4SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

organized the " Union Humane Society," which soon numbered 
five hundred members in that region. Auxiliaries were formed in 
Kentucky, Tennessee, etc., and appeals were widely scattered. 
Charles Osborne, Esq., soon became his fellow-laborer, the two pub- 
lishing The Philanthropist, at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in 182 1. Visiting 
Illinois and Missouri, Mr. Lundy portrayed the evils of the slave 
system. Returning, he started the Genius of Universal Emancipa- 
tion, at Steubenville, Ohio — destined to a marked and stormy 
career — for about ten years the only distinctive antislavery journal 
in the country. In 1822 he boldly removed his paper to Greenville, 
Tenn. In midwinter, early in 1824, he traveled on horseback to 
Philadelphia to attend the National Abolition Convention. Return- 
ing, he removed his paper to Baltimore. Traveling on foot in the 
summer, and carrying his own knapsack, he lectured on slavery 
through North Carolina and Virginia, and organized antislavery 
societies, which, in the course of three years, comprised three thou- 
sand members. He was received in Baltimore "civilly, but coolly," 
even by antislavery men, with only words of discouragement for 
his paper. In 1825 a series of articles on the domestic slave-trade 
enraged the slave-dealers, who assaulted him in the streets and com- 
pelled the removal of his paper to Washington. He visited Hayti 
and Texas in the interest of the slaves. In 1826 a National Aboli- 
tion Convention was held in Baltimore, attended by delegates from 
eighty of the one hundred and forty abolition societies in the 
country, nearly all of which traced their origin to Mr. Lundy's efforts. 
In the meantime antislavery sentiment was developing in minds 
destined to become 

Standard-Bearers 

f 
in the great reform. In 1816 Alvan Stewart, subsequently an able 

lawyer and orator in New York, and one of the leaders in the 
antislavery agitation from 1830 to 1850, visited the South, witnessed 
the abomination of slavery, and became an ardent abolitionist. 
From that time he was accustomed to portray the horrors of slavery 
in fervid language, and rendered effective service to the cause of 
antislavery in the days of its weakness. In 1822 to 1824 Mr. Theo- 
dore D. Weld, a candidate for the Congregational ministry, visited 
the South, traveling extensively, and witnessing the terrible aspects 
of slavery. Some years later he said, " On this tour I saw slavery 
at home, and became a radical abolitionist." Before Mr. Garrison 
published the Liberator, we find him exerting his influence positively 
against slavery, and in 1831, in Huntsville, Ala., discussing the 



CHAMPIONS OF ABOLITION. 45 1 

subject of slavery with Rev. Dr. Allen, a Presbyterian minister, who, 
unable to answer his cogent arguments, appealed to Mr. James 
G. Birney, an elder in his church. Several interviews followed, in 
which Mr. Birney was convinced of the wrong of slavery, and en- 
tered upon the work, first of colonization, and afterward of abolition. 

Rev. James Dickey, of Kentucky, in 1824 became deeply 
impressed with the wrong of slavery and published his views in an 
able volume; and in the same year Rev. John Rankin, to whom 
reference has been made, published a series of letters, addressed to 
a Virginia slave-holder, denouncing slavery as " a never-failing 
fountain of grossest immoralities, and one of the deepest sources 
of human misery." From this volume Rev. Samuel J. May, in 
1824, received his first antislaveiy impressions. It took strong 
ground in favor of "immediate emancipation."* Mr. Rankin was 
untiring in his antislavery efforts, organizing societies in Kentucky 
and in the vicinity of Ripley, O., developing around him a strong 
antislavery sentiment. He was among the first movers of the anti- 
slavery societies formed under Mr. Garrison's leadership, always 
declaring, says Mr. Wilson, that " he himself, and the antislavery 
societies he had organized, believed and avowed the doctrine of 
immediate emancipation." f 

In the spring of 1828 Mr. Lundy visted New York city and the 
New England States, enlisting new laborers in the field. The Tap- 
pans, in New York city, were interested. Then we find him visiting 
Rev. Samuel J. May, at Brooklyn, Conn., and deeply impressing 
his already awakened mind. Thence he went to Providence and 
found William Goodell, of whom he said, " I endeavored to arouse 
him, but he was slow of speech on the subject." His labors, how- 
ever, were not in vain. Mr. Goodell's mind moved surely and 
strongly, ana his paper, The Weekly Investigator, started the pre- 
vious year, devoted to moral and political discussion, thenceforth 
gave increasing prominence to temperance and slavery. We find 
Mr. Goodell, hand in hand with Mr. Garrison^ in 1829, calling upon 
prominent Boston ministers to secure their co-operation in the 
cause of antislavery, and, for more than thirty years, a sturdy 
champion of abolition. 

Mr. Lundy moved on to Boston, § where he could find no aboli- 

* See Slavery and Antislavery, by William Goodell, p. 490. 

t Rise and Fall of the Slave Power. Vol. I, p. 17S. 

X Slavery and Antislavery, by William Goodell, p. 401, note. 

§ The following is an extract from Lundy's private journal, and justifies the above statement: 
" At Boston I could hear of no abolitionist resident of the place. At the house where I stayed I 
became acquainted with William L. Garrison, who was a boarder there. He had not then 



452 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

tionists, but, " in the same house where he boarded," he met Mr. 
William Lloyd Garrison, then editing The Philanthropist, a temper- 
ance paper, not having particularly turned his attention to the 
subject of slavery. Mr. Lundy's conversations awakened Mr. Gar- 
rison's mind,* and became the connecting link between the earlier 
and later antislavery movements. After visiting Maine, New 
Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York, Mr. Lundy returned to 
Washington, where the last of the abolition conventions, origi- 
nated in 1794, was held in 1829. 

The English antislavery movement, directed first against the 
slave-trade, then for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves, 
and, later still, for gradual emancipation, rapidly assumed a more 
radical type, and the reform literature abounded in appeals for 

Immediate Emancipation. 

In 1825 Miss Elizabeth Herrick, a member of the Society of 
Friends, published in England a pamphlet entitled, Immediate, not 
Gradual, Emancipation, which soon became the watch-word of the 
reform. 

This doctrine had been urged by Rev. Dr. Hopkins and the 
younger Edwards in the last century. The latter, in 1791 , pro- 
claimed that " every man who cannot show that his negro hath, by 
his voluntary conduct, forfeited his liberty, is obligated immediately 
to manumit him." We have noticed Rev. John Rankin advocating 
this doctrine in 1824, and Rev. Samuel J. May imbibing it from Mr. 
Rankin's book. When Mr. May heard Mr. Garrison's lecture, in 
Boston, October, 1830, advocating immediate emancipation, he was 
fully with him in his views, for he declared that Mr. Garrison's ideas 
" satisfied his mind and heart." Mr. William Goodell,f also, is sup- 
turned his attention particularly to the slavery question. I visited the Boston clergy, and finally 
got together eight of them, belonging to various sects. Such an occurrence, it was said, was 
seldom, if ever, before known in that town. The eight clergymen all cordially approved of my 
object, and each of them cheerfully subscribed to my paper, in order to encourage by their exam- 
ple members of their several congregations to take it. William L. Garrison, who sat in the 
room and witnessed our proceedings, also expressed his approbation of my doctrines. A few 
clays afterward we had a large meeting. After I had finished my lecture several clergymen 
spoke. William L Garrison shortly afterward wrote an article on the subject for one of the daily 
papers.'' 

* At the Anniversary of the American Antislavery Society in New York city, in 1863, Mr. 
Garrison said: tl Had it not been for him I know not where I should have been at the present 
time. My eyes might have been sealed for my whole life, and possibly, though I trust in God I 
should not have been, I might have been led in some direction or other so far as even to care 
nothing for slavery in my country." 

fMr. Goodell commenced, in 1827, the editing and publication of the Weekly Investigator, 
in Providence, R. I., ''devoted to moral and political discussion and reformation in general, 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 453 

posed to have antedated Mr. Garrison in adopting this radical prin- 
ciple, and in early conversations to have led him to adopt it. 

Another name deserves honorable mention as a pioneer in anti- 
slavery movements. Rev. George Bourne, of the Presbyterian 
Church, was one of the most noteworthy antislavery men of this 
period, and one of the most radical and uncompromising in his 
utterances, far in advance of his times. While editing a paper in 
Baltimore (1805 -1809) he wrote freely against the slave-trade and 
the slave system. As pastor of churches in Virginia (1809-1816) 
he delivered powerful antislavery utterances, and published (Harri- 
sonburg, Va., 1812, subsequently republished in Philadelphia, 1816,) 
a volume, The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable, containing the doc- 
trine of immediate emancipation. Driven from Virginia by the 
slave-holders, in 1816, he maintained the same testimony, as pastor, 
at Germantown, Pa. In the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church, in 1818, he took a decided part in the great debate on 
slavery. In 1830 he edited The Protestant, (New York city;) in 
1834 the Protestant Vindicator, and, later, the Christian Intelli- 
gencer. His name appears as an active participator in the organiza- 
tion of the first antislavery societies (1833, 1834) in New York city 
and Philadelphia. In 1833 he published (Middletown, Conn.), 
Pictures of Slavery in the United States, from his personal observa- 
tions in Virginia, the volume, also containing the former book 
enlarged. In 1837 this was republished (Isaac Knapp, Boston) with 
an addition — Slavery Illustrated in Its Effects Upon Woman — con- 
stituting one of the strong antislavery documents of those times, 
(1 833-1 840). In a letter to Mr. Bourne's son, in 1858, Mr. Garrison 
said : '• I confess my early and large indebtedness to him for ena- 
bling me to apprehend with irresistible clearness the inherent 
sinfulness of slavery under all circumstances, and its utter incom- 
patibility with the spirit and precepts of Christianity." 

William Lloyd Garrison. 

It appears that Mr. Garrison is not entitled to the credit of orig- 
inality — as some have claimed — for his peculiar views, but was 
preceded by others, and even guided by them. 

including temperance and antislavery." Some time in 1827 or 1828 Mr. Garrison came to Boston 
to assist Rev. William Collier (Baptist) in editing and printing The National Philanthropist, 
devoted wholly to temperance. Late in 1828 Mr. Garrison went to Bennington, Vt., to edit The 
Journal of the Times ; and in January, 1829, Mr. GoodelFs paper was merged into the 
National Philanthropist, in Boston, Mr. Collier retiring. In July, 1830, it was removed to New 
York, and published by W. Goodell and P. Crandall as The Genius of Tempera7ice, and sub- 
sequently discontinued, Mr. Goodell then taking charge of the Emancipator. 



454 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In the latter part of 1828 Mr. Garrison went to Bennington, Vt., 
where he edited The Journal of the Times, and soon achieved the 
reputation of a fanatic. In his mind, sharper and intenser than Mr. 
Lundy's, antislavery assumed a sterner type than the sturdy Quaker 
ever dreamed of, and, in the midst of the prevailing stupor, he rang 
out the astounding notes of immediate emancipation. Here he 
was again visited by Mr. Lundy, whose invitation to aid him in 
editing his paper in Baltimore he accepted, in which service he 
became a victim of slave-holding vengeance, fully determining his 
life career. The story of his severe attacks upon the slave system, 
his arrest, trial, and incarceration, and release through the gener- 
osity of Arthur Tappan, is familiar to all. He returned to Boston, 
and on the 1st of January, 1831, commenced the publication of 
The Liberator, a redoubtable knight-errant, helmeted, greaved, and 
mounted upon a fiery charger, the hero of many a desperate tour- 
nament, of many a bloody fray, of many a fierce encounter. 

Thus far the leading champions of antislavery have been chiefly 
representatives of the churches, and the churches have uttered 
emphatic testimony and enacted stringent disciplinary regulations 
against slavery, though sometimes hesitating and hindered because 
of the complex political environment of the institution. The field, 
therefore, was not an uncultivated one, nor destitute of resolute, 
experienced workers, when Mr. Garrison arose. One hundred and 
fifty-seven years of antislavery seed-sowing by religious men, fifty- 
eight years of organized movements by societies and conventions, 
composed chiefly of members of the churches, and more than 
sixty years of legislation against slavery by ecclesiastical bodies, 
preceded the advent of Mr. Garrison in the field, who, a child of the 
Church, and originally inspired by her ministrations, came forth as 
one of the long succession of apostles of antislavery. 

More than this : At the time when Mr. Garrison came before the 
public this cause was gaining prestige from the culmination and 
assured speedy triumph of British emancipation, incepted, cham- 
pioned, and sustained, from first to last, by the best representatives 
of British Christianity in and out of Parliament. The 1st of 
August, 1834, witnessed the consummation, and the example of 
that sublime achievement stirred the world with powerful pulsations 
of universal liberty. Mr. Garrison's advent into public life was at 
an opportune moment. While many friends of the slave were 
waiting and praying for some providential way to be opened for the 
liberation of the oppressed multitudes, Mr. Garrison reached man- 
hood and caught inspiration from the examples of the English 



ORTHODOX ABOLITIONISTS. 455 

antislavery reformers, brilliant with omens of approaching success. 
On January 1 , 1 83 1 , he issued the first number of the Liberator, 
and three years and a half later, emancipation was an accomplished 
fact in the British West Indies. Under the influence of such 
inspiring events Mr. Garrison boldly proclaimed his distinctive 
thesis of immediate and unconditional emancipation. 

Following in the wake of British antislavery reformers, and 
ignoring the radical difference in the constitutional possibilities of 
the two governments, he uncompromisingly, severely, and bitterly 
maintained a line of antislavery action which necessarily separated 
many good, discreet men from affiliation with him. It was impos- 
sible for them to see any way in which immediate and unconditional 
emancipation could be effected. They deemed his policy unwise 
and impracticable, hurtful, and perilous to the best interests of 
the slave. But, with him, to be non-Garrisonian was to be pro- 
slavery, deserving of implacable denunciation. We shall see him 
ofttimes practically working against the cause he sought to promote. 

The Garrisonian Antislavery Societies 

grew out of the religious sentiment and the churches. Nearly all 
of the twelve persons who organized the New England Antislavery 
Society in Boston, January, 1832, were members of the evangel- 
ical churches. From the pen of Mr. Oliver Johnson,* the youngest 
of them all, then an editor of a religious paper, a member of Dr. 
Beecher's church, and a candidate for the ministry, we learn the 
religious relations of each. Robert B. Hall was a theological stu- 
dent, and a member of the Essex Street Congregational church. 
Arnold Buffom, the first president of the Society, was a Rhode 
Island Quaker, who had traveled in England and was acquainted 
with Clarkson and Wilberforce. William J. Snelling was a journal- 
ist. John E. Fuller was a business man and a member of Dr. 
Beecher's church. Moses Thatcher was the editor of the Boston 
TclcgrapJi and pastor of the Congregational church at North Wren- 
tham. Joshua Coffin was the gentleman honored in Whittier's 
lines, '' To my old School-master." Stillman J. Newcomb was an 
earnest religious man. Benjamin C. Bacon was a religious young- 
man, an employe in the office of the American Education Society. 
Isaac Knapp was Mr. Garrison's partner in publishing the Liberator. 
Henry K. Stockton was a printer by trade, connected with the Bos- 
ton Telegraph. Nearly all were religious men, connected with 
evangelical churches. 

* Christian Uniott. August 12, 1874. 



466 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Mr. Garrison's Religious Position 

at that time deserves fuller notice. His later religious views hav- 
ing undergone a considerable change, and excited diverse inquiries 
and comments, it is a matter of considerable interest to state in 
detail his earlier religious convictions, under the influence of which 
he entered upon this great movement. Those who knew him well, 
in his earlier years, have said that he possessed a nature deeply 
religious, "a positive genius for ethics," unusual keenness of moral 
perception, an invincible moral courage, and " sympathy for the 
unfortunate that scorned the limitations of race, color, or clime." 
On coming to Boston, in 1826, at the age of twenty-one years, he 
was recognized as soundly orthodox, and was a devout worshiper 
in Dr. Lyman Beecher's church. He was not a communicant, but 
had great reverence for God, for Christ, and the institutions of 
Christianity. " His views," says Oliver Johnson, " were neither 
Rationalistic nor Liberal, but soundly orthodox. The Bible was 
his constant companion, the armory from which he drew the weap- 
ons of his warfare. No clergyman or theological professor was 
more familiar with the Old Testament or the New than he was. 
The Hebrew prophets, Christ, and his Apostles were his model 
reformers, and his faith in God and the moral law was scarcely infe- 
rior to theirs." 

His interpretation of Christianity was eminently orthodox, and 
he relied upon revivals of religion as the hopeful instrumentalities 
for the liberation of the slaves. In 1831 he declared, in the Liber- 
ator, that " nothing but extensive revivals of pure religion could 
save the country from great plagues and sudden destruction ; " that 
religious conversions are scriptural occurrences; that "the kingdoms 
of this world can never become ' the kingdom of our Lord and his 
Christ ' independently of great revivals;" that "if the present revivals 
be (as we trust they are) the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we pray that 
they may embrace the nation," etc. Mr. Garrison was also at this 
time a strict observer of the Sabbath, and " would no sooner have 
gone to the post-office for his letters and papers, or taken a walk for 
recreation on that day, than he would have committed a theft." 
His antislavery career was the legitimate outcome of a heart pro- 
foundly stirred with deep religious convictions, and all his early 
compeers derived their impulse from the same source. New labor- 
ers, inspired by the same feelings, came forth through the successive 
years of this great agitation, representing the 



ANTISLAVERY SOCIETIES. 457 

Piety and the Philanthropy of Pure Christianity. 

Under the leadership of prominent representatives of the 
churches other antislavery societies and several antislavery papers 
were soon started. The Emancipator was established in New York- 
city in March, 1833, by Hon. Arthur Tappan, under the editorial 
supervision of Rev. Charles W. Dennison. In October following, 
in response to a call issued by Rev. Joshua Leavitt, the New York- 
City Antislavery Society was organized, and on December 4 the 
American Antislavery Society, in Philadelphia, the latter holding 
its first anniversary meeting May 6, 1834, in the Chatham Street 
Chapel, New York. In June, 1835, the New England Wesleyan 
Antislavery Society was organized in Lynn, Mass., by about seventy 
ministers of the New England Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. The following month the New Hampshire Confer- 
ence of the same Church organized a similar society. These are a 
few of the leading societies constituted at this early period, and 
which in the course of eight years numbered more than two thou- 
sand, with two hundred thousand members. Of the persons 
participating in the organization of the American Antislavery Soci- 
ety, and in its first anniversary, more than one third were ministers 
of the Gospel, and two thirds of the remainder were either lay offi- 
cials or private members of the churches. As early as 1832 Rev. 
Beriah Green, Professor of Sacred Literature in Western Reserve 
College, Ohio, published four stirring antislavery sermons, and in 
1833 Rev. Elizur Wright, another professor in that institution, 
published a powerful essay against slavery. 

Mobs. 

The first antislavery meetings encountered violent opposition. 
Hissing, mobs, peltings, personal abuse and social ostracism followed 
the reformers. The New York City Antislavery Society was driven 
from its place of meeting, and the celebration by the American 
Antislavery Society on July 4, 1834, was broken up. The house of 
Lewis Tappan was sacked, and the churches and homes of colored 
people were assaulted and damaged. In August, 1834, a fearful 
riot raged three nights in Philadelphia, and similar outrages were 
perpetrated elsewhere. Cruel and dastardly assaults were made 
upon abolitionists, countenanced and often excited by men of posi- 
tion and wealth, and sometimes by members of churches. The 
public journals were vehicles of scandalous accusations against the 
reformers, misrepresenting their purposes, motives, and acts. 



4S8 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Churches and public halls alike were often closed against them, and 
they were made to feel that they held property and liberty, if not 
life itself, at the mercy of excited, lawless men. It was indeed a 
reign of terror. Rev. Orange Scott, a presiding elder in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, while delivering an antislavery address in 
Worcester, Mass., August 10, 1835, was assaulted, and his notes 
seized and torn to pieces, by a mob led by a son of an ex-governor 
of the Commonwealth. In the same year Rev. George Storrs, 
another Methodist minister, while lecturing in New Hampshire, was 
arrested by a deputy sheriff on the charge of being " a common 
rioter and brawler." Soon after, at another antislavery meeting, he 
was again arrested and dragged from his knees while Rev. Mr. 
Curtis was in prayer. A meeting of an antislavery society com- 
posed of some of the most cultured ladies in Boston was broken 
up in October, 1835, by a mob composed of " gentlemen of property 
and standing," the mayor and marshal declining to protect them. 
On the same day Mr. Garrison was seized, led with a rope around 
his neck, and his clothes were torn from his body. The mayor* 
finally interposed, rescued him, and lodged him in jail to save him 
from fury. These are a few of a long series of outrages, in which 
the mobbing of Hon. George Thompson, the eminent English 
philanthropist, the assassination of Lovejoy and Bewley, and the 
martyrdom of Torrey and John Brown were conspicuous. 

The Churches Censured. 

The action of the churches and the ministry during this period 
has been severely censured. The clergy were accused of backward- 
ness and even of positive opposition. It was said that some had to be 
dragged into the service if they rendered any aid. In the autumn 
of 1830 Mr. Garrison made several efforts to obtain a church f or a 
hall in Boston' in which to deliver three free antislavery addresses. 
After many unsuccessful personal applications he advertised in the 
Courier; but no church in Boston responded to his appeal. This 
was before the publication of the Liberator, and fifteen months 
before the New England Antislavery Society was organized. Mr. 
Garrison's religious views were not then distrusted, for he was 

* In 1837 Massachusetts' most classic orator and governor warned the abolitionists that the 
agitation of the slavery question would be regarded as "an offense against the peace of the 
Commonwealth, which might be prosecuted as a misdemeanor at common law." 

t Per contra, it may be said that Jesse Lee and other early Methodist preachers could not 
obtain the use of churches for religious services. For several successive weeks he sought in vain 
in Boston to get a church to preach in. 



INDIFFERENCE OF THE CHURCHES. 459 

known to be " soundly orthodox " and a regular worshiper at Dr. 
Lyman Beecher's Church. Failing to obtain a church, a society of 
avowed infidels, organized in Boston by Abner Kneeland, having 
control of Julien Hall, in Milk Street, offered it gratuitously to Mr. 
Garrison, and it was thankfully accepted. 

But this was only the beginning of a long series of adverse 
movements by religious bodies against this reform. Many Chris- 
tian men of positive antislavery principles turned their backs upon, 
the Garrison societies, while some filled their mouths with apol- 
ogies for slave-holding, and others stoutly and learnedly defended 
the institution from the Bible. The Protestant EpiscoparBishop of 
a New England diocese belonged to the latter class. Another, the 
president of a New England college, declared that slavery was not 
only a positive institution of revealed religion, but also compatible 
with the law of love. A Boston minister, visiting the South for his 
health, pictured slavery in a rose-colored hue, and a learned the- 
ological professor in a treatise called the higher-law doctrine a 
heresy, and advocated the duty of returning slaves to bondage. 
The moral jargon increased, and the opposition grew fiercer, hotter, 
and more implacable. 

The American Churches 

became deeply stirred, and appropriate action was taken in many 
conferences and associations, while in others the action was some- 
times reprehensible. 

The Friends, who inherited and cherished their earlier anti- 
slavery testimony as a precious legacy from their fathers, after the 
Missouri Compromise contest, in common with other churches, felt 
the general stupor, and were disinclined to attack slavery. This 
spirit manifested itself particularly among wealthy Friends engaged 
in the manufacture or sale of cotton, and in other commercial pursuits. 
" The Quakers in New England," said Oliver Johnson, " as a body, 
instead of welcoming the antislavery movement and giving it en- 
couragement, set themselves firmly but insidiously against it, gen- 
erally refusing to open their meeting-houses for antislavery lectures, 
preventing their members, as far as possible, from uniting with the 
Antislavery Society, and sometimes dismissing those who were inde- 
pendent enough to co-operate with the Abolitionists." There were 
honorable individual exceptions. But many of those included in 
Mr. Johnson's censure were persons whose only fault was that they 
did not pronounce the Garrisonian shibboleth. 

The Congregational Churches, wholly a Northern body, and con- 



460 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

sequently without ecclesiastical entanglements with the South in 
any organic form, were embarrassed, and often seriously compro- 
mised, by the influence of prominent members engaged in the manu- 
facture of cotton, or connected with slavery in commercial, social, 
or political relations. Nevertheless, they were well represented in the 
struggle. Revs. Amos A. Phelps, of Boston : William Goodell and 
Joshua Leavitt, of Xew York city : S. S. Jocelyn, of New Haven, 
and David Thurston, of Maine, were in the antislavery field as early 
as 1833, attending and actively participating in the organization of 
the American Antislavery Society in Philadelphia, in December of 
that year. Rev. Mr. Thurston was for many years one of its agents, 
and Rev. Messrs. Phelps, Leavitt and Goodell were editors and 
agents for many years in the service of antislavery societies. As 
early as 1S37 fully one third of the Congregational ministers in 
Massachusetts were enrolled members of antislavery societies. 

The Antislavery Society in Amherst College, in 1834. had j6 
members, of whom 70 were professors of religion : 30 of them had 
consecrated themselves to the foreign missionary work, and 20 to 
home missionary service in the West. In 1834 the trustees of Lane 
Seminary (Cincinnati) prohibited the open discussion of slavery by 
the students, and four fifths of the students withdrew from the 
institution. A number of them, including Theodore D. Weld. * 
Henry B. Stanton and Ichabod Codding, became at once anti- 
slavery lecturers, and went from State to State defending the rights 
of the slave. The breaking up of the classes in Lane Seminary led 
to the organization of the theological department at Oberlin. and 
in this great reform Oberlin took an early and prominent part. 
Mr. Finney refused to become president of a college unless colored 
students were allowed to enjoy its privileges. The Hon. Salmon 
P. Chase was wont to ascribe his elevation to the United States 
Senate to the influence of Oberlin. f 

"So far as Congregationalism is concerned," says the editor of 
the Congregational Quarterly, " it should be remembered that the 
leading Garrisonians. Henry C. Wright, Parker Pillsbury, and 
Stephen S. Foster, imbibed their antislavery sentiments, but not 
their fanaticism, from Congregational sources, for the}' were orig- 

* While Mr. Weld was holding a series of meetings in S.teubenville. Ohio, he noticed a young 
lawyer in h ; s audience evening after evening, taking notes. At the close of his last lecture the 
young man came forward and introduced himself, remarking, "I came here resolved to answer 
you, and have taken notes of even- lecture ; but you have converted me." That young lawyer 
was Edwin M. Stanton, and thus God raised up for Mr. Lincoln's administration a fit Secretary 
of War. 

t Congregational Quarterly, 1876. p. 554. 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 461 

inally Congregational ministers or candidates for that office. . . . 
I freely acknowledge that the Church did not do its whole duty. 
In our own denomination the prominent ministers particularly 
seemed to be unduly subject to commercial influences. Still the true 
picture, although it has dark shades, is luminous and attractive."* 

The Free-Will Baptists, located almost entirely in the North, 
kept clear of the evil, and were decided in their protests against it, 
on account of which the New Hampshire Legislature, for many 
years an ultra-Democratic body, refused to grant an act of incor- 
poration for their publishing house. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church, extending through the South, 
every-where maintained extremely conservative ground. Through 
all the antislavery agitations, and even during the late civil war, 
her ministry, in their pulpits and ecclesiastical assemblies, stu- 
diously avoided the question of slavery and all politico-religious 
matters. As the result a considerable number of conservative, 
"South-side" politicians, disturbed by what was stigmatized as 
*' political preaching" in other denominations, united with that 
Church, which tended to make it still more conservative. 

The action of two other large denominations will be sketched 
more at length. 

The Presbyterian Church 

had many sharp contests on this question. In 1833 the Synod of 
Kentucky, after discussing for two days with much spirit a reso- 
lution declaring slavery within its bounds a great moral evil, incon- 
sistent with the Word of God, indefinitely postponed the subject : 
whereupon Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckenridge left the house, declaring, 
" Since God has forsaken the Synod of Kentucky Robert J. Breck- 
enridge will forsake it too." The following year an able committee 
was directed to prepare a plan for the instruction and future eman- 
cipation of slaves. They reported the next year, recommending 
gradual emancipation. But the committee were in advance of the 
Synod, and their report failed of approval. Under what was char- 
acterized as "Northern aggressions," "inflammatory periodicals," 
etc., a reaction set in, and the prospects of emancipation became 
less hopeful. Slave laws were made more stringent, and Sabbath- 
schools for the slaves were suspended. 

The subject of slavery was brought to the attention of the 
Presbyterian General Assembly in 1836 by the report of a committee 
appointed the previous year to consider certain petitions and me- 

* Congregational Quarterly, 1876, p. 553. 



462 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

morials. The majority recommended that no action be taken on 
the subject. The minority report proposed certain resolutions 
strongly opposed to slavery. After a variety of motions and prop- 
ositions the whole subject was indefinitely postponed by a vote of 
156 yeas to 87 nays ; 28 members protested against the decision. 
The excitement was very great during the debates. * 

A purely ecclesiastical question in regard to the benevolent 
"boards" of the Church, with which the slavery question became 
complicated, hindered and embarrassed their action. A compromise 
quieted the South and prevented a rupture ; but it was accomplished 
on the humiliating condition that slavery was no more to be allowed 
to disturb the General Assembly, f Subsequently the agitation was 
renewed. Year after year memorials and overtures were presented, 
eliciting warm and extended discussion and resulting in action which 
failed to satisfy the more zealous antislavery men of the North, and 
excited dissatisfaction at the South. The antislavery sentiment of 
the Church was increasing, as was evident from the utterances of the 
General Assembly ; but its official action under the preponderating 
desire for unity continually exposed it to criticism from radical re- 
formers at the North and from apologists for slavery at the South. 
In 1857 a secession J on account of the slavery question took place, 
forming the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church. 

A very considerable portion of the strength of the Presbyterian 
Church was within the limits of those States which seceded from 
the Federal Union in 1861 ; and " upon the Assembly of that year 
the long-deferred question pressed with the weight of an avalanche." 
The Assembly indicated its loyalty by appropriate resolutions, de- 
claring its repugnance to a rebellion instituted in the interest of 
slavery, which were passed by a vote of 156 yeas to 66 nays. The 
result was the secession of the Southern churches and presbyteries 
and the formation of the Southern General Assembly. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The first movements against slavery in this body after 1830 were 
made in the New England and New Hampshire Conferences, under 
the leadership of Rev. Orange Scott in the former and Rev. George 
Storrs in the latter. When Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D., in the New 
England Conference, in June, 1834, offered resolutions in favor of 
the Colonization Society, Mr. Scott moved to lay them on the table, 
which was carried after a stormy debate. In January, 1835, Mr. 

* History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 
Vol. II, p. 524. + Ibid., pp. 526, 527. \ Ibid., pp. 555-559- 



THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 463 

Scott commenced a long series of articles on slavery in the Zioii s 
Herald (Boston), and on the 4th of February following, an "Appeal" 
to the Church on the subject of slavery appeared in the same paper 
over the signatures of LeRoy Sunderland, Orange Scott, Abram D. 
Merrill, Shipley W. Wilson, George Storrs and Jared Perkins. On 
the 8th of April a " Counter Appeal " appeared, written by Rev. D. 
D. Whedon and signed by Wilbur Fisk, John Lindsay, Bartholomew 
Otheman, Hezekian S. Ramsdell, Edward T. Taylor, Abel Stevens, 
Jacob Sanborn and H. H. White. In June the New England and 
New Hampshire Conferences organized antislavery societies'* and 
made arrangements to circulate Wesley's " Thoughts on Slavery " 
and other documents. Thus was reopened the antislavery agitation 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Then followed in rapid succession a long series of exciting events : 
the address of fourteen Baltimore ministers and the report of the 
Ohio and Kentucky Conferences disapproving of abolitionism ; the 
address of Bishops Hedding and Emory, September 10, 1835, to the 
ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church within 
the bounds of the New England and New Hampshire Conferences, 
expressing great solicitude on account of the excitement occasioned 
by agitating the subject of " immediate emancipation ;" the address 
of Dr. Wilbur Fisk, one of the purest and best constituted minds in 
the Church, on the eve of his departure for Europe, in a similar 
style ; the establishment of Zioii s Watchman in New York city 
January 1, 1836, devoted especially to the cause of abolition, with 
LeRoy Sunderland as editor; the resolutions of the Baltimore and 
New York Conferences strongly condemning abolition and the 
Watchman ; the presentation to the General Conference at Cincin- 
nati (May, 1836,) of petitions from New England, signed by 200 
ministers and 2,284 laymen, praying for action against slavery; the 
censuring by that body of two of its members for attending and ad- 
dressing an abolition meeting in Cincinnati ; the passage of a reso- 
lution disclaiming any "right, wish or intention to interfere with the 
civil and political relation between master and slave as it exists;" 
the attempt of the southern members to elect a slave-holding bishop 
contrary to the established policy of the Church ; the exciting scenes 
in 1837 over the slavery question at the New England and the New 



* By invitation the Hon. George Thomp on, an English Wesleyan local preacher, preached 
a powerful sermon before the New England Conference, from Ezekiel 28. 14-16. The North 
Bennett Street Methodist Episcopal C-mrch was opened to Mr. Thompson, on fast day, for a 
sermon, and also for a meeting of the Ladies' Antislavery Society, which Mr. Thompson ad- 
dressed ; which acts, at a time when Mr. Thompson was every- where denounced, were highly 
commended in the Liberator. 



464 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Hampshire Conferences and in Methodist antislavery conventions 
held in Utica and Cazenovia, N. Y., and Lynn, Mass. ; the action of 
the New York Conference, the following year, calling to account two 
of its members for attending the Utica Convention ; the issuing of 
the Wesleyan Quarterly Review in 1838, by Rev. Orange Scott, for the 
fuller discussion of antislavery questions, and Mr. Scott's arraign- 
ment by Bishop Hedding at the following session of the New En- 
gland Conference in Boston ; the arraignment of LeRoy Sunderland 
by Rev. Dr. Nathan Bangs for a similar cause ; the discussion of the 
famous " Plan of Pacification " and questions of " Conference Rights " 
in 1838 and 1839; the extreme pro- slavery utterances of southern 
Conferences declaring that "slavery as it now exists in these United 
States is not a moral evil ; " and the starting of the American Wes- 
leyan Observer, a new antislavery paper, in Lowell, Mass., November 
7, 1839, edited by Revs. Jotham Horton and Orange Scott. 

These events, occurring between 1834 and 1840, show the intense 
aggressive spirit of opposition to slavery in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and the no less determined resistance to antislavery action 
by southerners and southern sympathizers. During these six years 
the Church was agitated by the most exciting contests ever known 
in her history. The South threatened to divide the Church, and 
many at the North, fearing it, sought to avert the calamity, but the 
antislavery sentiment steadily increased. 

The Last of the Retrograding Series. 

The General Conference of 1840 was in harmony with that of 
1836, where the downward tendency of conservatism touched bot- 
tom. The action of the Missouri Conference, condemning a minister 
of maladministration for receiving the testimony of colored persons 
against white persons in a church trial, was approved, and by a 
vote of seventy-four to thirty-six this Conference declared that 
" such a practice is inexpedient and unjustifiable in those States 
where colored persons are not allowed to testify in trials at law." 
But the most remarkable action was taken upon a memorial from 
Westmoreland, Va. The Conference affirmed that ownership of 
slave-property, in States and Territories where the laws do not admit 
of emancipation, or permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom, con- 
stitutes no legal barrier to the election and ordination of ministers 
to the various grades of office known in the ministry of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and cannot therefore be considered as oper- 
ating any forfeiture of right in view of such election and ordination. 



ACTION OF THE MISSOURI CONFERENCE. 465 

These concessions, contrary to the time-honored policy of the 
Church, aroused attention and augmented the immense antislavery 
force in process of development within and without the ecclesiastical 
lines. The tide turned in 1840, after which no more concessions 
were made to the slave-power. The "Wesleyan" schism, in 1842, 
in which about twenty traveling elders and five thousand members 
seceded, chiefly on account of the relation of the Church to slaver}-, 
contributed somewhat to this end. 

When the General Conference met in 1844 it found on its hands 
a great question to settle — whether the bishops should be allowed 
to hold slaves ; Bishop Andrew having become a slave-holder by 
marriage— the first instance in the history of the denomination. 
The northern members contended that the episcopal chair must be 
kept free from this evil, as it always had been, and that he must 
therefore resign his position. His friends pleaded, protested and 
threatened division if he was not let alone. But the Conference, by 
a vote of no to 68, declared that he must desist from the exercise 
of his office. The result was the secession of a large number of 
southern ministers and members, and the formation of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South. 

Sixteen more years of contest remained before the unequivocal 
rule against all slave-holding could be enacted by the necessary 
three fourths vote of the General Conference. In i860 the chapter 
on slavery in the Discipline was strengthened so as to embody this 
exclusive principle, and four years later the specific rule was adopted 
by a vote of 207 to 9. The civil war, occasioned by the triumph in 
the nation of the policy of the non-extension of slavery in the Ter- 
ritories, achieved very largely by the prayers, appeals and suffrages of 
antislavery church members, aided the final solution. 

It is hardly necessary to trace the antislavery struggle in the 
Baptist Church, so similar to those already sketched, which culmi- 
nated in the division of the denomination in 1845, an d the organ- 
ization of the northern and southern Baptist Conventions. Nor 
have we space to enter into the details of the humiliating compro- 
mises of various benevolent boards. 

In the course of these agitations another movement took place, 
one of the most painful to record, because of 

The Bitter and Destructive Spirit It Engendered. 

I have no disposition to detract from any credit due to Mr. Gar- 
rison as an antislavery agitator. His peculiar talent made him con- 
spicuous and left a deep impression. But the time came when the 



466 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Garrison party diminished in numbers and in influence, and the anti- 
slavery cause was carried forward, not merely without his aid, but 
even in spite of his hinderance. He possessed an extraordinary power 
of vituperation, and his philippics were terrible irritants. " He prej- 
udiced the minds of good men against the antislavery cause, while 
the political movement, which ultimately proved the successful one, 
ever after 1838 met with his opposition." * 

In less than five years from the organization of the first society 
under Mr. Garrison the American Antislavery Society numbered 
1,350 auxiliaries, existing in every free State except Indiana and 
New Jersey, and its annual receipts reached $45,000. But notwith- 
standing this rapid progress he became impatient, and his intensely 
radical spirit, panting for still more radical reforms, repelled his best 
tried friends. He forgot that he drew his first antislavery breath 
from the Church ; that his best supporters were the people of the 
churches ; that of the persons participating in the organization of 
the American Antislavery Society and its auxiliaries, and those at- 
tending the antislavery anniversaries and conventions, full one third 
were ministers, while more than half of the remainder were com- 
municants of the churches ; that three fourths of the antislavery 
agents and editors were clergymen ; that Hon. George Thompson, 
with whom he had communed so closely, was a Wesleyan local 
preacher ; that his ablest adherents and confreres were Revs. 
A. A. Phelps, Joshua Leavitt, William Goodell, Nathaniel Colver, 
Baron Stow, Orange Scott, Jotham Horton, Samuel J. May, etc., 
and that instead of a decline there was a steady growth of reform 
sentiment and activity in the churches. All these things and many 
more he forgot. He abhorred and denounced the Church and State, 
and sought their overthrow. 

In a Fourth-of-July address at Providence in 1837 he frenziedly 
declared, " I stand forth in the spirit of prophecy to proclaim in the 
ears of the people that our doom as a nation is sealed," adding, "If 
history be not wholly fabulous, if revelation be not a forgery, if God 
be not faithless in the execution of his threatenings, the doom is 
certain and the execution thereof sure. The overthrow of the Amer- 
ican Confederacy is in the womb of events. . . . The corruptions of 
the Church, so-called, are obviously more deep and incurable than 
those of the State, and therefore the Church, in spite of every pre- 
caution and safeguard, is first to be dashed in pieces." f 

Mr. Garrison and his intimate friends were soon intent on other 

* Editor of the Congregational Quarterly, October, 1876, p. 552. 

•\The True History of the Late Division in the Antislavery Societies, p. 8, 1841. 



EXTREME SENTIMENTS. 467 

reforms. ''Anti-church," "Anti-ministry," "Anti-Sabbath," "No 
Government," " Woman's Rights," etc., were the watch-words. 
Standing alone on their individual merits these reforms could get 
no hearing before the public ; therefore it was attempted to " sift 
them in " upon the antislavery reform. * 

The ultraists pleaded \ that both the ecclesiastical and the polit- 
ical organizations failed to grasp the question of slavery as its im- 
portance demanded ; that the slave power was aggressive, arrogant, 
mandatory and grasping ; that Church after Church had looked on 
with little interest, often using their influence rather to quiet aboli- 
tionists than to harm slavery ; that politicians were afraid to attack 
the monster in the halls of Congress, and quailing statesmen cowered 
before the bowie-knife and revolver. Under such circumstances 
these champions of reform became impatient, bitter, vindictive and 
desperate. Out of this feeling the " Comeouter " movement arose, 
dividing the opposers of slavery into two parties. 

The " Comeouter" Party, 

led by the Liberator, edited by Mr. Garrison, opposed the American 
Church — not merely the pro-slavery part, but the Church itself — as 
the bulwark of American slavery, and consequently an institution 
that could not be reformed, and, therefore, to be abolished before 
slavery could be reached. The ministry, as dumb dogs (D.Ds.) that 
would not bark, were placed in the same category, and must go with 
the Church. The Sabbath was denounced ; all days were to be re- 
garded alike. The Bible received a liberal share of abuse, most 
of them discarding its authority as a standard of appeal. It was 
a stench in their nostrils, because slave-holders and their apologists 
perverted it to sustain slavery. Reason and conscience were above 
the Bible. The Old Testament was rejected as of no authority 
whatever, and the New also when it confronted their theories. 
These topics were forced upon the antislavery meetings for dis- 
cussion and indorsement, and special meetings were called and their 
doings published in the Liberator as antislavery literature. 

Another obstacle in the way of emancipation was the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. Human governments, they affirmed in 
general, were " of the devil," and the United States Constitution in 
particular was a "covenant with death, a league with hell." It was 

* The True History of the Late Division in the Antislavery Societies, p. 15. 
+ F01- some of the facts connected with the origin of the "Comeouter" movement the author 
is indebted to a letter in the Boston Daily Advertiser, June 9, 1873, by J. W. Alden. 



463 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

a sin to vote under it even to free the slave, because their tender 
consciences could not approve the act of voting. Slave-holding 
politicians for fifty years had construed the Constitution in favor of 
slavery, and pro-slavery divines had done the same thing with the 
Bible. Inasmuch as the Church, the ministry, the Sabbath, the 
Bible and the United States Constitution all lay in the way of the 
abolition of slavery, they must be removed before slavery could be 
reached. "The antislavery movement at the start favored the use 
of the elective franchise in behalf of the slave;" but in 1838 the 
Massachusetts Antislavery Society, under the lead of Mr. Garrison, 
"was made to abandon its own original doctrines on the subject of 
political action, and became subservient to the promotion of the 
dogma of non-governmentism." 

These views caused a division and a new organization of anti- 
slavery workers. From that time Mr. Garrison's influence declined, 
and the sphere of his operations was narrowed to a small, dwindling 
circle of sour, wrangling spirits, while the great movement to which 
his earlier labors contributed an impulse rolled on in widening cir- 
cles under 

Other and Wiser Leaders. 

The division occurred in the Massachusetts Antislavery Society 
in May, 1839, and in the American Antislavery Society the year fol- 
lowing. By packing the business meeting of the latter Society in 
1839 w ^ n Massachusetts delegates in sympathy w 7 ith Mr. Garrison's 
peculiar views, equal in number to nearly one third of all the votes 
cast, the Woman's Rights and Non-government party triumphed. 
In 1840 this victory was made sure, by transporting, by special steam- 
boat arrangements, several hundred women from Boston and vicinity 
to New York to vote in the meeting. The party opposed to the 
peculiar dogmas of Garrison withdrew, and organized the American 
and Foreign Antislavery Society in May, 1840. In Massachusetts, 
where the split occurred the previous year, the new party was organ- 
ized as the " Massachusetts Abolition Society," under the leadership 
of Rev. Amos A. Phelps. The party was chiefly composed of evan- 
gelical antislavery Christians of all denominations who believed in 
using the ballot-box for the purpose of freeing the slaves. Its paper. 
The Abolitionist, was edited at first by Rev. Mr. Phelps, then by 
Elizur Wright, Jr. Subsequently its name was changed to the Free 
American, and it was edited by Rev. Charles T. Torrey. Agents were 
sent out and auxiliaries were formed. Antislavery churches opened 
their pulpits to the agents, and those who would not commit them- 



CONSCIEXTIO US DIS APPRO VAL. 469 

selves to antislavery action were glad to part with antislavery mem- 
bers, who formed churches on the basis of non-fellowship with 
slave-holders. But no evangelical church, however antislavery, re- 
ceived the approbation of the other party. While this work was 
going on " the scattering system " at the polls was abandoned, and 
the " liberty party" was organized in 1840. 

About this time The Emancipator, which had been started in 
New York city, was removed to Boston and united with the Free 
American, with Rev. Joshua Leavitt, D.D., and J. W. Alden as edi- 
tors and proprietors, while Rev. George B. Cheever, D.D., and Rev. 
William Goodell published the Pruicipia in New York. 

Those Christian men who did not unite with the antislavery so- 
cieties were doubtless conscientious, of high character and intel- 
ligence, and not wanting in true sympathy for the slave. Some 
could not approve the impracticable measures of the reformers. 
Others, from taste or principle, disliked such associations, and felt 
that they could not be held responsible before the public for either 
the policy or the opinions advocated by the radical agitators. Deeply 
abhorring slavery, and desiring to do something for its removal, never- 
theless Mr. Garrison's doctrine of immediate emancipation seemed 
impracticable and impossible. They also shrank from contact with 
violent and denunciatory persons, who scornfully repelled prudential 
suggestions or more moderate measures. 

On the other hand, other Christian men enjoyed the reform asso- 
ciations, even the stormiest scenes ; organizing, leading, and sustain- 
ing the meetings vigorously, imparting to the cause its most reliable 
and influential support, tempering it with their presence, inspiring 
hope and confidence in the darkest moments, and securing the divine 
blessing by their prayers. 

From the beginning to the close of the movement the churches 
were largely represented * by the ministry and the laity, usually con- 
stituting a large majority and often seven eighths of the working 
force. Of 146 delegates whose names appear in the annual report 
of the American Antislavery Society for 1838, the year before the 
division, 50 were ministers, nearly all of them belonging to " evan- 
gelical churches." It was so every year from 1833 anc ^ onward until 
the division. And yet in the Liberator, in 1837, Mr. Oliver Johnson 
said : " The antislavery car has rolled forward thus far not only with- 
out the aid, but against the combined influence of the ministers and 
churches of the country." Could any statement more completely 

* It is difficult to do justice to the numerous toilers in this work of reform. We will not at- 
tempt it, so great would be the risk of overlooking many whose names deserve mention. 



470 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ignore the real facts up to that time ? Rev. Amos. A. Phelps, of 
the Congregational Church, was regarded by many as "the head 
and front of antislavery movements in Massachusetts, doing more 
solid work than almost any other person." Revs. Joshua Leavitt 
and William Goodell were little behind him, and some will place 
Rev. Orange Scott, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on a parallel 
with him in effective, self-sacrificing labors. Statistics exist showing 
that, in 1837, tne antislavery societies in Massachusetts numbered 
19,206 members, equivalent to one in thirty-six of the whole popu- 
lation of the State, while of the 792 ministers in the State, 367, or 
almost one half, were enrolled members of these societies. Of the 
fifty-six agents employed by the American Antislavery Society prior 
to 1837, forty-three were ministers. Thus, in this unpopular period 
of the agitation, while the ministers were one in five hundred of the 
whole population, they were one in five of the front ranks of this 
reform. * And yet Theodore Parker, who espoused this cause nearly 
ten years later than the date under consideration, was wont to ex- 
claim, " When did the Christianity of the Church ever denounce a 
popular sin ?" 

And whence came the antislavery martyrs but from these churches? 
Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy (1837), Charles T. Torrey (1846), John 
Brown (1859), an d Rev. Anthony Bewley (i860), who laid down 
their lives in devotion to antislavery principles, were of evangelical 
churches. The imprisonment and inhuman branding (S. S., slave- 
stealer} of Captain Jonathan Walker, of Massachusetts, at Pensacola, 

* A writer of a political tract, over the signature of Junius (supposed to be Calvin Colton), 
said: "Nearly all the practical abolitionists and, with scarcely an exception, all the abolition 
preachers, lecturers, and missionaries, are religious men. Religion every-where is the high and 
holy sanction relied upon to enforce the doctrine." 

Mr. Oliver Johnson, whose severe arraignment of the churches in the Liberator in 1837 has 
been quoted, at a more recent date, in the Christian Union of May 7, 1874, under the mellowing 
influence of later years, said : "The antislavery movement originated in the deepest religious 
convictions, and derived its main impulse from the spirit of Christianity in the hearts of its cham- 
pions. It is important to affirm this because efforts have been made in certain quarters to justify 
or excuse the hostility to the movement of the great body of ministers and churches in the coun- 
try on the ground of its alleged 'infidel' character and tendency. On this point history must not 
be perverted nor the truth concealed." 

Rev. James Freeman Clarke said : "If the churches as organizations stood aloof, being only 
'timidly good' as organizations are apt to be, the purest of their body were sure to be found in 
this great company of 'latter-day saints.'" Again : "Nevertheless from the Christian body came 
most of those who devoted their lives to the extirpation of this great evil. And Mr. Garrison 
always maintained that his converts were most likely to be made among those whose consciences 
had been educated by the Church and the Bible." 

Hon. George Thompson, in his celebrated debate with Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckenridge, of Ken- 
tucky, on slavery, in Glasgow, 1836, said of the American antislavery reformers : "They are 
universally men and women of religious principles, and, in most instances, of unquestioned 
piety." He had never known any benevolent enterprise carried forward more in dependence 
upon divine direction and divine aid than the abolition cause in the United States. 



A N TI- GARPISONIANS. 4 7 1 

in 1840; the mobbing- of Dr. Bailey, editor of the National Era, 
Washington, D. C, in 1848; and of Dr. John S. Prettyman, editor 
of a Republican paper in Delaware, in 1859; ^nd the murderous 
assault upon Hon. Charles Sumner, the incorruptible senator, 
deserve sharp denunciation ; but Thomas Garrett (1848), who suf- 
fered in Delaware ; Rev, John G. Fee and Miss Delia Webster, 
in Kentucky; Revs. Daniel Worth and Silas M'Kenney, in Texas; 
Rev. Dr. Nelson and Messrs. Thompson and Burr (students for 
the ministry), and Work, in Missouri ; and " Parson " Brownlow 
in Tennessee, well-known victims of slave-holding vengeance, were 
ministers or communicants of evangelical churches no less devoted 
to the cause of the slave. 

The Garrison party, withdrawing from all political relations and 
diverted in purpose by complex social and skeptical hobbies, be- 
came a small contracted sphere that could not grow, notwithstand- 
ing the most assiduous efforts to bring to their platform every-thing 
that could draw and impress an audience. Many attended their 
anniversaries to witness the gladiatorial sport, for they were fierce 
tournaments. But the movement did not expand. It lacked moral 
cohesion ; was repellant and chilling rather than attractive and vital- 
izing. 

"Their orators were of every kind: rough men and shrill-voiced 
women, polished speakers from the universities, stammering fugi- 
tives from slavery, philosophers and fanatics, atheists and Christian 
ministers, wise men who had been made mad by oppression, and 
babes in intellect, to whom God had revealed some of the noblest 
truths. They murdered the king's English ; they uttered glaring 
fallacies; the blows aimed at evil often glanced aside and hit good 
men. Invective was, perhaps, the too-frequent staple of their argu- 
ment ; and any difference of opinion would be apt to turn their 
weapons against each other. The Church militant often became a 
Church termagant." * 

But the newly organized party, retaining the doctrine of political 
action against slavery, formerly advocated by Garrison, gradually 
grew. Hundreds of ministers and thousands of the laity left pro- 
slavery churches and organized churches on a strict antislavery basis. 
Ministerial antislavery conventions were held, and Christian anti- 
slavery conventions, large influential bodies, and wholly by the 
anti-Garrison party. Simultaneously with them, and mutually con- 
tributing to each other, started the Liberty Party (1840), the Free 

* Rev. James Freeman Clarke, D D., in North American Review, January, 1875, p. 54. 



472 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Soil Party (1848), and the Republican Party (1854), all the out- 
growth, in and out of the churches, of the antislavery spirit. 

A few collateral facts should be added to complete the story. 
The culminating events of the antislavery movement and the 
emancipation of the slaves, sketched in the next period, in the 
nature of the case political measures, effected by civil agencies, were 
not accomplished without the permeating and extensively control- 
ling influence of the churches. The ecclesiastical conferences, 
associations and conventions throughout the North, from 1850 to 
the close of the civil war, passed numerous resolutions bearing 
upon national issues, such as the compromise measures of 1850, the 
Fugitive Slave Bill, the Dred Scott Decision, the Kansas and 
Nebraska schemes, etc. 

The Congressional records show numerous petitions and remon- 
strances of individual churches, of ministers and ecclesiastical 
bodies, bearing upon these great questions. The religious press 
entered into the contest, conspicuous among which was the Inde- 
pendent, edited by Revs. Leonard Bacon, D.D., J. P. Thompson, 
D.D., R. S. Storrs, D.D., and Henry Ward Beecher. Uncle Tom s 
Cabin, and kindred works, imbued with fervid religious sentiment, 
moved the masses. The very boldness of the projects of the slave 
power awakened revulsion and intensified antislavery action. 
Memorials numerously signed by clergymen from the Middle and 
Western States poured into Congress, and one hundred and twenty- 
five "separate remonstrances within a few months came from the 
ministers of the six New England States. There came a mammoth 
memorial, two hundred feet long, bearing the names of -three thou- 
sand and fifty New England clergymen,* so ingeniously engrossed 
as to preserve the original signature and heading of each petition, 
protesting " in the name of Almighty God," against the proposed 
extension of the domain of slavery in the territory of the United 
States. On its presentation to the Senate Hon. Edward Everett 
apologetically alluded to it as " a somewhat voluminous document." 
Hon. Stephen A. Douglas characterized it as " informal and mon- 
strous," and Hon. John M. Mason, of Virginia, and Mr. Butler, of 
South Carolina, poured out their indignation against the political 
parsons, and prognosticated evil omens from such participation in 
political action by the Christian clergy. Hon. Samuel Houston, 

•-This idea originated with Mrs. H. B. Stowe, who suggested it to Rev. Henry M. Dexter, 
D.D., editor of the Congregationalist, through whose ag ncy the heading was prepared at a 
meeting of Boston ministers, and the names were obtained. None except the Roman Catholic 
clergy refused, to sign it. 



THE SABBATH REFORM. 473 

with characteristic magnanimity, declared that he saw in the paper 
nothing informal nor monstrous, and that "this memorial, signed 
by three thousand and fifty ministers of the living God, is evidence 
that the people are deeply moved." And Hon. Charles Sumner, 
then fresh in his seat in the Senate, thanked the ministers for their 
interposition, adding: "In the days of the Revolution John Adams, 
yearning for independence, said, 'Let the pulpits thunder against 
oppression,' and the pulpits thundered. The time has come for 
them to thunder again." 



Section 3.— The Sabbath Reform. 

The subject of the observance of the Sabbath prominently occu- 
pied the attention of the churches after the opening of this century. 
During the period of general infidelity and demoralization of man- 
ners, at the close of the last century, this sacred institution suffered 
serious harm. In the new communities along the frontier the 
Sabbath was generally disregarded and often practically unknown. 
The first missionaries in western New York, Ohio, Michigan, and 
other new States, testified that the Sabbath was only a day of 
amusement, spent in horse-racing and dissipation ; that stores were 
opened as on other days, and that it was not distinguishable from 
other days, except, perhaps, by an excess of wickedness. In the 
older States, although there were few instances of open excesses or 
public trade, yet there was a serious disregard of the sacredness of 
the day, and a growing laxity in its observance. Even the general 
government was party to its public desecration. The action of 
Congress deserves to be recapitulated. An eminent divine who 
passed through that period has left a sketch of the action : 

Mail Carrying. 

By a law passed in i8to the Postmaster-General considered himself bound to 
compel the deputy postmasters, at offices where a mail arrived on the Sabbath, to 
keep open on that day for the delivery of letters. It seems, however, that he had 
some scruples of conscience on the subject, for he directed the carriers of the 
mail to pass as quietly as possible through the country, "without announcing their 
arrival or departure by the sounding of horns or trumpets, or in any other way 
calculated to draw off the attention of the people from their devotions." Post- 
masters were required to keep their offices open only one hour after the arrival of 
the mail on the Sabbath ; but if it arrived during public worship that hour should 
be immediately after. 

At the next session of Congress the people from different parts of the country 
sent up remonstrances, first against the carrying of the mail on the Sabbath, and, 



474 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

secondly, against requiring postmasters to open their offices for the delivery of let- 
ters on that day. These remonstrances were referred to the proper committee, 
who reported in favor of carrying the mail and opening offices. In 1812, 181 5 and 
1 817 similar remonstrances called forth similar reports. In 1812 and 1815 the 
reason assigned for not repealing the law was the peculiar state of the country, it 
being engaged in war, and it was deemed a work of necessity. The report of 
181 5 was presented before the news of peace arrived. Mr. Meigs, the Postmaster- 
General, assigned as a reason for carrying the mails on the Sabbath the astounding 
argument that, if they were not carried " they would be delayed one seventh of the 
time." A member of Congress said " public convenience required it." In 1817 
the Postmaster-General assigned the following remarkable reason for carrying 
mails on the Sabbath : "The contents of the mail," he said, "are not confined to 
public dispatches nor to subjects of private business or pleasure. The same mail 
which transports such matters conveys supplies to those in want, consolation to 
the afflicted, and to the pious evangelical correspondence ; and thus, performing 
works of charity, it may be regarded as doing good on the Sabbath day." During 
this year the committee reported that while it was necessary to transport mails on 
the Sabbath it was not needful that offices should be kept open for the delivery of 
letters. Here the matter rested until 1825, when a law was passed more rigid than 
any that had # previously been enacted. It required that all post-offices at which 
mails arrived on the Sabbath should be kept open during the whole of that day. 
In 1829 petitions were presented from all parts of the Union praying for the repeal 
of that law. In, March, 1830, Hon. Richard M. Johnson presented his famous 
report, drawn forth by the petitions of 1829, respecting which it has been said, 
"Satan never accomplished a greater temporary victory over the Sabbath, through 
any agency, in any country, than was accomplished by this report, if we except 
the abolition of the Sabbath in France during the reign of infidelity. " A minor- 
ity of the committee presented at the same time an able report advocating better 
views, but Mr. Johnson's sent a thrill of horror through the land. It called forth 
a fuller expression of public opinion than was ever had before on this subject, from 
the press and pulpit and legislative halls. Laws requiring the transportation of 
the mail on the Sabbath were regarded by many as unconstitutional. Almost 
every State in the Union prohibits its citizens from keeping their shops open and 
from engaging in secular labors on the Sabbath. The laws of Congress, it was 
said, conflicted with the rights of the States.* 

The Churches Speak. 

During the first thirty years of this century the various ecclesi- 
astical bodies often passed stirring resolutions in regard to the 
Sabbath, expressing their views and stimulating the Christian pub- 
lic to exert their influence in its behalf. As early as 1812 a society 
was organized in Connecticut "For the Promotion of Morals," 
before which Rev. Lyman Beecher preached one of his remarkable 
sermons. This Society had a twofold object — to promote the 
.observance of the Sabbath and a temperance reform. In 1814 the 



*See The Half Century, by Rev. Emerson Davis, D.D. Boston. 1851. Tappan & 
Whittemoe. Pp. 184, 185, 186. 



HONORS TO LAFAYETTE. 473 

General Association of Congregational churches in Connecticut 
sent out an "Address" on the sanctification of the Sabbath, and 
prepared and circulated a petition to Congress against the transpor- 
tation and opening of the mails on the Lord's day. The following 
year the General Association of Massachusetts took similar action 
in regard to the mails. From 1812 to 18 19 the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church repeatedly engaged in discussions on 
this subject, and petitions were drawn up and sent to the people 
for signatures and then forwarded to Congress, praying for the 
repeal of the laws requiring the conveyance of the mail on the 
Sabbath. 

In 1827 Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring and a few other gentlemen 
attempted to hold a public meeting in the City Hall, New York 
city, for the promotion of a better observance of the Sabbath. 
Able speakers were engaged, but long before the time for the meeting 
the place was preoccupied by those* who had taken alarm at the 
supposed invasion of their rights. When Dr. Spring and his friends 
entered the hall they found the rabble passing resolutions advis- 
ing the "ministers to mind their business," etc. Dr. Spring says : 

We were marked men. The excited multitude looked daggers at us. They 
would not listen to us. Our persons were in danger and we left the hall. . . . 
Other efforts were made, but without success. Even the most glaring Sabbath 
nuisances could not be abated, while the abetters of such efforts met a storm of 
reproach from the press." 

When General Lafayette visited this country in 1824 public mil- 
itary honors were paid to him on the Lord's day. The General 
Association of Massachusetts at its next session passed resolutions 
presenting their views of the importance of the Christian Sabbath, 
their painful apprehensions in witnessing the growing indifference 
to the sanctity of the day, and especially the public and repeated 
violations of it in paying honors to General Lafayette. 

Organization. 

In 1828 a "General Union for the Observance of the Sabbath" 
was organized in New York city, Rev. M. Bruen, secretary, and 
Hon. Arthur Tappan, treasurer. This Society was immediately 
recommended by the various religious bodies to the sympathy of 
the churches. The report of the Postmaster-General, in 1829, in 
favor of Sunday mails, to which reference has been made, aroused 
a strong feeling of indignation, and excited the churches to more 
earnest measures for preserving the Sabbath from profanation. 

From 1830 to 1840 no special organized efforts were put forth to 



476 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

promote the observance of the Sabbath. About 1840 the radical 
abolitionists, who received the designation of " Comeouters," began 
to assail the churches, the Bible, and the Sabbath as bulwarks of 
slavery, and sought their overthrow. They held several anti-Sab- 
bath conventions, in which the most violent language was used in 
denouncing the Lord's day, shocking the moral sense of the Chris- 
tian public. But these things had an influence to quicken the friends 
of the Sabbath into action. During the year 1842 Rev. Justin Ed- 
wards, D.D., who for seven years had acted a leading part in con- 
ducting and organizing the temperance reformation, and had just 
closed a six years' presidency of Andover Theological Seminary, 
devoted himself especially to the promotion of temperance, the 
observance of the Sabbath, and the proper treatment of the Bible. 

On the 27th of June, 1842, in Andover, Mass., Dr. Edwards 
formed a Sabbath association. On the 29th he was at Westborough, 
Mass., attending the General- Association of Massachusetts, and 
procuring the passage of resolutions on temperance, the Sabbath, 
and the Bible. On the 31st he was at New Haven, raising funds for 
the Sabbath cause ; then at Saratoga and at Mr. Edward C. Dele- 
van's, at Ballston ; then at Utica, then at Rochester, holding a Sab- 
bath convention ; then successively at Geneva, Auburn, Albany, 
Troy, Boston, and other parts of New England, conferring with 
gentlemen as to providing funds, and otherwise exerting his power- 
ful agency for the cause of the Sabbath, to which he devoted seven 
years of his public life.* On the 4th of April, 1843, 

The American and Foreign Sabbath Union 

was formed in Boston, Chief-Justice Williams, of Connecticut, pres- 
ident ; Dr. Justin Edwards, secretary. A year after Dr. Edwards 
reported that he had visited ten States, had traveled 12,000 miles, 
had held five general Sabbath conventions, and had addressed 
twenty-five different ecclesiastical bodies. 

On the 27th of November, 1844, a National Sabbath Convention 
was held in Baltimore, attended by upward of seventeen hundred 
delegates from eleven different States, Hon. John Quincy Adams 
presiding. This convention adopted with great unanimity twenty 
resolutions expressive 1 of their sense of the sacredness, the divine 
authority, the obligations, and the benefits of the Sabbath, and also 
three able and forcible public appeals for the true and proper 

* Rev. Justin Edzvards, D.D. By Rev. Wm. A. Hallock. American Tract Society. Pp. 
448-451. 



SABBATH CONVENTIONS. 477 

observance of the clay — one to the people of the United States, one 
to all Canal Commissioners, and one to railroad directors. Within 
the first three years of Dr. Edwards's labors fifteen general Sabbath 
conventions were held, of which seven were State conventions, each 
attended by from one hundred to five hundred delegates. On the 
adjournment of the National Convention, at Baltimore, Dr. Edwards 
entered upon one of those extensive and laborious tours for which 
he had become noted in other departments of reform, and by 
which he exerted so effective an influence. 

During his connection with this Society as its secretary, Dr. 
Edwards prepared a valuable series of Permanent Sabbath Docu- 
ments, the first of which was issued in 1844, exhibiting "the ends 
for which the Sabbath was appointed," the reasons why it should 
be kept, the benefits of observing it, and the evils which, by laws 
that no one can annul or evade, must come upon those who profane 
it. The second appeared in 1845, upon "The change from the 
seventh to the first day of the week;" the third, in 1847, entitled, 
"The Sabbath a family institution;" the fourth, in 1848, showing 
"The proper mode of keeping the Sabbath." The fifth, and last, 
was upon "The developments of Providence in regard to the Sab- 
bath," and was published the following year. 

In 1846 Dr. Edwards prepared the Sabbath Manual, which was 
stereotyped in several languages and very widely circulated through 
the country. Mr. Edward C. Dclevan, of Albany, had one hundred 
thousand copies printed and circulated among the stockholders and 
travelers on the New York Central Railroad from Albany to Buffalo, 
to prepare the way for the discontinuance of railroad travel on the 
Sabbath. The American Tract Society co-operated in this work, 
circulating the Sabbath Manual in English, German, Spanish, and 
French, to the surprising number of one million, one hundred and 
seventy-five thousand copies.* 

Dr. Edwards's last report was made in May, 1850, in which he 
stated that he had traveled more than forty-eight thousand miles 
through twenty-five of the United States. "About forty railroad 
companies," he says, " stop the running of their cars on the Sab- 
bath on about four thousand miles of roads. The communities 
through which they pass, and whose right to the stillness and quiet 
of the day had for years been grossly violated by the screaming 
and rumbling of cars in time of public worship, are now free from 
the nuisance, and are permitted to enjoy their rights and privileges 
without molestation." 

* Life of Rev. fustin Edwards, p. 496. 
81 



478 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER V 



ORGANIC CHANGES IN PROTESTANT CHURCHES. 



SEVERAL important ecclesiastical movements occurred during 
this period. The schisms occasioned by Arian and Socinian 
tendencies will be sketched in the next chapter. Those which will 
be here noticed were caused almost entirely by differences occasioned 
by questions of policy or polity. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church 

experienced the greatest number of these schisms. The Reformed 
Methodist Church had its origin in Vermont, in 1814, under the 
leadership of Rev. Messrs. Elijah Bailey and Ezra Amiden, and 
grew entirely out of questions of polity — a protest against Episco- 
pacy. Rev. Pliny Britt, for some years a successful minister of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in New England, joined the movement, 
and, after spending about forty years in that body, a short time 
before his death returned to the mother Church. This denomina- 
tion has never numbered more than five thousand members, and 
has existed chiefly in Massachusetts, Vermont, northern New York 
and Ohio. 

A colored secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
originating near the close of the last century, in Philadelphia, under 
the leadership of Rev. Richard Allen, became more fully organized 
in 1 8 16, and took the name of the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Mr. Allen was elected and ordained as the first bishop, 
and served until his death in 1831, when he was followed in the 
episcopal office by Rev. M. Brown. Since i860 this body has grown 
very rapidly. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church originated in the 
city of New York in 1820, in a secession from the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and in 1821 the first Annual Conference, consisting of 
22 ministers, was held in New York city. In 1836 Rev. Christopher 
Rush was elected Superintendent for four years. In 1847 two 



METHODIST CHURCHES. 479 

superintendents were elected. This church also has grown very 
rapidly since 1S60. 

The Stilwellite secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church 
occurred in New York city in 1820, but never became a large body, 
and long since disappeared. Opposition to the polity of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church was the basis of the movement. Its few 
churches existed for a while on an independent plan and sub- 
sequently joined the Methodist Protestant Church. 

The Methodist Protestant Church was formed in 1830 by a 
secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church. The agitation 
which culminated in this organization was continued through a half 
dozen previous years. The objections which were alleged against 
the Methodist Episcopal Church were its episcopal form of govern- 
ment and the exclusion of the laity from the legislative councils of 
the Church. Efforts were made to secure a representation in the 
Conferences, but without avail. In 1824 a meeting of the reformers 
was held in Baltimore, at which a " Union Society" was formed for 
the purpose of agitating the question of a change of government. 
Similar organizations were formed elsewhere, and a periodical was 
established called the Mutual Rights. In the spring of 1826 the 
Baltimore Union Society initiated a movement for a general con- 
vention to consider the expediency of petitioning the General Con- 
ference of 1828 for lay representation. The convention was held 
November, 1827, and -the petition was presented, but received 
an unfavorable answer. The reform movement was opposed, the 
" Union Societies " were condemned, and, in some places, mem- 
bers were expelled who belonged to them. Thereupon the 
" Reformers " began to secede in considerable numbers. A conven- 
tion met in Baltimore November 12, 1828, which drew up provis- 
ional articles of association, and November 2, 1830, another 
convention assembled in the same place and adopted a constitution 
and Book of Discipline under the name of the Methodist Protestant 
Church. Rev. Francis Waters, D.D., of Baltimore, was president of 
the convention. 

The Evangelical Association^ sometimes called i; German Meth- 
odists " and " Albrights " — noticed in the preceding period — was 
organized in Pennsylvania, in 1800, by Rev. Jacob Albright, orig T 
inally a convert to Methodism. Gradually societies multiplied and 
conferences were formed, and in 18 16 a General Conference was held. 
Since 1843 a General Conference composed of delegates elected by 
the Annual Conferences among the elders has held quadrennial 
sessions. 



480 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In 1829 four Primitive Methodist preachers came from England 
and commenced preaching in New York, Philadelphia, Albany, and 
some other places. A few churches were organized, but they did not 
thrive, and the ministers soon identified themselves with other de- 
nominations. In 1842 this Church began to assume a more perma- 
nent form in the West. Several local preachers and laymen came 
from England and settled at Grant Hill, in Illinois. They have 
since increased somewhat, but very slowly, numbering at the present 
time not more than two Conferences and about 5,000 members. 

The "True Wesleyan' schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
was occasioned by a dissatisfaction with the polity of the Church 
and the treatment of the slavery question. No radical differences, 
since the small secession of Rev. James O'Kelley, in 1793, had 
ever existed in this denomination in regard to the doctrines, nor 
have there been until this day, except in a few individual cases. In 
respect to doctrines Methodism throughout the world is essentially 
a unit. But dissatisfaction arose in reference to the episcopacy and 
some cognate features of polity, and during the great anti-slavery 
agitation a large party demanded the immediate expulsion of all 
slave-holders from the fellowship of the Church. These questions 
were pressed very hard. The epithets "abolition" and "pro- 
slavery " were freely used. The Watchman^ published at New York, 
urjder the editorship of Rev. LeRoy Sunderland, was the organ of 
the radical party, and Revs. Orange Scott, Jothan Horton and 
LeRoy Sunderland were the leaders of this class in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and Revs. John Crocker, Hiram Mackee, R. 
McCurdy and Dr. Timberman, in the Methodist Protestant Church. 

On the 8th of November, 1842, Revs. Messrs. Scott. Horton and 
Sunderland withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 
the same month the first number of the True Wesleyan, a paper in the 
interest of the movement, was published under the editorship of the 
two former gentlemen. On the first page they set forth the reasons 
for their withdrawal; namely, that " the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is not only a slave-holding but a slavery-defending church," and that 
her " government contains principles which are subversive of the 
•rights both of ministers and laymen." On the 31st oi May, 1843, a 
convention was held in Utica, New York, composed of parties who 
had been connected with the two beforementioned Methodist bodies, 
for the purpose of forming a " Wesleyan Methodist Church " free 
from episcopacy and slavery. After several days of deliberation a 
" Form of Discipline " was adopted, and six Annual Conferences were 
organized, chiefly in the Northern and Eastern States, numbering 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 481 

in a short time about 300 ministers and 20,000 members. They 
have not increased since the first two or three years of their exist- 
ence. 

But the largest division in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
the last in this period, was 

The Southern Methodist Schism. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, in common with other churches, 
suffered much from the agitation of the slavery question. It has 
been noticed that in the first conferences where slavery existed, in the 
Northern as well as the Middle and Southern States, the subject was 
introduced into the legislative body of the Church and every-where 
freely discussed. Resolutions were passed disapproving of the traf- 
fic in slaves, and requiring that members of the Church should eman- 
cipate them wherever it was allowed by the States. During the 
prolonged agitation of the subject the laity were allowed to hold 
slaves but the ministry were prohibited, except when held for pur- 
poses of humanity. 

At the General Conference of' 1840 it was declared by formal 
resolution that, "under the provisional exception to the general rule 
of the Church on the subject of slavery, mere ownership of slave 
property in States or Territories where the laws do not admit of 
emancipation and permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom con- 
stitutes no legal barrier to the election or ordination of ministers to 
the various grades of office known in the ministry of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church." * This resolution, however, it was claimed, 
was never intended to justify any minister in voluntarily acquiring 
slave property, nor to overrule what had always been the uniform 
policy of the Church ; namely, the entire exemption of the episco- 
pacy from all complicity with slavery in any form. The bishops 
were general superintendents, traveling through the whole Church, 
and, if slave-holders, they would be unacceptable in the Northern 
Conferences. Hence the resolution expressly stipulated that its 
conditions came under " the provisional exception to the general 
rule of the Church." 

In January, 1844, Bishop Andrew married a widow who owned 
slaves bequeathed by a former husband. He made no efforts to 
free them, but rather took steps to have their freedom placed 
entirely beyond his power. + In process of time the fact became 
generally known and excited various comments. It was evident 

* History of t lie Great Secession. By Rev. C. Elliot, D.D. P. 228. \ Ibid. P. 295. 



482 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

that his action could not be overlooked. The General Conference 
assembled in May of that year in the city of New York. It was a 
large body and its session was one of great interest. After a long 
debate over Bishop Andrew's case, and a variety of propositions, it 
was finally voted that he be required to desist from the exercise of 
the functions of his episcopal office. 

Immediately after this action the representatives of thirteen 
Annual Conferences, embraced in the slave-holding States, presented 
a declaration which set forth their solemn conviction that a contin- 
uance of the jurisdiction of the General Conference over the Annual 
Conferences thus represented would be inconsistent with the suc- 
cess of the Methodist ministry in the slave-holding States. This 
declaration was accompanied with a formal protest against the action 
of the majority in the case of Bishop Andrew, and led to the 
adoption of a plan of separation by the General Conference. The 
Church in the South and South-west, in primary assemblies and in 
Quarterly and Annual Conferences, sustained the declaration of the 
delegates, and measures were immediately adopted for the assem- 
bling of a convention in May, 1845, at Louisville, Kentucky. By 
its action the connection of the Southern Conferences with the 
General Conference was dissolved, and a separate ecclesiastical body 
was created under the name of the " Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South." The following year the first General Conference of the 
Southern Methodist Church was held at Petersburg, Virginia. 

At the time when this division took place the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church was in the full tide of prosperity, having had an 
increase during the four previous years of 869 traveling preachers, 
1,748 local preachers, and 375,911 members. In 1844 the whole 
Church numbered 33 Annual Conferences, 4,282 traveling preachers, 
8,087 local preachers, and 1,171,356 members. 

The relative strength of these bodies after the separation in 1846 
was — 

M. E. Church. M.E. Church, South. 

Traveling Preachers 3.280 1 ,384 

Local 2,550 

Members 649,344 462428 

These two bodies have remained separate and distinct until this 
day. 

Baptist Churches. 

In 18 1 8 a denomination of Baptists who sacredly observe the 
seventh day of the week as Sabbath rejected the name Sabbata- 
rians, by which they had heretofore been known, and adopted the 



BAPTIST SEPARATIONS. 483 

term Seventh-Day Baptists. A General Conference was organized 
early in this century, which held its meetings at first annually, and 
since 1846 triennially. About this time they divided themselves 
into five associations : Eastern, Western, Central, Virginia and 
Ohio. A foreign missionary society was formed in 1842. They 
have also a tract and publishing society. They have maintained 
strong action against slavery and the liquor traffic. 

In 1827 the Free-Will Baptists organized a General Conference, 
which at first met annually, then biennially, and later triennially, 
composed of delegates appointed by the yearly meetings. In the 
midst of the great antislavery agitation, just prior to 1840, a body 
of about 4,000 members, largely slave-holders, withdrew, but in 
1841 the Free-Communion Baptists (Separates) united with them. 
About 12,000 Baptists in Kentucky, of the Free-Will persuasion, 
who made overtures of union with the Free-Will Baptists, were not 
received, on account of slavery. 

The Separates- or Free-Communion Baptists originated under 
the preaching of Whitefield, in Rhode Island and Connecticut. 
Starting under the name "Separates," they gradually became Bap- 
tists, with open communion. In 1785 they organized the Groton 
Union Conference, which in 1820 embraced 25 churches. A General 
Conference was formed in 1835, but in 1841 the whole body united 
with the Free-Will Baptists. 

In 1822 a small denomination calling themselves General Baptists 
was formed in the West, principally in the States of Indiana, 
Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. 

In the first half of this century, a class of Baptists opposed to the 
formation of missionary societies, Sunday-schools, and similar insti- 
tutions, which they regarded as flood-gates for letting in u contriv- 
ances which seem to make the salvation of men depend on human 
effort," withdrew from the Regular Baptists and assumed the name 
of Old Baptists. They have been more generally called Anti-Effort, 
or Anti-Mission Baptists. In 1844 they were reported as numbering 
6r,ooo, and in 1854, 66,500. They have, however, since declined. 

In 1 8 17 the Regular Baptist denomination organized a triennial 
Convention, but it was subsequently discontinued. 

The great division in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 was 
immediately followed by a similar separation in the Baptist denom- 
ination. The slavery question was the exciting cause — more 
decided anti-slavery sentiments in the North and an increasing 

* See Encyclopedia Metropolitan, Article, Baptists. Also Belcher's Religions Denomina- 
tions. 



484 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

tendency to pro-slavery views in the South. These differences 
every year became more radical, leading to bitter discussions in 
the national conventions, conferences, etc., of the churches, and a 
constant agitation during the intervals of their sessions. The 
bonds of union gradually weakened until 1845, when a rupture 
occurred, since which time there have been two general con- 
ventions of the Baptists in the United States, divided by the 
lines of the slave-holding territory. These bodies have remained 
separate until this day. 

"The Church of God." 

"The Church of God" or Winebrennerians was organized out of a 
schism which took place in the German Reformed Church. In the 
year 1820 Rev. John Winebrenner settled in Harrisburg, Pa., as a 
minister of the German Reformed Church, and took charge of four 
congregations, one in the town and three in the country. Soon 
after his settlement in this charge it pleased the Head of the Church 
to commence a work of grace, both in the town and in the country. 
But as revivals of religion were new and almost unheard-of things 
in those days, among the German people of that region this work 
excited great wrath and opposition. This condition of things con- 
tinued about five years, resulting in a separation from the German 
Reformed Church. 

About 1825 more extensive and powerful revivals of religion 
commenced in various other towns and neighborhoods, Shiremans- 
town, Lisbon, Mechanicsburg, Churchtown, Middletown, Millers- 
town, Lebanon, Lancaster, Marietta, etc. In these revivals large 
numbers professed conversion. These conversions led to the organ- 
ization of churches. In the course of this work Mr. Winebrenner 
says that his views materially changed in regard to the nature and 
organization of churches, in favor of what he termed " a more apos- 
tolic plan as taught in the New Testament," which led him to 
establish " spiritual, free and independent churches, consisting of 
believers or Christians only, without any human name or creed or 
ordinances or laws," etc. Mr. Rupp says : 

From among- the young converts in these newly-planted churches it pleased 
God to raise up several able men, to take upon them the solemn and responsible 
office of the Gospel ministry. These ministering- brethren, with a few other great 
and good men with similar views and kindred spirits, labored and co-operated with 
each other for a few years promiscuously, or without any system of co-operation ; 
but finally they agreed to hold a meeting for the purpose of adopting a regular 
system of co-operation. Accordingly they met together for this purpose, pursuant 



THE CAMPBELLITES. 485 

to public notice, in the Union Bethel, at Harrisburg, in the month of October, 
1830, and organized by appointing John Winebrenner, of Harrisburg, speaker, and 
John Elliott, of Lancaster, clerk.* 

This was the beginning of the "Church of God." Thirteen 
years after, they numbered 83 ministers, 125 churches, 260 preach- 
ing-places and about 10,000 church members. 

Campbellites or Disciples. 

Another schism in this period was organized under the name of 
Campbellites or Disciple^. This denomination had its origin under 
the leadership of Rev. Thomas Campbell, long a minister of the 
" secession " branch of the Presbyterian Church in the north of 
Ireland. At the beginning of the present century Mr. Campbell 
and his family emigrated to this country and settled in Washington 
County, Pa. Having conceived a strong aversion to ecclesiastical 
creeds and discipline, he drew up and published a "declaration and 
address," setting forth these views, and inviting all who sympathized 
with his sentiments to form a union upon that basis. A consider- 
able number of individuals responded to this appeal, and a congre- 
gation was immediately organized upon Brush Run, in Washington 
County, on the 7th of September, 18 10, where a house of worship 
was erected and ministerial duties were jointly performed by Mr. 
Campbell and his son Alexander. 

Some form was at first observed in the reception of members to 
their communion, all being required to give proof that they under- 
stood the nature of the relation assumed and the scriptural ground 
of salvation. Much devotion and harmony were manifested by this 
infant church for a number of months. They were poor, and for 
some time their church edifice remained unfinished. They visited 
each other, prayed together, and searched the Scriptures, striving 
to keep down all old prejudices and party feelings. In a short time 
the questions of baptism, the mode of administering it, and its 
proper subjects, came up for consideration, and Mr. Campbell and 
his parish, after extended investigations, adopted views, contrary to 
those which they had before entertained. Mr. Campbell soon went 
forth, and became extensively known as a champion of immersion 
and an uncompromising opponent of infant baptism. In June, 
1820, he held a public debate with Mr, J. Walker, at Mount Pleas- 
ant, Ohio, upon the question of Christian baptism. The publication 

* History of the Religious Denominations in the United States. By I. Daniel Rupp, 
Philadelphia. 1844. P. 174. 



486 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of the substance of the debate brought Mr. Campbell into full notice 
before the public. A second debate was held in 1823, in Kentucky, 
with Rev. W. L. McCalla, of the Presbyterian Church. In the autumn 
of 1823 the little church of Brush Run became connected with the 
Redstone Baptist Association, carefully and expressly stipulating at 
the time, in writing, that " no terms of union or communion other 
than the Holy Scriptures should be required." Their admission to 
the Association under these conditions soon excited considerable 
inquiry, and in process of time some feeling was engendered. This 
was greatly inflamed after Mr. Campbell's public debates, to 
which reference has just been made, in which he gave free utterance 
to principles which were regarded as very radical and disorganizing. 
Considerable discussion arose, accompanied with animosity toward 
the church at Brush Run, which led to the dismissal of about thirty 
of its members, including Mr. Alexander Campbell, to Wellsburg, 
Va., where they were constituted a new church and were admitted 
into the Mahoning Association of Ohio. The views of Mr. Camp- 
bell were freely discussed in various meetings of preachers and 
laymen, and at length the whole Association adopted them. In 
the year 1828 it rejected all human formularies of religion and 
relinquished all claim to jurisdiction over its churches, and resolved 
itself into simply an annual meeting for the purpose of receiving 
reports of the progress of the churches, for worship and mutual 
co-operation. 

The schism thus produced soon extended to Kentucky, eastern 
Virginia, and to all those associations and churches into which the 
views of Mr. Campbell had been introduced by his writings and 
debates, the Baptists in all cases separating from their communion 
all who favored the sentiments of the Disciples. Being thus cut off 
from all connection with the Baptists they formed themselves into 
distinct churches, independent of each other's control, but holding 
the same sentiments, having the same fellowship, and continuing to 
carry out the principles originally professed. The persecution 
experienced from the Baptists contributed to their growth, and a 
considerable number of members and also of the clergy of that body 
came over to the ranks of the Disciples. It is claimed by the 
friends of Mr. Campbell that his debate in Cincinnati, in 1829, with 
Mr. Robert Owen exerted a great influence upon many infidels, 
and that a considerable number of this class were brought over to 
Christianity and united with this denomination. 

The True Reformed Dutch Church, a small secession from the Re- 
formed Dutch Church, was formed in the State of New York in 1822. 



PRESBYTERIAN SECESSIONS. 487 

Presbyterian Churches. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian body was organized in Tennessee 
in 1 8 io. It was a split from the Presbyterian Church, principally 
because of a refusal to set aside the rule of that denomination 
which required a classical education as a qualification for license to 
preach the Gospel. It was at a period of considerable religious 
excitement, when the labors of clergymen were in great demand. 
They also dissented in several respects from the Confession of Faith 
of the General Assembly, particularly in regard to the doctrines of 
reprobation, partial atonement, etc. At first there were but nine 
preachers in the denomination, only four of whom had been ordained. 
In 1830 they had spread into other States and had a synod and 
several presbyteries, and a college had been founded at Princeton, 
Kentucky. 

The Reformed Presbyterian Synod in the year 1800 enacted that 
no slave-holder should be retained in its communion. In 1809 it 
organized itself into " The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian 
Church in America" with three constituting presbyteries. Afterthe 
war of 1812 the relations of the Church to the national government 
were much discussed, and radical ground was taken, resulting in a 
rending of the Church in 1833, and the formation of an independent 
synod. 

The seceding minority in the case mentioned in the preceding 
paragraph took the name, "The General Synod of the Reformed Pres- 
byterian Church" adhering to the distinctive principles of the 
Covenanters. 

Old Sehool and Nezv School schism took place immediately after 
a season of very great prosperity. At the close of the year 1829 
there were in connection with the Assembly 19 synods, 98 presby- 
teries, 1,491 ministers, 2,158 churches, with a membership of 
173,329. In 1 83 1 the additions to the churches on examination 
were 15,357; in 1832, 34,160; in 1833,23,546; in 1834, 20,296, 
amounting in four years to a little more than 93,000. It was in 
the midst of this remarkable and unprecedented advance of the 
Church, both in numbers and in enterprise, that signs of approaching 
danger manifested themselves. 

The causes of the unhappy division were numerous, many of them 
of long standing and gradual in their operation. The whole subject 
was ably sketched by Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., in his Religion in 
A merica : * 

* Harper & Brothers. 1856. Pp. 242, 243. 



483 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Since the year 1800 there had been going on a constant and very great emi- 
gration from the New England States to the central and western parts of New 
York and to the North-western States of the Union. These emigrants had in 
general been accustomed to the Congregational form of Church government preva- 
lent in New England. As they met, however, in their new locations with many 
Presbyterians, and as their ministers generally preferred the Presbyterian form of 
government, they united with them in the formation of churches and ecclesiastical 
judicatories. In 1801 the General Assembly and the General Association of Con- 
necticut * agreed upon what was called "The Plan of Union between Presbyterians 
and Congregationalists in the new settlements." Under this plan, which purports 
to be a temporary expedient, a great number of churches and presbyteries and 
even several synods were formed, composed partly of Presbyterians and partly of 
Congregationalists. Though this plan seems to have operated beneficially for a 
number of years, yet as it was extended far beyond its original intention, giving 
Congregationalists, who had never adopted the standards of doctrine of the Pres- 
byterian Church, and who were avowedly opposed to its form of government, as 
much influence and authority in the government of the Church as an equal number 
of Presbyterians, it naturally gave rise to dissatisfaction as soon as the facts of the 
case came to be generally known, and as soon as questions of discipline and policy 
arose, in the decision of which the influence of these Congregationalists was sensi- 
bly felt. 

In addition to this source of uneasiness was that which arose out of diversity of 
opinions on points of doctrine. Certain peculiarities of doctrine had become preva- 
lent among the Calvinists of New England, which naturally spread into those por- 
tions of the Presbyterian Church settled by New England men. These peculiarities 
were not regarded on either side as sufficient to justify any interruption of ministe- 
rial communion or to call for the exercise of discipline, but they were sufficient to 
give rise to the formation of two parties, which received the appellations of Old and 
New Schools. Within the last ten or twelve years, however, opinions had been 
advanced by some of the New England clergy which all the Old School and a large 
portion of the New School party in the Presbyterian Church considered as involving 
a virtual denial of the doctrines of original sin, election, and efficacious grace, and 
which were regarded as inconsistent with ministerial standing in the body. Several 
attempts were made to subject the Presbyterian advocates of these opinions to 
ecclesiastical discipline. These attempts failed partly on account of deficiency of 
proof, partly from irregularity in the mode of proceeding, and other causes. 

To these sources of uneasiness was added the diversity of opinion as to the 
best mode of conducting certain benevolent operations. The Old School, as a 
party, were in favor of the Church, in her ecclesiastical capacity, by means of 
boards of her appointment and under her own control, conducting the work of 
domestic and foreign missions and the education of candidates for the ministry. 
The other party had generally preferred voluntary societies, disconnected with 
church courts, and embracing different religious denominations, for these pur- 
poses. It might seem at first view that this was a subject on which the members 
of the Church might differ without inconvenience or collision. But it was soon 
found that these societies or boards must indirectly exert a great, if not a controlling 
influence on the Church. The men who could direct the education of candidates 
for the sacred office and the locations of the hundreds of domestic missionaries 

* At that time the only Association of Congregationalists. 



OLD AXD NEW SCHOOL SCHISM. 489 

must sooner or later give character to the Church. On this account this question 
was regarded as one of great practical importance. 

It was in the midst of the differences and alienations arising from these various 
sources that the General Assembly met in 1837. Both parties had come to the 
conclusion that a separation was desirable ; but though they agreed as to the 
terms of separation they could not agree as to the mode in which it should be 
effected. The General Assembly, therefore, resolved to put an end to the existing 
difficulties in another way. It first abolished the plan of union formed in 1801, and 
then passed several acts the purport and effect of which were that no Congrega- 
tional Church should hereafter be represented in any Presbyterian judicatory, and 
that no presbytery or synod, composed partly of Presbyterians and partly of Con- 
gregationalists, should hereafter be considered as a constituent portion of the Pres- 
byterian Church. These acts were defended on the ground that they were nothing 
more than the legitimate exercise of the executive authority of the General Assem- 
bly, requiring that the constitution of the Church should be conformed to by all its 
constituent parts. 

Had the synods and other judicatories affected by these acts seen fit to separate 
from the Congregationalists with whom they had been united, and to organize as 
purely Presbyterian bodies, the General Assembly would have been bound by its 
own acts to recognize them as constituent parts of the Church. But those brethren 
having assembled in convention at Auburn, N. Y., unanimously resolved that they 
would consider the plan of union as still in force, its abrogation by the General 
Assembly to the contrary notwithstanding, and that they would not separate from 
their Congregational brethren. Accordingly, in 1838, the delegates from the pres- 
byteries contained in these synods attended the General Assembly and claimed 
their seats as members. As this was not immediately granted (though it was not 
refused), they rose, nominated a moderator and clerk, and, being joined by those 
members who sympathized with them, they declared themselves the true General 
Assembly and withdrew from the house. 

A suit was immediately brought by them before the Supreme Court of Penn- 
sylvania to decide which Assembly was to be regarded as the true one, or which 
had the right to appoint the professors and administer the funds belonging to the 
theological seminaries under the care of the "General Assembly of the Presbyte- 
rian Church in the United States of America." The decision of the judge and 
jury was in their favor, but when the case was taken before the court in bank — that 
is, before the court with all the judges present — that decision was reversed, and 
the way left open for the New School Assembly to renew the suit if they should 
think proper. There the matter rested, leaving what is called the Old School 
Assembly in possession of the succession and in the management of the seminaries. 
It may be remarked that this decision has given to that Assembly very little more 
than what was admitted to be their due by the opposite party — that is, in the terms 
of separation agreed upon by the two parties in 1837, but which were not acted 
upon, it was admitted that the seminaries and funds, having in fact been founded and 
chiefly sustained by them, should be under the control of the Old School body ; and 
these funds constitute almost the whole sum held in trust by the General Assembly. 

During the controversies and agitations which prevailed in the 
Church previous to the separation, the spirit of religion declined, and 
the revivals, which had been before quite numerous, almost entirely 



490 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ceased. The membership decreased, numbering thirteen thousand 
less in 1837 than in 1833. In 1S37 there were 135 Presbyteries, 
2,140 ministers, 280 licentiates, 244 candidates, 2,865 churches, 
220,557 communicants. Raised for missions, 8163.563 21 : edu- 
cation, S90.833 88; theological seminaries, $20,431 14: commis- 
sioners, $6,137 85 ; contingent fund, Si. 023 41. 

In the course of the two following years the separation became 
complete, and the two bodies were known as the Old School and 
the New School Presbyterian churches. The following table will 
show the relative strength of these two bodies after the division, in 

1S39: 

Old School. New School. 

Presbyteries 96 S5 

Ministers--. 1,245 1,181 

Licentiates ' 192 105 

Candidates 173 43 

Churches 1,823 1,286 

Communicants 128,043 100.805 

Raised for Domestic Missions , , . . . $33,989 45 845.686 00 

" " Foreign " 51.307 30 

i: " Education 27,416 95 12,718 00 

" Theological Seminaries 9.663 63 642 00 

" Tracts, etc 5,11498 

" Commissioners 5.79 1 63 1. 231 00 

" Contingent. 1. 153 04 1,05200 

These bodies remained separate until 1S69. when they were 
happily reunited. 

In 1822, the Synod of t lie Associate Reformed Church having been 
brought, under the leadership of Rev. John M. Mason, D.D.. to favor 
union with the Presbyterian Church, that union took place : but a 
very considerable minority refused to acquiesce in the measure, and 
retailed a separate existence. In 1 83 1 the Western Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society was organized by the Synod of Pittsburg : but the 
General Assembly of 1837 accepted the overtures of the Pittsburg 
Synod and established the Foreign Missionary Society in New York 
city. The Assembly of 1838 appointed a Board of Publication, to 
which were transferred the property and business of the Presbyterian 
Tract and Sabbath School Book Society, organized a few years 
before by the Synod of Philadelphia. In 1839 tne fiftieth year of 
the organization of the General Assembly was celebrated. In 18 16 
the Board of Missions, later called Domestic Missions, was organized. 
and in 1819 a Board of Education to assist candidates for the minis- 
try. The New School Presbyterians preferred to aid the American 
Home Missionary and the American Education Societies. In 1844 



LUTHERAN GENERAL SYNOD. 491 

the Board of Domestic Missions added to its duties the work of 
church erection, though carried on by a special committee. 

Important Movements Among the Lutherans. 

The Lutheran Church felt the influence of German Rationalism 
in the latter part of the last and the beginning of the present cent- 
ury, and alarming symptoms of spiritual decay followed. After the 
opening of the century, however, the Church, under the influence of 
the new tides of spiritual life which were coming in, revived from a 
state of lamentable indifference and inactivity to a condition of new 
zeal and devotion. This led to the formation of the General Synod 
in 1820, from which date a new era in the history and the operations 
of this Church may be traced. Hitherto the separate synods had no 
organic connection, and there was but little moral union, for there 
was no mutual co-operation in building up the Redeemer's kingdom. 
At this time the Church had no college, no theological seminary, no 
home or foreign missionary society, no education, church extension, 
or publication boards — no general agency of any kind. The General 
Synod became a bond of union — a central power which has proved 
efficient in promoting the welfare of the Church. At this time 
(1820) there were 5 synods, 170 ministers, and 35,000 communicants, 
of whom 135 ministers and 33,000 communicants were represented 
in the union. 



492 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER VI. 



DIVERGENT CURRENTS. 



Sec. t. Unitarianism. Sec. 4. The Progressive Friends. 

2. Universalism. " 5. The New Jerusalem Church. 

" 3. The Christians. " 6. Millerism. 



Section 1.— Unitarianism. 

WHEN this century opened the leaven of Arian and Socinian 
sentiments traced in previous periods was effectively working 
in old churches in New England. No open movement had taken place, 
but it could not be long delayed. The "orthodox party" seemed 
unaware of the extent of the defection, though there were manifest 
diversities of belief — two parties — and the terms "evangelical," 
"liberal," " Calvinist," "Arminian," and "Pelagian" were freely 
used. The name Unitarian, then comparatively unknown in Amer- 
ica, when first used was felt to be a term of reproach. Channin^ 
especially disliked it, but it was gradually forced upon them and at 
last reluctantly accepted. 

The earlier fathers of this party had passed away — Dr. Mayhew. 
in 1766; Drs. Gray and Chauncy, in 1787, and Drs. John Clarke and 
Jeremy Belknap, in 1798. 

Others remained, in advanced years: 

Rev. Daniel Shute, D.D., of Hingham, Mass., 1746-1802. 
Rev. Gad Hitchcock, D.D., of Pembroke, Mass., 1748-1803. 
Rev. Simeon Howard, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1 762-1 804. 
Rev. Samuel West, D.D., of New Bedford, Mass., 1 761-1807. 
Rev. William Symmes, D.D., of North Andover, Mass.. 1 751-1807. 
Rev. Samuel West, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1761-1808. 
Rev. David Barnes, D.D., of Scituate, Mass., 1 753—1 811. 
Rev. Henry Cummings. D.D., of Billerica, Mass., 1761-1823. 
Rev. John Lathrop, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1765-1816. 

A large and able bod\ T of this class of ministers were in full vigor : 

Rev. Thomas Barnard. D.D., of Salem, Mass., 1773-1814. 
Rev. John Eliot, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1776-1813. 



THE CLASSICAL ERA. <1&3 

Rev. Zedekiah Sanger, D.D., of South Bridgewater, Mass., 1776-1820. 

Rev. Ezra Ripley. D.D., of Concord, Mass., 1778-1 841. 

Rev. John Prince, LL.D., of Salem, Mass., 1779-1830. 

Rev. Joseph Motley, of Lynnfield, Mass., 1 779-1 821. 

Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D.D., of Worcester, Mass., 1779-1839. 

Rev. Thomas Thatcher, of Dedham, Mass., 1780-18 12. 

Rev. John Reed, D.D,. of Bridgewater, Mass., 1 780-1 831. 

Rev. Charles Stearns, D.D., of Lincoln, Mass., 17S1-1826. 

Rev. William Bentley, D.D., of Salem, Mass., 1782-1819. 

Rev. Eliphalet Porter, D.D., of Roxbury, Mass., 1782-1823. 

Rev. James Freeman, D.D., of Boston, Mass., 1782-1835. 

Rev. Samuel Kendall, D.D., of Weston, Mass., 1783-1814. 

Rev. Bezaleel Howard, D.D., of Springfield, Mass., 1783-1S37. 

Rev. Noah Worcester, D.D., of Thornton, N. H., 1786-1837. 

Rev. Henry Ware, D.D., of Hingham, Mass., 1 787-1845. 

To the above may be added the following younger ministers: 
Revs. John Allen, D.D., T. M. Harris, D.D., Peter Eaton, D.D., 
David C. Saunders, D.D., William Emerson, Nathaniel Thayer, 
D.D., William Wells, D.D., J. T. Kirkland, D.D, LL.D., Abiel 
Abbot, D.D., of Massachusetts, and Abiel Abbot, D.D., of Cov- 
entry, Conn. 

Immediately after the century began new names were enrolled 
in these ranks, some of whom became very conspicuous: 

Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, D.D, in 1801. 
Rev. Joseph Stephens Buckminster, in 1805. 
Rev. William Ellery Channing, D.D., in 1802. 
Rev. James Flint. D.D., in 1806. 
Rev. Nathan Parker, D.D., in 1807. 
Rev. Andrews Norton, in 1809. 
Rev. Francis Parkman, D.D., in 181 1. 
Rev. Edward Everett,* in 18 14. 

The gifted minds of Channing, Buckminster, Kirkland, Emer- 
son, and Ware soon added new features to the "liberal" tendency, 
giving it greater breadth and higher culture, on account of which 
they have been said to have "inaugurated the classical era in liberal 
Christianity." They at first attached little consequence to doc- 
trines. Practicing the motto, Neque teneo ncque repello, utterly 
unambitious of polemical distinction and exhibiting no desire to 
build up a new sect or to revolutionize an old one, they seemed 
intent upon classical culture and religious esthetics. 

Devotedly wedded to higher education, they aimed to usher in a 
golden era of religious "classicism" which should displace the iron 

* Mr. Everett was in the ministry only a few years. 



494 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

era of -" Puritan scholasticism." But they were not long allowed to 
remain in these quiet and congenial employments. The leaven, 
silently working, was rising to the surface. The great Unitarian 
controversy was at hand, in which their able pens were to be called 
into arduous service, and their classical and esthetic culture were to 
be brought into conflict with invincible logic and Bible truth. 

Causes Which Hastened the Rupture. 

The establishment of the Monthly Anthology* in Boston, under 
the auspices of the new party, in 1804, and its rival, the Panoplist, 
in 1805, under Rev. Dr. Morse, of Charlestown ; the semi-contro- 
versial discourses delivered before the annual conventions of Con- 
gregational ministers from 1804 onward, in which the two parties 
were alternately represented ; the election of Rev. Henry Ware, of 
Hineham, understood to be a "decided Arminian and Unitarian," 
to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity in Harvard College, in 1804; 
the publication of Rev. Noah Webster's book, entitled Bible News 
of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in 18 10, placing him outside of 
the Trinitarian ranks; the interruption of pulpit exchanges between 
the two factions, introduced by Rev. Messrs. John Codman, of Dor- 
chester, and Samuel Osgood, of Springfield, in 181 1 ; the publication 
of a pamphlet in Boston, in 181 5, by Rev. Dr. Morse, of Charlestown, 
and intended as an exposure, entitled, American Unitarianism, or a 
Brief History of the Progress and Present State of Unitarian 
Churches in America, compiled from documents and information 
communicated by Rev. James Freeman, D.D., and William Wells, 
Jr., Esq., of Boston, and from other Unitarian gentlemen in this 
country, and by Rev. James Belsbam, London, and the controversy 
which grew out of it; Rev. William E. Channing's sermon at the 
ordination of Rev. Jared Sparks, in Baltimore, in 1 8 19, which Uni- 
tarians say produced "a more extensive and powerful effect on the 
religious public than had ever been known in America," and the dis- 
cussions which followed with Rev. Professors Moses Stuart, D.D. 
and Leonard Woods, D.D., of Andover Theological Seminary, and 
Samuel Miller, D.D., of Princeton Seminary — are some of the 
more marked events which hastened to a culmination, the move- 



* In 1804 the Monthly Anthology was established undar Unitarian auspices, " as a half literary 
and half theological magazine." After being published seven years it was suspended, and was 
followed in 1813 by the Christian Repository, which lasted two years. In 1813 Noah Webster 
commenced to publish the Christian Disciple, which for six years discouraged controversy. In 
1819 it passed into other hands, abandoned "its neutral attitude," and assumed the tone of vig- 
orous theological discussion. The Christian Examiner f llowed in 1824. 



CHANGES IN HARVARD. 495 

ment which resulted in the distinct existence of the Unitarian 
denomination in the United States. 

Two of the most important acts which precipitated the rupture 
were the election of Revs. Henry Ware and J. T. Kirkland, LL.D., 
to positions in the faculty of Harvard College. This action was 
regarded by the " orthodox " party as a perversion of the institu- 
tion from the intention of its founders, and, therefore, a breach of 
sacred trust. Its founders were Trinitarians and Calvinists.* John 
Harvard, who bequeathed to it one half of his property, was a 
deeply religious man, and contemplated nothing else than the pro- 
motion of "evangelical" religion. Mr. Thomas Hollis, also, a 



wealthy London merchant, founded the professorship of divinity, 
stipulating that the men chosen to fill the chair should be of "sound 
and orthodox principles." In 1747 Mr. Daniel Hinchman, of Bos- 
ton, made liberal donations to this professorship, with equally 
stringent stipulations. Nevertheless, in 1804, Mr. Ware, an esti- 
mable gentleman, but well known to be Unitarian in his views, was 
elected to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity, and in 18 10 Mr. 



* Other changes resulting in the complete control of the institution by the Unitarians will be 
i iven in the language of • ne who was in the midst of the scenes. "For the purpose of promot- 
ing and perpetuating Unitarianism in Harvard College repeated alterations have been attempted 
in the Constitution of B arc! of Overseers. This board consisted originally of the governor, 
lieuten-.nt-govemor, counselors and senators of the Commonwealth, with the ministers of the 
Congregational churches in Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Dor- 
chester. But as a body constituted after this manner was liable to continual changes, and Uni- 
tarians might not long constitute a majority, an alterati n was in due time proposed and effected." 
An act passed in xSro, prepared by the late Chief-Justice Parsons, which he declared to a member 
of the Legislature he had held in re diness for more than two years, waiting for a safe opportunity 
to bring it forward, according to which 'the board was t 1 consist < f the president of the Senate, 
the speaker of the House of Representatives, and an elective body of fifteen clergymen and fif- 
teen laymen with power to fill their own vacancies.' By this law Unitarianism was virtually 
enthroned at Cambridge and the way prepared for its perpetual dominion. It was soon found, 
however, that what the Legislature could do the Legislature could undo, as, in 1812, the new 
order of things was totally abolished and the government of the college restored to its former 
standing. Only two years after, the law of 1810, with some alterations, was revived. "Accord- 
ing to this last enactment, which is still in force, the Board of Overseers consists of the governor, 
lieutenant governor, the council, Senate, speaker of the House of Representatives', and an elect- 
ive body of thirty persons having power t 1 fill their own vacancies." The circumstances under 
which this act was introduced were very extraordinary. The Rev. Dr. Griffin had been for some 
time pastor of the Congregational church in Boston, and as such, by the express language 
of the constitution, a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. No notice, 
however, was taken oMiim, nor was he apprised of the time or place of any meetings. At 
length he went unasked and claimed his seat as a member of ti>e Board. His claim was dis- 
puted and the subject referred to a committee, a majority of whom reported in favor of Dr. 
Griffin. Still his ri»ht was not allowed him; an adjournment was called for to save time, 
and in the interval the law of which we are speaking wes whipped through the Legislature, 
obviously for the purpose of excluding Dr. Griffin and preventing others of similar sentiments 
from ever more obtaining seats in the old established way as Overseers of Harvard College." — 
Spirit of the Pilgrims. Sept., 1829. P. 478. Supposed to have been written by Dr. Wis-" 
ner, of Boston. 



496 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Kirkland, an eloquent Boston clergyman, but a decided Socinian, 
was elevated to the presidency of the college. 

On the election of Dr. Ware a storm of indignation burst forth 
in the orthodox churches. Rev. Dr. Spring, of Newburyport, came 
out in two sermons denouncing the action as a violation of a sacred 
trust and a triumph of heresy. Dr. Pearson, another professor at 
Harvard, resigned, and was subsequently elected to a position in the 
theological seminary started by the orthodox party at Andover a 
few years later. From that day the moral unity of the Congrega- 
tional churches was broken, and yet there was a general hesitation 
to take aggressive steps. The sea of strife was before them, the 
waves yearly rising higher and higher. "It was indeed wonderful 
that by a kind of consent the storm should gather so slowly. But 
in truth the parties themselves were unprepared for decisive acts 
which must estrange parish from parish, neighbor from neighbor, 
shake the whole system of the Commonwealth to its foundations, rend 
many communities asunder, and bring into families and individual 
hearts a boundless distress." * But on both sides the preparation 
went on. 

Unitarianism Predominant in Boston in 1800. 

It is difficult at the present time to realize the full extent of the 
apostasy from orthodoxy in Boston at the beginning of this century. 
A few facts will help. In the year 1800 only one Congregational 
church remained true to orthodoxy. None had then taken the 
name Unitarian, but they were thoroughly permeated with Unita- 
rianism. Even the church which has been excepted, the Old South, 
occupied a doubtful attitude, and her pastor, Rev. Dr. Eckley, 
rendered to orthodoxy "only a trembling support." His theology 
has been described as "equivocal," and, in the language of Rev. 
Lyman Beecher, "a large part of the members of that church 
were shivering in the breeze." There was no other church to repre- 
sent the orthodox Congregational party until the Park Street Church 
was formed in 1809. There were two Baptist churches, two Epis- 
copalian, and one small Methodist society, all true to the Trinitarian 
theology. These six churches represented the evangelical theology 
in the old Puritan metropolis in 1800. On the other hand, there 
were eight Congregational churches and one Episcopal church that 
had become Unitarian, and one Universalist, making ten "liberal" 
churches, so called, to six evangelical, though one of the latter was 
doubtful. Within the present limits of Boston there were then 

* Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England, p. 57. 



DR. GRIFFIN IN BOSTON. 497 

only two orthodox Congregational churches and thirteen Unitarian. 
And within a radius of ten miles around Boston there were then only 
ten Congregational churches which remained true to orthodoxy when 
the schism came, while twenty-two went over to Unitarianism. 

But the number of these organized bodies by no means repre- 
sents the social, civil, and intellectual status of the two parties. In 
these respects the preponderance was immeasurably in favor of the 
"liberal" party. So sharply, too, were the lines drawn, and so 
intense was the feeling about 1812, when Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin, 
the first pastor of the Park Street Church, delivered his famous 
" Park Street Lectures," that but few persons dared to enter an 
"evangelical" house of worship. Social ostracism on account of 
religious views was often inflicted by the professedly "liberal" 
party. When Dr. Griffin entered upon his labors, in July, 1 8 1 1 , the 
task before him required a stout heart and a bold hand. Boston 
was second to no other city in the country for intelligence and the 
average wealth of its inhabitants. But the current of the prevail- 
ing thought was so averse to evangelical religion that to raise a 
voice in its defense was to hazard one's reputation among respect- 
able classes. Dr. Griffin stood up almost alone preaching "the 
Gospel of the grace of God." "The finger of scorn was pointed 
at him and he had to breast a tide of misrepresentation and 
calumny, of opposition and hatred, which would have overwhelmed 
one who had not the spirituality of an apostle and the strength of a 
giant." * Dr. Griffin's rare eloquence, boldness, and evangelical 
warmth attracted many to hear him. On Sabbath evenings in the 
winter of 1812-13 he delivered his celebrated "Park Street Lect- 
ures " to crowded audiences, many of whom were attracted by 
curiosity and others by interest in the rising discussions of that 
period. Elsewhere Dr. Griffin had witnessed great revivals of relig- 
ion under his ministry, but not in Boston. A lifeless inertia and a 
staring unbelief met him on every side and pressed him down. The 
cry of "bigotry," " illiberality," and "exclusiveness" was echoed 
on every breeze. The tide of sentiment in the higher circles was 
sternly against evangelical religion. "At that time the evangelical 
religion was so unpopular that people disguised themselves to 
attend upon Dr.* Griffin's preaching, and could be frequently seen 
in obscure corners of the church, with caps" drawn over their faces 
and their wrappers turned inside out." f Such was the state of 

* Biographical sketch of Dr. Griffin in American Quarterly Register. 1840-41. P. 374. 
+ Rev. Nehemiah Adams, D.D., in an address at the anniversary of Union Church, Boston, 
June 10, 1S72. 



498 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

sentiment. The great mass of the old families, the culture, the 
wealth and influence in the city, were with the " liberal party." This 
party has ever since relatively waned, and at no time more rapidly 
than in the last thirty years. 

The Outbreak. 

The year 1815 has been designated as marking more distinctly 
than any other the year when Unitarianism began to assume a tan- 
gible form. At that time the parties arrayed themselves in a more 
open manner. The publication of "Belsham's Letters" early in 
that year was followed by a "Review" in the Panoplist in June fol- 
lowing, charging the " liberal " party with heresies and infidelity. 
Dr. Channing replied in a letter to Rev. Samuel C. Thacher, indig- 
nantly protesting against the aspersions in the Panoplist. This 
reply was regarded by Professor Andrews Norton as virtually accept- 
ing- the name Unitarian, and founding the denomination as a distinct 
body. It certainly marks the origin of what was known as the 
"Unitarian Controversy," and drew the lines between the two 
parties. Dr. Channing's Baltimore sermon, in 18 19, revived, 
enlarged, and intensified the "controversy," and led it out upon 
more distinctively doctrinal lines. The text ( "Prove all things ; hold 
fast that which is good") indicates the character of the discourse. 
It was an able defense of Unitarianism, outspoken in style, making 
it plain that he was an Arian, and attributing to the death of Christ 
some direct though undefined influence as a means of the sinner's 
forgiveness. Several editions of the sermons were published. Pro- 
fessor Moses Stuart, of Andover, reviewed it in a pamphlet of one 
hundred and eighty pages. Professor Norton replied in the Chris- 
tian Disciple. Other pamphlets, eight in all, followed, between 
Professors Stuart and Woods, of Andover, and Professors Norton 
and Ware, of Harvard College. 

In 1825 the American Unitarian Association was organized as a 
bond of sympathy and co-operation for their isolated churches, in 
the propagation of their sentiments by books, tracts, and missions, 
and to aid feeble parishes. .From this date Unitarianism may be 
said to have had 

An Organized Existence. 

In 1 82 1 the famous church property case — that of the First 
Church in Dedham — was decided by Chief-Justice Parker, establish- 
ing the principle that a church has no civil right apart from the 
parish; that the only circumstance which gives a church any legal 



ORGANIZED UNITARIANISM. 499 

character is its connection with some legally constituted parish 
society ; that the secession of a whole church from a parish society 
would be the extinction of its legal claims, but the body corporate, 
the parish, would remain, and hence the major voice of the parish 
is the only legal utterance. 

The following statement by an eminent divine presents the most 
concise view that can be given, and one as helpful, perhaps, as any 
other in forming a candid judgment of the issue: 

At the opening of this controversy, which, for the sake of a precise date, we 
may assign to 1810, the whole number of the Congregational churches in Massa- 
chusetts was 361; all of them founded on the old Puritan faith— at least all 
professedly Trinitarian. In the course of this controversy 96 of these churches 
passed over to Unitarianism, besides 30 parishes, where the same views predom- 
inated to the exclusion of evangelical preaching from their pulpits, and conse- 
quently the withdrawal of the churches from their meeting-houses; so that 126 
places of worship, with their appurtenances of parish and church funds, were lost 
to the cause of evangelical religion and gained to its opposite. The full amount 
of this loss and gain cannot be exactly stated, and yet we have the data for a 
probable estimate.* 

The General Association of Massachusetts in 1833 appointed a 
committe of twenty-three gentlemen to investigate the "condition 
of those churches which have been driven from their houses of 
worship by town or parish votes, or by measures equivalent to such 
votes," and to report thereon. After three years of careful inves- 
tigation they presented their report, in which they enumerated 81 
" exiled churches" with the amount of "parish funds" left behind 
when they went into " exile," the amount of church funds, including 
communion furniture, library, etc., of which they were deprived, 
the general condition of the meeting-houses from which they were 
"driven," and also the proportion of members that remained with 
the parish. The figures combined make a total of parish and church 
funds of $365,968; the value of the meeting-houses at $3,000 
each — " a low estimate " — $243,000 more. Total property surren- 
dered by these 81 churches, or taken away, $608,658. These exiled 
churches before the separation numbered 5,182 members, of which 
the exiled portion were 3,900, and those who "tarried at home to 
divide the spoil" were 1,282 — the majority of the parish or congre- 
gation deciding the question against the church. "This statement 
does not include the funds of 15 out of the 96 old Puritan churches 
that passed over to the other side without a schism, nor does it 
take in the orthodox endowments made to Harvard College before 
Unitarianism was heard of." 

* Dr. Joseph S. Clark's History of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts, p. 270. 



500 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

When the division was completed it was found that the whole number of Con- 
gregational churches in Massachusetts was 544 (leaving out of the account such 
as had become extinct or were merged in others), of which 135 were Unitarian 
and 409 Orthodox.* Dropping those Unitarian churches which were originally 
founded by the Orthodox, and which came intopossession of meeting-houses 
before the separation took place, and used for evangelical worship until that time, 
there remain but 24 as the fruit of Unitarian enterprise developed in church exten- 
sion; while the Orthodox during the same period had planted (or re-planted, as the 
case might be,) 193, and had actually built that number of meeting-houses, which 
is 67 more than belonged to the whole body of Congregationalists before the sep- 
aration. Thus the two parties stood in the comparative number of their churches 
when this fraternal strife ceased. The ratio between them was as one to three. In 
the number of church members the disparity was far greater; from the most relia- 
ble data at command it may be given as one to ten.f 

The loss of Harvard College by the orthodox Congregational- 
ists was followed by the founding of Andover Theological Seminary, 
in 1808, and Amherst College in 1821, as bulwarks of Trinitarian 
theology ; but the theological position of Andover Seminary was so 
offensive in eastern Massachusetts, where the Unitarian sentiment 
greatly preponderated, that the Legislature of the State long hesi- 
tated to grant it the power of holding a sufficient amount of funds v 
and placed them permanently under the direction of Phillips 
Academy;); and a Board of Visitors. Rev. Dr. D. C. Eddy says: 

The political power of the State was all thrown into the hands of the Unitari- 
ans, and Orthodoxy has scarcely recovered it to this day. To be popular and influ- 
ential in the State it was necessary to be a Unitarian. Rev. Parsons Cooke, in 
reply to a letter § in the Christian Examiner, \ attributed to Chief-Justice Parker, 
quotes one of the public papers of that period, in which it is remarked that " Any 
person to attain to any of the honors of this State (Massachusetts) must be a 
thorough Federalist and Unitarian. If they have a blotch of Democracy or Cal- 
vinism about them they must bid adieu to public honors or to Massachusetts, The 
Catholics are not more exclusive in Spain than are Mr. Otis and his associates in 
Boston." Dr. Cooke declares that at the time he wrote, 1829, "The Trinitarian 
denominations comprised more than three fourths of the people of the State, while 
nine tenths of the political influence was in the hands of the Unitarians." IF 

The Unitarians of that period were very sanguine in their 
expectations, confident that their views would soon sweep the con- 
tinent. The London Repository** said, "There is reason to expect 

• This summary was for the year 1840. 

t Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, by Rev. Joseph S. 
Clark, D.D. Boston. 1858. Pp. 170, 171, 172. 

X A school for boys at Andover, Mass. § Bearing date of 1829. 

i Vol. V, p. 279. 

1 General Repository. Vol. IV, p 374. Address by Rev. D. C. Eddy, D D., before the 
American Baptist Historical Society, 1854. P. 24. ** Vol. Ill, p. 302. 



ABLE SUPPORTERS. 501 

that in thirty or forty years the whole of Massachusetts will be 
Unitarian." 

Such were the proportions of this movement when it assumed 
its position openly before the country. It had the preponderance 
of wealth, culture and influence in Boston and in eastern Massa- 
chusetts. It had the oldest, largest and best-endowed college in 
the land. It had the prestige of a learned and able ministry. 
Buckminster, who had been idolized as a mental and spiritual 
prodigy, " a man of chastened but thrilling earnestness," who had 
attracted crowds within the walls of the old Brattle Street Church, 
had early departed. Edward Everett, a gentleman of broad and 
cultivated taste, profound and eloquent, the persuasive preacher, 
the skillful educator, the astute statesman, the courtly embassador, 
and the impressive orator ; Kirkland, affable, polished and benig- 
nant, " stripping religion of its stiff and formal costume;" the elder 
Ware, honored and revered for eminent talents and high character; 
the younger Ware, a man of practical earnestness and deep devo- 
tion ; Holley, the brilliant orator ; Charming, a man of ardent sensi- 
bilities, of shining intellect, an impersonation of lucid thought, a pre- 
eminent teacher of ethics and a bold champion of freedom and 
humanity ; Palfrey, devout, learned, the man of research ; Norton, a 
rare scholar, of intellectual strength, wide personal influence and 
intense earnestness ; Pierpont, full of independence, undaunted 
frankness and poetic fervor ; Sparks, Thacher, Parkman, and many 
others remained, soon reaching the zenith of their power. 

In the laity were many old and noble families — the Eliots, the 
Smiths, the McLeans, the Lymans, the Thorndykes, the Perkinses, 
the Parkmans, the Boylstons, and many others — who freely poured 
out their ample treasures. The statesmen, the jurists and the 
scholars of New England were largely represented in the Unitarian 
congregations, among whom maybe mentioned Parsons, Storey, 
Parker, Dexter, Lowell and Bowditch. No other religious denomi- 
nation before ever started with such advantages ; and if it were in 
the power of intellectual abilities, culture, learning, eloquence, 
wealth and social prestige to give success to religious institutions, 
thev were certain to succeed. 



The Influence of the Baptists. 

The relation of the Baptist churches to the Unitarian apostasy 
should not be overlooked. Baptist writers claim that their denomi- 
nation exerted great influence in restraining its course. One of 



502 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

their own number shall tell the story. Rev. Dr. D. C. Eddy 

says : 

At the beginning of the present century there were not quite one hundred 
churches of the Baptist denomination in the State of Massachusetts, the most 
prominent of which were two in Boston. The first Baptist church was organized 
in 1665, and it was the third of any denomination constituted in that city. From 
1765 to 1807, during much of the Unitarian controversy, Dr. Samuel Stillman, a 
man of great purity of life and a preacher of unusual eloquence, was pastor of the 
church. The Second Church, now worshiping in Baldwin Place, was constituted 
in 1742, and from the first was a very vigorous body. From 1790 to 1825 Dr. 
Thomas Baldwin was pastor, his ministry covering the most active and demon- 
strative period of the revolution of opinions. Other Baptist churches of more or 
less note dotted the old Pilgrim Commonwealth. From 1766 to 1805 that sterling 
champion of Baptist faith, Rev. Hezekiah Smith, was settled over the church in 
Haverhill. Lucius Bowles was in Salem for a quarter of a century from 1804. 
Joseph Grafton was at Newton. Other true and faithful men held up Bap- 
tist views during the theological revolution, and, though persecuted, pro- 
scribed and ill-treated through all that period, these men lifted up a 
standard which was like the sun amid the murky shadows of that dismal 
night. The steady adherence of Baptists to the Scriptures instead of tradition, 
and the pertinacity with which they insisted on faith as a condition of church 
membership and baptism, and the zeal with which they guarded the holy com- 
munion, saved their churches from unconverted members, and while Pedo-Baptist 
churches fell one by one into the arms of Unitarianism, not one Baptist church for- 
sook its apostolic creed, and not one minister of any note went over to the enemy.* 

The same may be said of the Methodist churches. 

Drifting. 

Very soon after it fully started upon its career Unitarianism 
began to undergo radical changes, for which it has ever since been 
noted, and which have characterized it as a drift of religious senti- 
ment. The causes producing them were both internal and external. 
In the earlier period the major sentiment leaned strongly toward 
the Divine ; but in its subsequent history it has been decidedly 
marked by tendencies toward the human. 

The seeds of this departure were sown at the outset. The lead- 
ing feature of the movement was a revolt against ecclesiasticism, 
protesting against creeds and inquiry into personal belief and expe- 
rience ; the doctrine of the Trinity and its cognate doctrines, as 
they stand in orthodox theology, were also denied. Agreeing in 
these negative positions, which close the door of return to evangel- 
ical principles and experiences, and adopting rationalistic methods 
of scriptural interpretation, the largest liberty of opinion consistent 

* Historical Address of Rev. D. C. Eddy, D.D., before referred to, on pp 29, 30. 



RADICAL DIFFERENCES. S03 

with this positive dissent was allowed. Such a platform left the 
door open for the intrusion of doubt. Charming and his associates 
did not dream that opinions so widely diverged from those they 
held would within a half century be inculcated in many Unitarian 
pulpits. In allowing the largest liberty of thought they suspected 
no danger, trusting that submission to the authority of Christ and 
the Scriptures, then generally prevalent among them, would suf- 
ficiently conserve the body against dangerous departures. 

As early as 1825 there were different classes of Unitarians — 
Arians, Socinians and Sabellians, but not disturbing the general 
harmony. Other and more radical divisions soon appeared. Almost 
from the first, from the body itself, we read of its "two wings" — 
wings of unequal dimensions, causing erratic and uncertain flight. 
In 1825 the Christian Examiner declared that " those who agreed 
on the general point of the simple unity of God differed, and should 
differ in peace ; " that every thing should be tolerated except the 
phrase, "the eternal Son of God ; " that those believed enough who 
held no more than the humanity of Jesus, who denied the exist- 
ence of the devil, and who regarded the New Testament language 
in regard to evil spirits to be only the language of popular super- 
stition. The editor was a decided advocate of "rational Christian- 
ity," did not fear to "exalt reason above revelation;" contended 
that the Scriptures must be made to pass before " the tribunal of 
human reason," and that "human reason is to decide whether God 
is such a being as we can safely trust." In 1826 a new editor 
assumed the control of the Examiner, and boldly declared that his 
advocacy of religion should be known not merely as " liberal," 
but pre-eminently as " rational." 

A few more specimens of opinions which appeared in the Chris- 
tian Examiner at this period will show the earliest stages of the 
great departure. One writer said that the reasoning of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews "could not be regarded as of any force at the 
present day ; " that Paul's reasoning " would not always bear a 
philosophical scrutiny ; " that the evangelists were " themselves alle- 
gorists," and had but " reported the words of Christ from memory, 
and that not always with perfect accuracy." Another denied that 
the Epistle to the Hebrews was canonical, contended that it was 
not written by St. Paul, asserting that the author, whoever he was, 
was " unable to distinguish between realities and figures," and had 
misapprehended the manner in which the Messiah " sacrificed him- 
self in the cause of God and of mankind." Another, in 1830, 
deplored the manner in which the Old Testament was used, and the 



504 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

importance which was attached to it, declaring that " many pro- 
fessed Christians have nothing but the Hebrew religion," that the 
Old Testament ought to be comparatively set aside, and that the 
gospels ought to be regarded as " the great treasury of religion." 
Another writer was willing to accept Unitarian Christianity because 
it demanded less than any other system ; accepting Christianity 
only as the best and highest form in which human intuitions had 
clothed themselves — more religious than Platonism, purer than Mo- 
hammedanism and more gentle than Judaism. From 1825 to 1838, 
under Professor Norton, a semi-rationalistic style of criticism was 
applied to biblical interpretation, in which revelation was degraded 
from its sacred supremacy. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

appeared in the pastorate of the Second Church in Boston in 1830, 
as the successor of Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., who had been called to 
the professorship of pastoral theology at Cambridge. Mr. Emerson 
belonged to a clerical race — the son of Rev. William Emerson, of 
the First Church, who had heralded the dawn of Unitarianism, and 
the eighth generation, in orderly succession, of a consecutive line 
of New England ministers. In genius and splendor of thought he 
far outstripped them all, as also in the boldness of his speculations. 
A lover of nature, full of ideality, simplicity, and poetic beauty, his 
style has been compared to 

" The pellucid brook, 
That glides and ripples and smiles 
Through wood and mead, through shade and sun." 

In 1 83 1 he obtained a dismission from his church on account 
of radical theological differences between him and them in regard 
to the Lord's Supper and other matters; and there is no account 
of his ever preaching after that event. From an early period Mr. 
Emerson manifested great impatience with all " fixed forms of 
belief," and rejected all limitations upon the freedom of intellectual 
action- He soon became widely known as a public lecturer, in 
which capacity, usually before very select audiences, he gave great 
prominence to an " idealism " which placed him at the head of 

New England Transcendentalists. 

In metaphysics the term transcendental has usually been applied 
to ideas and principles not limited or suggested by experience — the 
method of ascertaining, a priori, the fundamental principles of 



TRANSCENDENTALISM. SOS 

human knowledge, restricted to those conceptions and judgments 
which are universal and necessary, and which transcend the sphere 
of knowledge furnished by experience. Hence transcendentalism 
claims an original intuitional process for obtaining true knowledge 
of all things, material and immaterial, human and divine, as far 
as the mind is capable of knowing them. It denies a supernatural 
revelation, pronounces its miraculous sanctions to be philosophically 
impossible and absurd, and hence wholly discards the authority of 
the Scriptures. This doctrine appeared among a class of thinkers 
that arose among the New England Unitarians at this time. A 
few persons probably received it with little if any modifications; but 
in most minds at all influenced by it there were some modifying 
elements, on account of which this class of New England T-ran- 
scendentalists has been regarded as somewhat peculiar and diversi- 
fied in its character — " a school of idealists." For this reason, 
presumably, the term transcendental has come to be used for that 
which is vague and illusory in philosophy. The first meeting of 
what was later well known as " The Transcendental Club " was held 
in Boston, at the house of Mr. George Ripley, September 19, 1836; 
present, Messrs. Ripley, R. W. Emerson, F. H. Hedge, Convers 
Francis, James Freeman Clarke and A. Bronson Alcott. Subse- 
quently Revs. J. S. Dwight, W. H. Channing and C. A. Bartol met 
with them, and a little later Orestes A. Brownson, and later still 
Miss Margaret Fuller, Miss Elizabeth Peabody, Theodore Parker, 
etc., etc. 

In September, 1836, Mr. Emerson's first book, Nature, was pub- 
lished, and the same year Carlyle's Sartor Rcsartus ; and Mr. 
Brownson was lecturing in the Masonic Temple, subsequently the 
United States Court House. In 1837 Mr. Brownson commenced 
his Quarterly Review. In 1837 Wendell Phillips bounded into ora- 
torical prominence, and about this time Mr. George Ripley's 
Philosophical Miscellanies, translations from German philosophy, were 
published. In July, 1840, the Dial was first printed, a quarterly 
journal of remarkable brightness, keenness and originality, edited 
by Mr. Ripley and Miss Fuller, and extending to only sixteen num- 
bers in four brief years. Thenceforth the transcendental views were 
more widely extended, permeating a considerable class of cultured 
minds. 

In 1 841 a series of Mr. Emerson's Essays was published. The author might 
proudly say of these as Bacon said of his own, " that their matter could not be 
found in books." It is probable that they would have been at once widely wel- 
comed as a positive addition to literature had it not been for some startling 



506 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

paradoxes and audacious statements, which, while they were in direct conflict with 
the theological beliefs of the people, were supported neither by facts nor arguments, 
but rested on the simple testimony of the author's individual consciousness.* 

Mr. Emerson's Peculiarities. 

It is not easy to give a clear and satisfactory digest of Mr. Em- 
erson's views. He never grouped his thoughts together by methods 
of logic. Insight, not logical processes, was his method. The writer 
of the article on Mr. Emerson, in Appletoris Cyclopedia, says: 

System in his mind is associated with charlatanism. His largest generalization 
is •' Existence" (a lecture). On this inscrutable theme his conceptions vary with 
his moods and his experiences. Sometimes it seems to be a man who parts with 
his personality in being united to God ; sometimes it seems to be God who is 
impersonal, and who comes to personality only in man, and the real obscurity and 
vacillation of his metaphysical ideas is increased by the vivid and positive concrete 
forms in which they are successively clothed. Generally the Divine Being is felt 
or conceived as a life-imparting influence, divinizing nature and man, and as 
identical with both. 

In 1838 Mr. Emerson was invited by/ the graduating class of the 
Divinity School at Harvard College to deliver the annual address. 
While his audience admired and approved many things in his 
address, not a few were deeply pained by dangerous utterances 
against the supernatural element of Christianity. This was especially 
felt by Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., who had an interview with Mr. 
Emerson on the subject, which was followed by correspondence f 
and a sermon by Mr. Ware on the Personality of God. 

* Appleton"s Cyclopedia. Article, " Ralph Waldo Emerson." 

t Mr. Emerson's letter to Mr. AVare will show the peculiar character of his mind and his tran- 
scendental theories. He says : " I believe I must tell you what I think of my new position. It 
strikes me very oddly that good and wise men at Cambridge should think of raising me into an 
object of criticism. I have always been — from my incapacity of methodical writing — ' a chartered 
libertine,' free to worship and free to rail — lucky when I could make myself understood, but 
never esteemed near enough to the institutions and mind of society to deserve the notice of 
masters of literature and religion. I have appreciated fully the advantages of my position, for I 
well know that there is no scholar less willing or less able to be a polemic. I could not give 
account of myself if challenged. I could not poss : bly give you one of the • arguments ' you so 
cruelly hint at on which any doctrine of mine stands; f r I do not know what arguments mean 
in reference to any expression of thought. I delight in telling what I think, but if you ask me 
how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am the most helpless of mortal men. I do not even see that 
either of these questions admits of an answer. So that, in the present droll pasture of my affairs, 
when I see myself suddenly raised into the importance nf a heretic, I am very uneasy when I 
advert to the supposed duties of such a personage, who is to make good his thesis against all 
comers. I certainly shall do no such thing. I shall read what you and other good men write, as 
I have always done — glad when you speak my thoughts and skipping the page that has ik thing 
for me. I shall go on ju-t as before, seeing whatever I can and telling what I see ; and, I sup- 
pose, with the same fortune that has hitherto attended me — the joy of finding that my abler and 
better brothers who work with the sympathy of society, loving and beloved, do now and then 
unexpectedly confirm my perceptions, and find my nonsense is only their own thought in motley." 
(See Life of Rep Henry Ware y Jr. Vol. II, pp. 188-9) 



THEODORE PARKER. 507 

Mr. Emerson's ideas have exerted a great influence in the 
Unitarian body and outside of it, and he may be regarded as one 
of the forerunners of the later " Free Religion " movement. An 
editorial in the Liberal Christian* said "Mr. Emerson must be 
regarded as the fountain-head of Rationalism " — meaning all use of 
reason which discards all testimony not its own — in this country, and 
especially in Boston. 

Theodore Parker. 

Before Dr. Channing's death a young man of remarkable genius 
and power appeared in this denomination, whose influence was 
destined to be widely felt, leading many minds to assert their inde- 
pendence of Christ and divine revelation. In 1837 Mr. Theodore 
Parker became the pastor of a Unitarian church at West Roxbury. 
According to the usual custom in the denomination, at his ordina- 
tion no questions were asked in regard to his theological opinions. 
He had been a diligent student of the rationalistic literature of 
Germany, and had formed views radically subversive of historic 
Christianity which he hastened to proclaim. In his famous sermon 
on " The Transient and Permanent in Christianity," at the ordination 
of Rev. Mr. Shackford in South Boston, May 19, 1841, he 
rejected and derided the supernatural elements in Scripture history. 
The Old Testament was treated as "a pile of gorgeous pictures," 
the New " as filled with mistaken legends and opinions," and Jesus 
Christ as only such a person as others might be if the hidden divin- 
ity within them were fully revealed. The congregation was aston- 
ished, and looked one to another, but the ordination went on. 
Boston Unitarianism was stirred ; but freedom and progress had 
ever been the watchwords, and there was no remedy. Mr. Parker 
had only advanced a little beyond man)' of his brethren, but he was 
practically disowned in various ways. A few years more sufficed to 
separate him wholly from the denomination, when he boasted that 
he " had thoroughly broken with the ecclesiastical authority of 
Christendom." f In 1848 his name appeared in the published list 
of the clergy in the Unitarian Year Book for the last time. 

After Mr. Parker appeared as a bold champion of rationalism, a 
new influence was felt in the Unitarian denomination. Channing, 
who died in 1842, had been, more than any other man, the leader 
and prophet of the body, whose beautiful spirit was every-where 
felt, exerting its sweet, genial, and almost magical influence. But 
Mr. Parker strode forth into the field Goliath-like, rash, self-willed, 

* July 1, 1871. f Experience as a Minister. By Theodore Parker. 



BOS CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

without reverence for accumulated wisdom and experience, confi- 
dent of superiority to the past, relying upon his own personal 
insight — " a direct vision without the correcting testimony of ages.'' 
Channing's style was chaste, flowing, direct, elegant — that of "an 
ethical teacher by nature, a polemic by stress of circumstances." 
Parker was a natural polemic, scenting the battle from afar and 
neighing for the conflict. He loved sharp, incisive statements, had 
a fatal habit of gross exaggeration, often sacrificed truth on the 
altar of personal conceit, and often in attempts at bold and startling 
rhetoric. He was a man of moods marked by a double conscious- 
ness, at one time praising Christ as 

The great friend of all the sons of men. 

and on another occasion declaring: 

I have seen the gospel of God's love more clearly written in the life of a cold 
snake than even the Nazarene Jesus could tell the tale. 

Channing was a devout disciple of Christ, claiming him as the 
source of spiritual life. Parker was a merciless critic of Christ. 
Channing was a decided supernaturalist, though of the rational order. 
Parker openly denounced all supernaturalism. 

Strange contradictions* met in Mr. Parker: opposite extremes of 
opinion into which he ran, oftentimes with an inconsiderate haste ; 
powers and attainments of a giant united at times with the intel- 
lectual weakness of a child. While stating one class of facts with 
remarkable clearness, at the same time he had a pre-eminent ability, 
or liability, whichever it was, for utterly overlooking other facts, 
no less evident, of an opposite character. With some indications of 
many-sidedness, he was nevertheless notoriously and incurably one- 
sided. And this was the most conspicuous trait in his character. 

* Mr. Parker has been supposed by some to have been a man of prodigious learning.. His 
wonderful library, vast reading, and extensive acquaintance with the world's faiths have been 
much spoken of. The Christian Register (Unitarian) took a different view of him. It says : 

" Mr. Parker was a devourer of books ; an omnivorous reader. The natural result was a men- 
tal indigestion. He made his mind a perfect lumber-room. Had he read only a tenth part of 
what he credits himself with in his journal, he would have been wiser, purer, and clearer in his 
mental vision. Mr. Frothingham regards him as a thoroughly learned scholar, exact, exhaustive, 
and trustworthy in reporting his results. Such was not the judgment of his peers among his 
brethren — of scholars like Drs. Frothingham, Lamson, Noyes, Francis, Hodge etc. It is curious, 
after his biographer has credited him with a course of French study and reading (he quotes sub- 
sequently from his journal in Paris), that ' a cabman took compassion on him for his ignorance 
of the language.' One of his warmest admirers, preaching upon him after his death, said that 
he had read all the books in his library of 17,000 volumes. The author of this preposterous 
statement, if he had seen, must have forgotten, that severely -wrought essay of De Quincey's on 
the number of books which the' most diligent man can possibly read in along life." 

See also an elaborate criticism and very able review of his life and works by Rev Prof. George 
Prentice, D. D., in the Methodist Quarterly Review, January and April, 1873. 



FREE RELIGION. B09 

He was an able, a decided, and an uncompromising representative 
of a system which was positively anti-Christian, and yet he claimed 
to be a restorer of true Christianity. Historic Christianity and the 
historic gospels he rejected as the corruptions of the ages. True 
Christianity he claimed to be the absolute religion ; the religion of 
the intuition, of individual insight; a direct vision which is in har- 
mony with the intuitions of the original Christ. Of this he was a 
restorer; and in this sense he called himself a Christian, and not as 
a follower of what he termed " the dogmatic Christ " of history. 
While he quoted from the Scriptures, he nevertheless rejected large 
portions of both the Old and the New Testaments. Mr. Parker, 
however, clung to the doctrine of the providence of God and the im- 
mortality of the soul. But he seems to have had no fully matured 
system. He was rich in thought, but not logical and well denned ; 
strong and forcible in style, but bold, erratic, paradoxical and 
irreverent. 

Emerson never denned his views on those questions of such pro- 
found interest to human hearts. He abhorred every thing in the 
shape of a system or a formula, and perhaps we may even say a 
method of thought. His genius delighted in vague but brilliant 
corruscations of mystical sentiment. His susceptibility to the 
sublime was very great, and there were, at times, indications of 
broad generalizations, but broken and fragmentary. His musings 
are cold, strangely beautiful, and sometimes austere. In short, he 
was a dreamer, and whatever semblance of system he has is dreamy 
and incoherent — a "gorgeous mysticism." 

Such were the prophets of Free Religion, and the Free 
Unitarianism of Parker was its prefatory stage. 

But it was not through Messrs. Parker and Emerson alone that 
these radical changes were effected. The germinal principle of 
rationalism inhered in the body itself, and the writings of Lessing, 
Herder, Eichorn, De Wette, Strauss, and other rationalistic writers, 
and the transcendental philosophy, extensively welcomed and 
admired by many Unitarian clergymen, have steadily fostered and 
carried forward the movement of which Mr. Parker was the open 
champion. Besides these, the phrenologists, represented by Spurz- 
heim and Combe, the writings of Wordsworth, Carlyle, Coleridge 
and Cousin, just then very generally disseminated, increased and 
strengthened this tendency. 

Thus closes the classical era of Unitarianism. The Christian 
Examiner and The Religious Monthly Magazine were its leading 
periodicals, abounding in specimens of fine literature. 
33 



BIO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 2.— UniYersalism. 

The incipient stages of the formation of this denomination were 
sketched in the previous period. Rev. Elhanan Winchester, the 
founder of the Restoration wing, died in 1797, and Rev. John Mur- 
ray, the chief founder, continued in the active ministry in Boston, 
with occasional preaching tours in the country, until 1809, when he 
was disabled by paralysis until his death in 1815. Until 1820 the 
growth of this denomination was slow, but from 1820 to 1850 it 
rapidly increased, reaching its maximum size numerically in its whole 
history. The period' from 1800 to 1850 was one of radical theolog- 
ical changes, in which the more evangelical views of Murray and 
Winchester were discarded, and Arian and Socinian ideas were 
adopted, sharing in the general revulsion then going on in New 
England and elsewhere in the direction of Unitarianism. Thence- 
forth Universalism bore strong resemblance to Unitarianism. 

The Leaders. 

The leading spirits of the period were Revs. Hosea Ballou, 1st, 
Walter Balfour and Thomas Whittemore, D.D. Rev. Sebastian 
Streeter should also be introduced, being for many years a very 
popular Universalist preacher in Boston ; but Messrs. Ballou, Bal- 
four and Whittemore evidently shaped the period. 

Mr. Ballou began to preach in 1791, became pastor of a Univer- 
salist Church in Dana, Mass., in 1794, then went to Barnard, Vt., 
then to Portsmouth, N. H.,to Salem, Mass., in 181 5, and to Boston 
in 1817, where he remained pastor of the School Street Church 
until his death, in 1852. When he came to Boston he was in his 
forty-second year, and had already acquired considerable influence 
in the denomination. He had been a diligent student and a steady 
thinker, and the views for which he became distinguished were 
already nearly matured. Mr. Whittemore says that " he became an 
avowed Unitarian as early as 1795." * He thus early rejected the 
doctrine of the Trinity and of a personal devil. In 1804 he published a 
volume of Notes on the Parables and in 1805 a Treatise on the Atone- 
ment, which was essentially Unitarian in its character. He discarded 
the doctrine of regeneration and the efficacy of saving grace and 
faith in Christ, as taught by Murray and the evangelical theologians, 
Boston was a central position, where Mr. Ballou became very prom- 
inent at once, and was soon felt as a master-mind, the leader and 
champion of the denomination. 

* Life 0/ Ballou. Vol. Ill, p. 87. 



UXIVERS4LIST LEADERS. 51 1 

In the dissemination of his peculiar views Mr. Ballou was soon 
supported by several men who exerted an extensive influence. The 
one who attained to the earliest prominence was Rev. Walter 
Balfour. He had been reared and well educated in Scotland, and 
became pastor of a Baptist Church in Charlestown, Mass. In 1823 
he avowed himself a Universalist, and within a few years he pub- 
lished some of their ablest controversial works. He died January 
3, 1853, almost five months after the decease of Mr. Ballou. Rev. 
Thomas Whittemore, D.D., although a much younger man, came 
very soon into the front rank, and maintained it until his death in 
1861. He was born in Boston, in the year 1800. In his twentieth 
year he fell under Mr. Ballou's influence, with whom he studied for 
the ministry, and entered upon its work in Milford, Mass., in 182 1. 
The following year he became pastor of a church in Cambridge, 
where he remained nine years. During a part of this period he was 
editor of the Universalist Trumpet and Magazine, which position he 
held with great ability for thirty years. He early* adopted Mr. 
Ballou's theological opinions, and was an able and zealous expounder 
and advocate of them in his paper. Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, D.D., is 
worthy of especial mention in this period, having exerted a very 
extensive influence as a preacher, an editor, and the author of a 
Universalist Commentary on the New Testament. He commenced 
preaching among them in Maine in 1820, came to Maiden, Mass., 
in 1828, where he was pastor of a church ten years. He was editor 
of the Christian Freeman from 1839 until 1862, when it was united 
with the Trumpet. Mr. Cobb was very prominent in the anti- 
slavery and temperance reforms. 

Revolutionized by Unitarianism. 

Under the influence of these men and a few others Universalism 
was soon molded into a new form, although still retaining the 
leading idea of the final holiness and happiness of all men. These 
changes were not wholly the result of individual influence, but were 
largely the drift of the time — a reaction from the extreme Calvinistic 
theology which then prevailed. This defection was every-where 
spreading in the atmosphere of the period, and reached its decisive 
development from 18 10 to 1830, the early Universalists being 
peculiarly susceptible to it. Having broken away from orthodoxy 
at one point it was easy to make other changes. Mr. Murray seems 
to have noticed this tendency before he died. In the sketch of the 

* See sermon by Mr. Whittemore, preached in Cambridge, May, 1822. 



512 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

previous period Mr. Murray's apprehensions of changes about to take 
place among his followers was noticed. Mrs. Murray, in her con- 
tinuation of her husband's autobiography, speaking of the conven- 
tion in 1785, says, " But alas ! in no long time a root of bitterness 
sprang up which destroyed his pleasure in the association." Mr. 
Demarest,* in his Centennial edition of the Life of Murray, says-. 

The " root of bitterness " to which Mrs. Murray refers was probably the widen- 
ing divergence of the views of his brethren from those of Mr. Murray. Not only 
did these relate to expositions, but also to fundamental doctrines. Some had 
already, even before Mr. Ballou's day, adopted the sentiment that the painful con- 
sequences of sin are confined to this life. Others, retaining the doctrine of the 
Trinity, rejected the theory of vicarious atonement, while the general tendency of 
thought among Universalists was in the direction of Unitarian views of the divine 
nature. These various sentiments, conflicting with Mr. Murray's own cherished 
ideas of Gospel truth, caused him much uneasiness. 

Rev. Hosea Ballon may be regarded as one of the earliest pro- 
moters of the Unitarian sentiment of New England. Other early 
Universalist ministers had entertained similar views, but they were 
for the most part cautious and hesitating in their avowals until they 
came under the bold and inspiring leadership of Ballou. Mr. 
Whittemore says that " he was not shy of his Unitarian opinions. 
Soon after his removal to Boston he assailed the doctrine of the 
Trinity with much power. He published clear and correct articles 
on the subject of the atonement and on the general character of 
rational and liberal Christianity. .The Unitarians were fearful they 
should be considered Universalists," f and the younger Ware came 
out with a disclaimer in letters to Dr. McLeod, of New York. 
Meanwhile the transition to Unitarianism was rapid. Rev. Paul 
Dean, of Boston, preached before the General Convention of 
Universalists in 1825, and in his discourse he distinctly avowed 
Trinitarian opinions. Mr. Whittemore says, " This, we believe, was 
the last time the doctrine of the Trinity was ever preached before 
the Convention." \ Again Mr. Whittemore says: 

From the early years of Mr. Ballou's ministry to the day of his death he was a 
firm, consistent, faithful defender of the strict unity of God and of the sonship and 
subordination of Christ to the Father. Never did he waver in this matter. On 
every proper occasion, in public and in private, he declared, without any reserve, 
his Unitarian views. § 

In 1834 he published an extended article against the doctrine of 
the Trinity, and in his life-time the whole denomination became 

* Life of Murray, 1870. P. 338. + Life of Ballon. Vol. II, p. 90. 

\ Ibid. , Vol. II, p. 30. § Ibid. Vol. Ill, p. 170. 



RADICAL DIVERGENCES. 513 

anti-Trinitarian, discarding the doctrines of a personal devil, a sub- 
stitututional atonement, depravity, the special efficacy of divine 
grace, regeneration, etc., as held by Murray. But there were also 

Other Radical Changes, 

touching the doctrine of a future judgment and punishment after 
death. * Murray and Winchester both agreed in a future general 
judgment. We have noticed that Murray believed that the wicked 
would suffer the natural consequences of sin and unbelief in the 
period between death and the judgment, and then be saved, and 
that Winchester held that they would be punished for a long period 
after the day of judgment and then gathered into heaven. Mr. 
Ballou rejected the doctrine of a future general judgment, contend- 
ing that it takes place in the present life, and that all punishment 
for sin is in this life. Originally he had been a Restorationist. The 
history of the change in his mind will be given in his own words, 
in a letter which appears in Whittemore's History of Modern 
Universalism : 

When I wrote my Notes on the Parables (1804) and my Treatise on the 
Atonement (1805) I had traveled in my mind away from penal sufferings so 
entirely that I was satisfied that if any suffered in the future state it would be 
because they would be sinful in that state. But I cannot say that I was fully sat- 
isfied that the Bible taught no punishment in the future world until I obtained this 
satisfaction by attending to the subject with Brother Edward Turner, of Charles- 
town. For the purpose of satisfying ourselves concerning the doctrine of the 
Scriptures on this question we agreed to do the best we could, he in favor of future 
punishment (Restorationism), and I the contrary. Our investigations were pub- 
lished in a periodical called the Gospel Visitant. While attending to this corre- 
spondence I became entirely satisfied that the Scriptures begin and end the history 
of sin in flesh and blood, and that beyond this mortal existence the Bible teaches 
no other sentient state but that which is called by the blessed names of life and 
immortality. 

This discussion occurred in the years 1 817 and 18 18. f From 
this time Mr. Ballou was fully committed to the doctrine of no 
punishment after death, boldly avowing it in a controversy with 

*Rev. E. G. Brooks, D.D., of Philadelphia, in the Universalist Quarterly, April, 1871, 
says, " Up to about 1814-15 the doctrine of future punishment can hardly be said to have been 
questioned among us. Held on various grounds as to its philosophy, the idea that the painful 
consequences of sin extend beyond the grave was almost undisputed. Some of the opinions of 
Father Ballou logically issued in the doctrine of the immediate felicity of all at death ; but 
the Bible was thought to teach future punishment, and in deference to its authority he accepted 
it. As might have been expected, however, the logical consequences of his fundamental postu- 
lates touching the subject began in time to assert themselves — at first, interrogatively, then more 
positively. From 1814 to 1817 the question gradually pushed itself into discussion." 

f Life of Ballou. Vol. II, pp. 28, 29. 



S14 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Rev. Timothy Merritt in 1818, in his pulpit discourses and in his 
writings for the press. 

It is not surprising that there should have been a commotion 
in some quarters, and even opposition to this new doctrine, for 
Restorationism in some form seems to have been heretofore held by 
many, and probably by the majority of the Universalists of that 
period. The conflict became very spirited, enlisting a great amount 
of feeling, especially among the Restorationists, who looked with 
jealousy upon the growing influence of Mr. Ballou and his doctrine 
of no punishment after death. But so dexterous and effective, and 
withal so conciliatory was Mr. Ballou in the defense of his views, 
that he seemed to come out of every contest with a stronger hold 
upon the denomination. The opposing wing continued to agitate 
and struggle, and finally conspired;* and twice during a period of 
less than nine years their efforts culminated in attempts to produce 
a schism in the Universalist body. 

We have not space for the details of these movements. In 1830 
a new champion of Restorationism appeared, Rev. Adin Ballou, of 
Mendon, Mass., who had been about seven years connected with the 
denomination, having been originally a Baptist. In August, 1831, 
a convention of Universalist ministers assembled in Mendon, Mass., 
and organized themselves as the " Massachusetts Association of 
Universal Restorationists." Great efforts were put forth to make 
this new body successful. The conflict was sharp at first, but it 
gradually declined, and Mr. Whittemore saysf it " died of itself." 
Rev. Sylvanus Cobb confirms the statement of Mr. Whittemore. 
He says, i " They operated in a narrow sphere a little while, and in 
a few years were only to be found on record among the tilings that 
were." Such was the end of the last organized effort to advance 
the doctrine of Restorationism in the Universalist body. Its 
decline has generally been regarded as a triumph of Rev. Hosea 
Ballou and his party. The doctrine of Restoration was retained in 
some form by a considerable number, but its believers were not 
numerous, nor were they very active in disseminating their views 
until a few years later, when, as will be seen in the review of the 
next period, it triumphed in the whole denomination. 

Several things may here be noticed : I. The Universalism of the 
period agreed with the opinions of Murray and Winchester only on 
one point ; namely, the final salvation of all men. 2. The doc- 
trines of Murray and Winchester in regard to the existence of 

*See Life of Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, D.D., p. 107. 

+ Life of Ballou. By Whittemore. Vol. Ill, p. 321. % Life of Rev. S. Cobb, D.D., p. in. 



THE CHRISTIANS. SIS 

a personal devil, a local hell, the Trinity, a substitutional atone- 
ment, the efficacy of divine grace through faith in Christ, regenera- 
tion and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, and a future general 
judgment, were all discarded, between 1817 and 1850, by Ballou and 
his followers, and Unitarian views were adopted in place of nearly 
all of them. 3. Even the Restoration ists of this period discarded 
Mr. Winchester's views of a general judgment ; nor did they teach 
regeneration and other evangelical doctrines as he did. Mr. Whitte- 
more * admitted that neither party held the above-mentioned views 
as Murray and Winchester did. He also says that "Mr. Ballou was 
instrumental in changing almost entirely the faith of the whole 
denomination. " f 



Section 3 — The Christians. 

This denomination had a threefold origin — Methodist, Baptist, 
and Presbyterian ; being formed by the combination of three original 
stems which simultaneously arose in different sections of the coun- 
try remote from each other, without any preconcerted action or 
even knowledge of each other's movements. The central, actuating 
principle in each case was a revolt from creeds and ecclesiastical 
authority. 

The first movement was made in North Carolina and Virginia 
by Rev. James O'Kelley and several other preachers of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. Mr. O'Kelley had been a member of the 
Methodist General Conference in 1792, and had made a strenuous 
effort to effect a modification of the power of the Bishops in the 
appointment of the preachers to their pastoral charges, but was 
unsuccessful. The next morning after his motion was lost, he and a 
few of his friends addressed a letter to the Conference, declaring 
that they could no longer remain with them. After several unsuc- 
cessful personal interviews with committees of the Conference, Mr. 
O'Kelley left the seat of the Conference for his home. About the 
same time it was ascertained that Mr. O'Kelley had become heter- 
odox in regard to the doctrine of the Trinity, and would have soon 
been brought to trial had no rupture on questions of polity oc- 
curred. J But the withdrawal was final and irrevocable ; a grief to 
many, on account of his hitherto valuable labors. The final sepa- 
ration from the Methodist Episcopal Church took place at Manakim 

*See Trumpet, September 17, 1831. t Life of Ballou. By Whittemore. Vol. II, p. 88 

% See A Short History of the Methodists in the United States. By Rev. Jesse Lee. Bal- 
timore, 18 10. Pp. 179, 180. 



616 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Town, N. C. f December 25, 1793. The seceding party at first took 
the name of " Republican Methodists," but subsequently concluded 
to be known as Christians only, acknowledging no headship but 
Christ and no creed or discipline but the Bible. 

The second movement originated in Hartland, Vt., with Dr. 
Abner Jones; a member of the regular Baptist Church. During the 
last few years of the last century he is said to have "had a peculiar 
travail of mind in regard to sectarian names and human creeds." 
He commenced to propagate his sentiments with zeal and, in Sep- 
tember, 1800, he had gathered a church of twenty-five members in 
Lyndon, Vt. In 1802 he gathered another in Bradford, Vt., and, in 
March, 1803, another in Piermont, N. H. Soon after Rev. Elias 
Smith, a Baptist minister in Portsmouth, N. H., and, through his 
influence, his church, also adopted the same views. Several other 
preachers from the Regular Baptist and the Free-Will Baptist 
churches soon rallied under this standard, and labored with great 
zeal and success, extending the influence of their views through 
many parts of New England, into New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Michigan, the Canadas, and New Brunswick. 

The third movement had its origin among the Presbyterians in 
Kentucky and Tennessee, during the years 1800 and 1801. In the 
midst of a very extraordinary revival of religion which then pre- 
vailed, some of the leading promoters Qf the work broke loose from 
the Calvinistic creed and preached the doctrine of free salvation. 
Some of the presbyteries felt that the Church was in jeopardy, and 
finally the Synod of Kentucky interposed its authority to prevent 
the spread of "Arminianism." Rev. Barton W. Stone, of Kentucky, 
a learned and eloquent minister, and four others, withdrew from the 
Synod and were soon followed by a considerable number of com- 
municants and a large portion of the converts in the revival. At 
first they organized themselves under the name of " the Springfield 
Presbytery," but in 1803 they abandoned that name and agreed to 
be known as "Christians" only. 

Thus, in the course of a few years, unbeknown to each other, 
these three branches arose in remote sections of the country. After 
the lapse of several years they obtained some knowledge of each 
other, and upon opening a correspondence they were mutually sur- 
prised to find that all had embraced nearly the same principles, and 
were carrying forward a similar work. These three bodies thereupon 
united in one denomination, under the name of " Christians," on 
the following platform: "That the name Christian is the only name 
of distinction which we take, and by which we as a denomination 



THE PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS. 517 

desire to be known, and the Bible is our only rule of faith and 
practice." * 

This is a decidedly no-creed sect, every man interpreting the 
Bible for himself, and therefore a difference of theological views is 
no bar to fellowship. They are understood, however, as discarding 
the doctrine of the Trinity, although there are some exceptions to 
this among them. Discarding the deity of Christ and the distinct 
personality and deity of the Holy Ghost, they are nevertheless not 
Socinians or Humanitarians, but Arians, accepting Jesus Christ as 
" the only begotten Son of God, existing with the Father before all 
worlds." 

The " Christians" hold a general convention every four years, 
and annual conferences composed of lay and clerical delegates. 
But neither of these bodies can pass any laws binding the churches. 
The first General Convention was held October 7, 18 19. This 
denomination had a very rapid growth up to 1844, when Rev. 
David Millard, a prominent minister among them, estimated their 
numbers as follows : 

Preachers 1,500 I Churches 1,500 

Licentiates 500 | Communicants 325,000 

At this time, however, " Millerism " took a powerful hold upon 
them, and they suffered more seriously from its ravages than any 
other religious body. They have never recovered from that delete- 
rious influence. 



Section 4.— The Hicksite or Progressive Friends. 

This body of religionists had its origin in a Socinian tendency; 
a part of a general drift in the American churches early in this cent- 
ury out of which the Unitarian schism sprung, and by which the 
Universalist churches were permeated and leavened. Among the 
Friends this movement was under the strong leadership of Elias 
Hicks, a man of great acuteness and energy of intellect, and of ele- 
vated personal character. Imbibing Socinian views of the Trinity 
and the Atonement, he began to preach them, but cautiously at first, 
and with little sympathy from his brethren. Gradually he attracted 
attention, and won adherents, until he gained a large number of fol- 
lowers. Unable to carry the body of the Friends at large over to 
his opinions, in 1827 he seceded from the denomination and formed 
a distinct and independent body, bearing at first the name Hicks- 

* Their first paper, The Herald of Gospel Liberty, was issued in 1808. 



S18 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ites, but subsequently the designation of Progressive Friends. In 
this secession were members from the Yearly Meetings of New 
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Ohio, Indiana, and New England. 
At the time of the separation the old body, or the " Orthodox 
Friends," were in the western States the more numerous, but on 
the Atlantic sea-board the followers of Hicks were the larger 
portion. 



Section 5.— The lew Jerusalem Clmrcli. 

In the previous period the earlier seed-sowing of Swedenborg's 
ideas in America was briefly stated. " In the year 1814 Mr. Samuel 
Worcester met with some of the writings of Swedenborg in Ded- 
ham, Mass. — books that had been distributed by Mr. Hill. He soon 
became convinced of their truth, and was very active in seeking out 
and gathering together those in Boston and its vicinity who had 
any acquaintance with them. The first meetings were held in 18 17, 
and the Society in Boston was organized as a church August 15, 
1 8 18, under the ministry of Rev. Thomas Worcester, brother of 
Samuel." * 

In 18 1 8 the Swedenborgians in the United States were organ- 
ized into a General Convention, which meets annually. The 
American Quarterly Register -f gives the statistics gathered at their 
eleventh annual meeting in Boston, in August, 1829 : Ordained 
ministers, 9; priests and teaching ministers, 6; licentiates, 14; 
total, 29. 

Receivers of the doctrine were found in 5 towns in Maine, in 3 
in New Hampshire, in 24 in Massachusetts, in 2 in Rhode Island, 
in 1 in Connecticut, in 14 in New York, in 2 in New Jersey, in 
22 in Pennsylvania, in 22 in Ohio, in 17 in other States. 



Section 6.— Millerism. 

The peculiar views of Christ's second advent, known by the 
above caption, were imbibed by Mr. William Miller about 18 18, but 
were not promulgated by him until the year i83i,when he set them 
forth in a series of articles in the Vermont Telegraph. The follow- 
ing year he published a synopsis of his views in a pamphlet, and 
soon after commenced to deliver lectures upon the subject. In 

* Communication to the author by S. R. Worcester, M.D., of Salem, Mass. 
t February, 1830, p. 188. 



MILLERISM. 519 

1836 a volume of his lectures was published and widely circulated. 
In 1838 Rev. Josiah Litch, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Lowell, Mass., adopted Mr. Miller's views, and published 
a pamphlet, entitled The Midnight Cry, proclaiming the second 
coming of Christ about A. D. 1843. He also went forth to preach 
and lecture on the subject. In 1839 Mr. Miller visited Massachu- 
setts and itinerated widely in other States for many years, even till 
his death in 1849. ^ t Exeter, N. H., he met Rev. J. V. Himes, of 
the Christian Connection, Boston, who received his doctrines and 
invited Mr. Miller to the latter city. Marlborough Chapel was 
occupied for some time for lectures. A revised edition of his lect- 
ures was published by Mr. Muzzey, 5,000 copies selling in a short 
time. Mr. Himes began to publish The Signs of the •Times March 
20, 1840, issuing semi-monthly and widely circulating. Rev. Charles 
Fitch,* pastor of the Marlborough Chapel Church, accepted the 
new doctrines and went forth to advocate them. In October, 1840, 
a conference of Second Advent believers was held in Chardon 
Street Chapel, Boston. Other conferences \ followed in 1 841-1842. 
In the spring of 1842 Messrs. Miller and Himes unfurled the banner 
of Second Adventism in Apollo Hall, Broadway, New York city. 
Numerous camp-meetings were held, and meetings under immense 
tents. Revival services lasting days and weeks accompanied the 
lectures, followed by powerful religious awakenings and much ab- 
normal excitement. Books, tracts, etc., were profusely scattered.' 
As the supposed end of the world drew near the excitement in 
certain classes of minds became intense. 

Some neglected their business; they had property enough to support them till 
the final conflagration, and why should they accumulate more? Some, who were 
poor, quartered themselves upon those who were rich ; some gave away their prop- 
erty to those who wished to use it. There were some, however, who were more 
considerate; they continued to work at their calling, built houses and substantial 
fences, and conducted themselves in all respects as they would if the world was to 
continue many years, and assigned as a reason for so doing that the command of 
Christ was, "Occupy till I come." 

"- A few other early and prominent advocates of Mr. Miller's views should be mentioned. 
Professor N. M. Whiting;, of the Baptist Church, an able linguist, who embraced them in 1841, 
and became the editor of the Mid7iight Cry; Mr. N. Southard, known as editor of the Youth's 
Cabinet, who adopted these views in 1841, and succeeded Mr. Whiting as editor of the Midnight 
Cry and Rev. George Storrs, formerly a member of the New Hampshire Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, but subsequently pastor of an independent Methodist Church in 
Albany, who went over to Adventism in 1842. 

f This Conference became a permanent body, holding annual sessions until 1858, when it 
resolved itself into the American Evangelical Advent Conference, and at the same time organ- 
ized the American Millennium Association, which purchased the publishing interests of Rev. J. 
V. Himes. 



520 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Many valuable essays in opposition to the views of Mr. Miller 
were published by Professors Moses Stuart, D.D., Enoch Pond, 
D.D., Rev. John Dowling D.D. etc., but with little avail. The 
deluded ones were in no condition to be aided by argument; dis- 
sent and objections they construed as persecution. The day was 
fixed (April 23, 1843,) f° r the world to end, but it passed quietly by 
with no remarkable phenomena. When a confession of a mistake 
was looked for the pride of opinion for a time held them back, but, 
forced at length to a partial acknowledgment, they admitted a slight 
mistake, and said the event would take place " in the end rather 
than the beginning of the Jewish year, which would be March 22, 
1844." An intelligent observer said : 

The specified- day came, as calm and bright a harbinger of spring as ever 
shone upon the earth. The Son of man did not appear in the clouds of heaven. 

The lecturers kept on lecturing, and the publication of their 
books and periodicals did not cease. They fixed upon September 
of that year as the crisis, and when September passed, they con- 
cluded that 1847 must be the time, because chronologers varied 
in their system of dates. Finally the excitement ended. Some 
returned to their vocations, some to the churches, some became 
infidels, and others passed over into the belief of materialism, anni- 
hilationism, etc. 

A Radical Departure. 

A radical departure occurred in the infancy of the movement, in- 
augurated by Rev. Geo. Storrs. formerly of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. While he was preaching in Albany, N. Y., as early as 1842 
he published a pamphlet setting forth the dottrine of the final anni- 
hilation of the wicked. Subsequently he embraced the doctrine of 
the pre-millennial advent of Christ as held by Mr. Miller, and sought 
affiliation with him. He was received, and improved his position 
by disseminating his annihilation opinions throughout almost the 
entire body of Adventists. He published a monthly serial in Phil- 
adelphia, and also in New York city for a number of years, devoted 
to the advocacy of his peculiar opinions, among which the follow- 
ing are the most prominent : 

1. A denial of the existence of the human soul as a distinct 
entity. 2. A denial of conscious existence between death and the 
resurrection. 3. That the wicked will be annihilated after general 
judgment. 4. And at some period Mr. Storrs was accredited with 
the disbelief of the resurrection of the wicked. 

The "Materialistic Adventists" are sometimes divided into two 
classes: the "Christian Adventists" and "Seventh-Day Adventists." 



RESULTS OF SKEPTICAL THOUGH T. 821 



CHAPTER VII. 



SKEPTICISM, SOCIALISM, ETC 



Sec. i. Radical Doubt. | Sec. 2. Socialism. 



Section 1.— Radical Doubt. 

IT has been stated in these pages that the great revival of 1799- 
1803 broke the sway of French infidelity so prevalent during 
the twenty years previous, and ushered in a new era of spiritual life 
and religious faith. But skeptical habits were so deeply fastened 
upon many individuals and some communities that a considerable 
time elapsed before they were thrown off. Virginia, Kentucky and 
some portions of New York suffered the longest. Bishop Meade, 
who was consecrated to the work of the Christian ministry in 18 18, 
at Williamsburg, Va., the seat of William and Mary College, of 
which Bishop Madison was then president, has represented the 
moral and religious condition of eastern Virginia at that time as 
most deplorable. 

On my way to the old church the Bishop and myself met a number of students 
with guns on their shoulders and dogs at their sides, attracted by the frosty morn- 
ing, which was favorable to the chase ; and at the same time one of the citizens 
was filling his ice-house. On arriving at the church we found it in a wretched 
condition, with broken windows and a gloomy, comfortless aspect. The congre- 
gation consisted of two ladies and fifteen gentlemen, nearly all of whom were 
relatives or acquaintances. . . . The religious condition of the college and of the 
place may be inferred. I was informed, that not long before this, two questions 
were discussed in a literary society of the college. First, Whether there be a 
God? Secondly, Whether the Christian religion had been injurious or beneficial 
to mankind ? Infidelity was then rife in the State, and the College of William and 
Mary was regarded as the hot-bed of French politics and religion. I can truly say 
that then, and for some time after, in every educated young man in Virginia whom 
I met I expected to find a skeptic, if not an avowed unbeliever.* 

In 1802 Rev. Seth Payson, D.D., of Rindge, N. H., published a 
volume entitled Proofs of the Existence and Dangerous Tendency of 

* The Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. By Bislv>p William Meade, DD, 
Philadelphia. 1857. J. B. Lippincott & Co. Vol. I, pp. 29, 30. 



S22 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Modern " Illuminism" To render their opposition to Christianity 
the more effective the French and German infidels had formed 
secret societies, the members of which were called " the Illuminati." 
It was believed that such societies existed in this country, aiming at 
the overthrow of the Church and civil government. This volume 
was intended as a warning. 

It was not until some years after the century opened that the 
moral darkness and infidelity that long prevailed in western New 

York were dissipated. J E , agent for the Holland Land 

Company, exerted a very pernicious and disastrous influence. He 
disregarded the Sabbath, and was opposed to all religious institu- 
tions. The whole surrounding region was long noted for its irre- 
ligion. It was a common remark that the Sabbath had not found 
its way across the Genesee River. An infidel club was early formed, 
and by them a circulating library, containing the works of Voltaire, 
Volney, Hume and Paine, was established. * Early missionaries 
along Lake Erie and as far west as Cleveland, Ohio, in 1808 and 
1810, reported : " Infidelity abounds to an alarming degree, and in 
various shapes." \ " Here Satan keeps his strongholds." " Infidel- 
ity here walks in brazen front." \ 

It has been before noticed that at the close of the last century a 
majority of the inhabitants of Kentucky were reported to be in- 
fidels. § The services of a chaplain in the Legislature were dis- 
pensed with — a measure significant of the kind of sentiment in the 
ascendency, and the Transylvania University, founded by the Pres- 
byterians, passed under the control of skeptics. Not one of its 
trustees, at one time early in this century, was a religious man, but 
all were skeptical about religion. || Rev. Dr. Holley, a gentleman 
of superior classical attainments, but an extreme Socinian, was 
elected to the presidency in 18 17. His sermons were described as 
but " little better than eloquent deism, with the gilding of Christian 
phraseology. Public opinion began to be freely expressed. It found 
new provocation in the publication of the ' Transylvania theses,' or 
Latin exercises of the students, which showed only too plainly that 
the rationalistic views of the president were bearing fruit in the 
minds of his pupils. . . . His lessons in morals may be judged from 
his address to the students : ' Young gentlemen, whatever you find 
within you, cherish it, for it is a part of vour nature ; restrain it 
not.' " 1 



* History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. 

Philadelphia. Vol. II, p. 109. \ Ibid. Vol. II, p. no. \Ibid. Vol. II, p. 144- 

§ Ibid., Vol. I, p. 421. J Ibid. Vol. II, p. 300. If Ibid. Vol. II, p. 305. 



DOUBTERS. 523 

" Three Doubting Thomases." 

The lives of some of the apostles of doubt in the previous century 
were protracted into the nineteenth century. Thomas Jefferson, 
Thomas Cooper and Thomas Paine have been described as " born 
democrats and social revolutionists. Their opposition to the Church 
was largely the result of their iconoclastic natures. The first was 
the political, the second the scientific, and the third the social rep- 
resentative of the contemporary Anti-Christian movement. The 
first was influential by reason of his political station as President 
of the Republic; the second by reason of his office as educator; 
the third in consequence of his early and ardent advocacy of the 
cause of American independence. On one occasion Mr. Jefferson 
sent a government vessel to France to convey Mr. Paine to this 
country as the nation's guest." * 

The skeptical influence of these three men was felt during the 
first quarter of this century. Mr. Jefferson died in 1826, after 
having occupied the most prominent positions in the nation for 
about fifty years. Early in life a politician and an unbeliever of the 
French school, his religious opinions were subsequently modified 
under the influence of Rev. Joseph Priestley, with whom he became 
intimate after the removal of the latter to America. In later years 
Mr. Jefferson was much like Mr. Priestley, a humanitarian of the 
more radical Socinian type, his sympathies never becoming enlisted 
with the historic religion. \ Mr. Cooper died in 1840, in South 
Carolina. Born in England,, he early became a devoted student of 
natural science and law. Entering into;}: the political agitations of 
the period, we have noticed him as a member of the English demo- 
cratic societies. He was sent as their representative to " the affiliated 
clubs" of France, and took part with the Girondists, but, appre- 
hending their downfall, he escaped to England, where he was cen- 
sured for his course by Mr. Burke in the House of Commons. He 
followed his friend Priestley to America and settled in Pennsylvania 
as a lawyer. Uniting with the democrats of that day he vigorously 
opposed the administration of President Adams. For a violent 
attack upon Mr. Adams in a Pennsylvania newspaper, in 1799, he 

* Paper on American Infidelity, read before the Evangelical Alliance, New York city, October, 
1873, by Rev. W. F. Warren, D.D., LL.D., President of Boston University. Harper Broth- 
ers, 1874, p. 250. 

tin 1858 A Life of Hon. Thomas Jefferson, by Henry S. Randall, LL.D., was published » 
(New York, Derby & Jackson, 3 vols., 8vo.), affording a fuller view of his private character than 
any other work. It is especially full of details in regard to his habits, conversations, etc., in his 
later years, giving an exhibit of his maturest thoughts. It is evident that his religious opinions 
underwent a considerable change. % See pp. 319, 320 of this volume. 



024 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

was convicted of libel, fined, and imprisoned six months. He sub- 
sequently held positions as land commissioner and judge, but was 
removed from the latter position for arbitrary conduct. He then 
successively occupied professorships in several leading colleges.* 
He has been described as " a vigorous pamphleteer in various 
political contests and an admirable conversationalist. In philosophy 
he was a materialist, and in religion a free-thinker." In these insti- 
tutions he exerted a large skeptical influence over numerous classes 
of young men. 

The last of the trio was the most notorious of them all. Mr. 
Paine came to the United States in 1774, where he took a lively 
interest in the Revolution. He went to England in 1787, and soon 
after to France, where his Age of Reason was published in 1794- 
1795. In 1802 he returned to America, where he died in 1809. In 
venturing to discuss the question of revealed religion he attempted 
to navigate a sea in which he showed gross ignorance of the Bible. 
In this last period of his life he exhibited the ripe and loathsome 
fruitage of a long life of corrupt seed-sowing, running down to the 
lowest depths of moral degradation f and dying a horrid death. \ 



* See p. 320. 

t Laborious attempts have been made to vindicate Mr. Paine's character, by Robert G. Inger- 
soll, O. B. Frothingham, and others. The latter said: "There was a soul of faith in him ; and 
in these days he would take rank with our beloved Theodore Parker." "All the gravest charges 
against him have been utterly disproved, and have fallen to the ground. We have left the 
memory of a man full of zeal for God and for humanity." Lecture in Horticultural Hall, 
Boston, January, 1870, upon the "Beliefs of Unbelievers." But Hon. Gouverneur Morris, who 
personally knew him well, wrote from Sainport, France, June 25, 179.3: "At present, I am told, 
he is besotted from morning to night. He is so completely down that he would be punished if 
he were not despised." Letter to Hon. Robert Morris. 

In another letter from Sainport to Hon. Thomas Jefferson, March 6, 1794, he said of Paine: 
" In the best of times he had a larger share of every other sense than common sense ; and Ltely 
the intemperate use of ardent spirits has, I am told, considerably impaired the small stock which 
he originally possessed." 

Life of Gouverneur Morris. Vol. Ill, p. 46, etc. 

A writer in a leading secular paper described the later period of his life: 

" He was a sight to behold ; a confirmed drunkard, a notorious liar, a profane wretch, so 
drunk, so profane, so filthy, that no decent person could remain with him ; and, as he had aban- 
doned Madame Bonneville (with whom he eloped from Paris), with kicks and curses, he had no 
companion but an old black woman, who was as drunk and as filthy as himself, and the casual 
visitor would find Paine and the negress dead drunk upon the floor." 

" In 1804 he returned to New York city. But he was so filthy that no one would keep him, 
and, with tears, to an old Welshman, Paine cried out, ' No one will take me in.' This Welshman 
had compassion on the miserable old man ; dragged him out of a low tavern, put him in a tub of 
hot water, and scraped this prophet of infidelity until the dirt peeled off of him. But Paine 
soon became too much for the Welshman, and he had to turn him off. He approached the close 
of his life one of the dirtiest, most drunken, brutal, profane, indecent, impure, blasphemous 
mortals that any age endured — houseless, penniless, friendless," 

\ See the Life of Rev. Stephen Grilled, an honored minister among the Friends, and Lives 
of the Roman Cfxt Julie Bishops. Vol. I, pp. 379-385. 



BLASPHEMY. 525 

Blind Palmer. 

After the death of Mr. Paine another champion of his type of 
infidelity arose who gained some notoriety in the State of New 
York and in some other parts of the country. He was familiarly 
called "Blind Palmer." A writer says of him: 

He collected together a number who were willing to hear and follow his 
instructions in the county of Orange, N. Y., and in different parts of the country. 
They espoused the. cause and drank of its consequences. They organized them- 
selves in opposition to the Christian religion, attempted to destroy the Bible and its 
influence. One of their first acts of folly and deeds of darkness was to commit 
the sacred volume to the flames. The object of their association seemed to be 
to blaspheme against the God of heaven ; to show their contempt for his law, his 
religion, and his examples ; as also to defile the pure altars of the Most High with 
mockery and ridicule. They called their association a " Liberal Meeting," and at 
one of their cabals at Newburg administered, as I was informed by those present, 
the ordinance of baptism and the Lord's Supper to cats and dogs. . . . Those 
who belonged to that club soon became vagabonds, and most of them were 
followed by the immediate judgments of God. 

At the meeting to which 1 have alluded they burned the Bible, baptized a cat, 
partook of the sacrament and administered it to a dog. One of them who par- 
took of the sacrament on his way home exclaimed, "My bowels are on fire ; die I 
must;" and die he did that same night. Dr. H., one of the same company, was 
found a lifeless lump of clay in his bed the next morning. D. D., their printer, 
fell in a fit within three days after and died. Three others were drowned within a 
few days, or a short period at most. D. M., another, and a well-educated man, 
was drowned that same season. His remains were found fast in the ice ; the 
fowls of the air had picked his bones above, and the inhabitants of the watery 
elements had picked his bones below the ice. He and the last five mentioned 
were in my employment. On seeing the fate of his contemporaries he expressed 
fearful apprehensions of his own approaching end. He said he had been dis- 
obedient to his parents, had not followed their directions, nor answered the ends 
for which they had educated him. They had designed him for the Gospel ministry, 
and had expended much on his education for that vocation. B. A. was a well- 
educated lawyer, and attended the meeting to which I have alluded. He came to 
his death by starvation. C. C. was also educated for the bar, a man of mind 
superior to many, and inferior to few 7 of his time. He by w^ant, hunger and filth, 
was thrown into a fever of which he died, a martyr to his own folly. S. C. hung 
himself. J. B. went to the State prison for perjury. J. M. State prison for house- 
breaking. J. G. State prison for stealing a horse. J. L. was whipped and ban- 
ished for stealing grain. J. H. whipped and banished for stealing a watch. 
D. D. was hired to shoot a man for ten dollars and was hung, G. C. State 
prison for stealing a horse. The fate of C. G. I have before stated. J. M. 
State prison for forgery. S. flogged and banished for stealing a horse. J. N. 
and his son State prison for stealing cattle. . . . H. S. absconded from the 
State for taking a false oath. S. B. sent to State prison on conviction for 
manslaughter, and since his discharge has taken a false oath, to my knowledge. 
He knocked down James McKinney, a man eighty years of age, for asking a 
blessing at the table, and beat him until his life was in danger. He was among 
34 



526 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the earliest and most active advocates of Blind Palmer. S. came to his death by 
taking laudanum. M., a school-teacher, and of the same club, was sent to the 
State prison for embezzlement. J. M., a brewer, took a false oath. It was proved 
to be false to the satisfaction of the court. D. H. W. took a false oath, though 
supported by several of his party. I could give fifteen more who in the same case 
swore falsely. ... R. J., a printer, was hung for shooting a woman. F., an 
advocate of the same doctrines, attempted suicide by cutting his own throat, etc. * 

This most appalling picture has been introduced here for the 
purpose of showing the gross character of much of the infidelity of 
this period. But the more filthy and disgusting details of wanton 
lasciviousness, promiscuously practiced, irrespective of the relations 
of parent and child, among different members of the same family 
belonging to this pestiferous class, and the unblushing impudence 
with which they were vindicated by argument, are too loathsome to 
be reproduced here. Of the career of " Blind Palmer" most people 
of this country in the first twenty-five years of this century have prob- 
ably heard something. His profane and demoralizing harangues, ut- 
tered in all places where he could collect the giddy rabble to hear him, 
excited the attention of an intelligent and virtuous magistracy, who, 
by a salutary provision, restrained his operations in New York city 
and very much curtailed his influence. From that period his noto- 
riety began to wane and his partisans went into obscurity. 

From 1800 to 1825 the influence of infidelity gradually declined 
before the aggressive and continually augmenting power of Chris- 
tianity. But two new advocates of doubt in its rankest forms soon 
after appeared before the American public. 

Fanny Wright 

was born in Scotland, in 1796, and died in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1853. 
Left an orphan when very young f she was indoctrinated by her 
guardian with the ideas of the French materialists. When but 
twenty-five years of age she published a defense of the Epicurean 
philosophy. In 1825 she purchased 2,000 acres of land in Ten- 
nessee for the purpose of establishing a community for the benefit 
of emancipated slaves. The experiment soon failed, and she entered 
the field as a public lecturer in the Eastern States, attacking negro 
slavery and various social institutions, and establishing " Fanny 
Wright Societies." 

* See Practical Infidelity Portrayed. By Abner Cunningham. 1836. D. Cooledge, New 
York city ; J. Lessing, Boston; and N. Kite, Philadelphia. Pp 46-49. The above statement is 
confirmed by six affidavits taken before justices of the peace, and by the recommendations of 
distinguished persons. 



SOCIALISM. 527 

Robert Owen. 

" In 1824 the great English socialist, Robert Owen, landed upon 
our shores to proclaim his 4 New Moral Order,' and to practically 
initiate the reconstruction of human society. In October of the fol- 
lowing year he was at the head of a ' Family ' of nine hundred souls, 
on a fruitful domain of 30,000 acres on the banks of the Wabash. 
On the ensuing Fourth of July, being the semi-centennial of the 
Declaration of National Independence, he issued a pompous mani- 
festo entitled 'Declaration of Mental Independence.'' This was 
the commencement of a socialistic fever, amounting at times and in 
places to a genuine mania, which for twenty years, in one form or 
another, inflamed the public mind. Its first phase was most out- 
spokenly anti-religious, its last most obnoxiously immoral." 

Mr. Owen was the coadjutor and oftentimes the traveling com- 
panion of Miss Wright, both proclaiming the most disorganizing 
anti-social theories. They freely denounced generally accepted prin- 
ciples of morality and social order, the institutions of marriage and 
the Sabbath, the truth of divine revelation, the existence and gov- 
ernment of God, and an atheistical philosophy, a " universally 
leveling and libertine civil policy," was recommended. They claimed 
that existing governments were oppressive and averse to the 
natural rights of man; that the institutions of religion, and the 
restraints imposed by them, were founded in falsehood, and 
employed to restrict the free indulgence of those passions and 
inclinations with which we are constitutionally formed for happi- 
ness. A high authority, familiar with the facts, said : 

The actors in these scenes were tolerated, flattered, and even encouraged by, 
the acclamations of many. The name of Fanny Wright became identified with 
the politics of the day. Societies were organized for the express purpose of prop- 
agating her opinions. Their tendency was soon witnessed in all the circles brought 
under their influence. Licentious sentiments and dissolute habits were encouraged 
rather than restrained. The basest sensuality found apologists among her 
admirers and impunity in her creed. Benevolent enterprises were brought under 
the unchastened ban of the coarse ribaldry of the party. Every effort at reform, 
the temperance movement not excepted, was made a subject of their incessant 
vituperation, and all engaged in works of mercy were brought to feel the keenest 
strokes of their sarcastic sallies. . . . They were peculiarly adroit in exciting a 
spirit of malignant hostility against men and institutions whose influence they had 
most reason to dread. By a false classification of terms they continued to stigma- 
tize orthodoxy by the odious epithet of sectarianism, and religion by that of bigotry. 
In their vocabulary every priest was a pope and every rule of moral discipline an 
inquisition. With such names, terrible to the ignorant and the thoughtless, they 
were enabled to array a fearful amount of feeling against the best men and the 
most wholesome moral institutions of the country. Nor were they diffident in 



528 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

their pretensions. The exclusiveness which marked all their measures most evi- 
dently betrayed their designs and served to show that compromise was no part of 
their political or religious creed. Theirs was an open war of extermination against 
every vestige of Christianity and moral order. To carry out this object they could 
not trust the co-operation of any half-way men, and therefore made repeated 
efforts to thrust upon the people, by the aid of the rabble they managed to con- 
trol, rules exclusively of their own stamp. And such was the audacity with which 
they clamored for whatever they chose to favor, and pounced like so many harpies 
upon the obnoxious objects of their hate, that men of decent habiis and correct 
principles shrunk from conflicting with them, until the remark became general 
that there was so much infidelity in the public councils of the country that nothing 
favorable to the cause of morality or religion could be carried.* 

Abner Kneeland. 

In the year 1829 the ranks of infidelity were re-enforced by the 
accession of Abner Kneeland. Mr. Kneeland made his first appear- 
ance in public life as a school-teacher in Vermont. In a revival 
among the Baptists, in 1801, he professed to experience religion, 
joined the church and soon entered their ministry. Having been 
highly esteemed as a teacher great hopes were entertained of him 
as a minister. After preaching a short time, however, he became 
involved in some difficulties with Calvinism, adopted Mr. Elhanan 
Winchester's views of restorationism, joined the Universalists, and 
was ordained in 1805. Here he professed to be fully satisfied, but 
he subsequently abandoned restorationism, and accepted Mr. Bai- 
lout's doctrine of the immediate entrance of all men into a state of 
happiness at death. In 181 1 he removed to Charlestown, Mass., 
and became pastor of an infant Universalist church. " With charac- 
teristic instability he remained there only two or three years, when 
he removed to Salem, married a widow of some property, went into 
secular business, grew doubtful about the truth of Christianity, 
attacked the Christian religion, which Mr. Ballou defended against 
him, failed in his mercantile pursuits and abandoned them. Soon 
after this he professed to have his confidence in Christianity re- 
stored, and removed to Central New York in the character of a 
clergyman, where he remained a short time. Thence he went to 
Philadelphia and became pastor of the first Universalist Society 
there. Perhaps he really thought, on the whole, that he was a 
believer; yet his infidel propensities still controlled him, and 
although a professed Christian pastor his labors had the effect to 
unsettle the faith of his hearers. His usefulness at Philadelphia 
being at an end, he removed to New York and took charge of a 

* Methodist Quarterly, 1837. Pp. 97, 98. 



THE CHURCH, SLAVERY, AND INFIDELITY. 529 

society. Thenceforth his course was downward, downward." * A 
strife arose in his Society in New York, producing a division, 
and he was left in a minority which obtained a hall where he held 
service for a short time. At this time he came in contact with 
Fanny Wright, and in September, 1829, in an article published in 
the Free Inquirer, he renounced all faith in Christianity, in immor- 
tality and in the Divine existence. In company with Fanny 
Wright he went to Boston, in 1830, to enlighten the descendants of 
the Puritans with his new views. He established the Investigator 
in 1830, a paper which from the beginning has been devoted to the 
advocacy of pure atheism. In this paper he assailed Christianity, 
all revealed religion, and advocated the wildest and most demoral- 
izing notions. Early in the year 1834 he was indicted by the grand 
jury of Suffolk County, Mass., for blasphemy and obscenity, of 
which it was alleged he had been guilty in the columns of the 
Investigator. He was finally convicted, and sent to prison for three 
months, during which time his old friend Ballou, out of pity, visited 
him,f although he strongly disapproved of Kneeland's course. In 
March, 1839, ne ^ e ^ Boston for Iowa, where he died not long after. 
In the year 1836 it was estimated;); that there were between 
50,000 and 100,000 infidels in the United States who associated 
with some kind of an organization or club, besides many who sus- 
tained no such relation. 

The Antislavery " Comeouters." 

A very considerable contribution to infidelity was realized from 
the action of the extreme wing of the antislavery agitators between 
1836 and 1845. § ^ was at a- time when many statesmen, clergy- 
men and churches were succumbing to the evil influence of slavery. 
Both the political parties and many churches opposed " abolition " 
with a decided spirit, and bowed obsequiously to the slave power. 
This bitter opposition to antislavery movements gave birth to the 
" Comeouters," who were led by the Liberator, published in Boston 
and edited by Mr. William Lloyd Garrison. They opposed the 
American Church, as the bulwark of slavery, and set themselves to 
work to overthrow the Church and the clergy. The Sabbath was 
freely denounced, and the Bible also, because pro-slavery apologists 
quoted from it in support of the accursed institution. Reason and 

* Life of Rev. Hosea Ballou. By Rev. Thomas Whittemore. Boston. James M. Usher. 
1855. Vol. Ill, pp. 273, 274. \ Life of Rev. Hosea Baliou. Vol. Ill, p. 180. 

X See paper read before the Society of Christian Research, at New Haven, Conn., by Erastus 
Colton. §See Chapter IV., Section 2 of this period. 



530 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

conscience were declared to be above the Scriptures. The Consti- 
tution of the United States was also assailed and denounced. These 
views were freely introduced into the anti-slavery conventions and 
published in the Liberator. These men were exceedingly active, 
and contributed not a little to turn many minds away from their 
faith in revelation. 

Naturalism and Materialism. 

Contemporaneously with the socialistic agitation came a " grand 
incursion of foreign naturalism and materialism, organized and 
officered for the most part by German and British apostles of what 
is called phrenology. First promulgated in the United States, 
from 1821 to 1832, by a Dr. Caldwell, an American pupil of Gall, 
then re-enforced by the presence and lectures of Spurzheim, further 
expounded and advocated from 1838 to 1843 by the noted George 
Combe, this new evangel of natural law and man's self-perfectibility 
won many adherents among crude and curious and half-educated 
men. These, aspiring to the honors and emoluments of public 
teachers, speedily spread themselves all over the country as itiner- 
ant lecturers, offering to expound the new science, to demonstrate 
it by describing with blindfolded eyes, from a mere manipulation of 
their ' bumps,' the noted characters of the locality, and finally to 
examine and advise all candidates for eminence or happiness at 
twenty-five cents a head. These precious enlighteners of the people 
gradually gave place, first to traveling mesmerizers, and then to the 
mediums and apostles of spirit-rapping and spirit-trances. As often 
before, the reaction from materialism and its unbelief carried unbal- 
lasted minds clean over to necromantic superstition." * 



Section £.— Socialism. 

In the preceding section, in the sketch of Mr. Robert Owen, the 
socialistic movement under his leadership was mentioned. But it 
is necessary to go back a step further in order to find the beginning. 
As early in this century as 1803, George Rapp came from Wurtem- 
berg to America to find a refuge for his followers who had accepted 
his doctrines concerning the speedy second advent of Christ. He 
purchased 5,000 acres in Butler County, Pa., and commenced there 
a settlement which he named Harmony. Two ship-loads of his 



* Rev. W. F. Warren, D.D., LL.D., in Evangelical Alliance volume. Harper & Brothers. 
1874. P. 251. , 



AM ERICA X SOCIALISM. 63 1 

disciples came the following year, and in 1805 they were duly 
organized as a Christian community, claiming to follow the model 
of the Pentecostal Church. In 1814 they moved to the bajiksofthe 
Wabash, in Indiana, where they built their second village home, and 
called it New Harmony. Dissatisfied with this place, they returned 
to Beaver County, Pa., where they still exist. Subsequently Rapp 
sent an agent to England to sell his Wabash estate, which was 
purchased in 1824 by Robert Owen, who had already achieved a 
reputation as a socialist and a reformer. 

American socialisms, Mr. Noyes says, were non-religions. They 
began their existence, however, in America, with possessions 
received directly from a Christian community, Their leader 
denounced the Bible all through the country, proclaimed his radical 
theories, and urged his hearers to join him in his wild experiment. 
Considerable excitement attended Mr. Owen's lectures in most of 
the cities which he visited, " which had a course somewhat like 
that of a religious revival or a political campaign." The movement 
seems to have culminated in 1826, and about that time eleven com- 
munistic bodies existed, not all Owenite communities, but growing 
out of the general excitement that attended Mr. Owen's labors. 
The following is a list of these bodies: 

Blue Spring Community, Indiana ; no particulars, except that it lasted but a 
short time. Co-operative Society, Pennsylvania (Alleghany County) ; no par- 
ticulars. Coxsackie Community, New York ; capital " small;" " very much in 

debt, " duration between one and two years. Forestville Community, Indiana; 

over 60 members, 325 acres of land, duration mbre than a year. Franklin Com- 
munity, New York ; no particulars. Haverstraw Community, New York; about 

80 members, 120 acres, debt $12,000, duration five months. Kendall Community, 

Ohio; 200 members, 200 acres, duration about two years. Macluria, Indiana ; 

1,200 acres, duration about two years. New Harmony, Indiana ; 900 members, 

30,000 acres, worth $150,000, duration nearly three years. Nashoba, Tennessee; 

15 members, 2,000 acres, duration about three years. Yellow Spring Com- 
munity, Ohio ; 75 to 100 families, duration three months.* 

Two of the above communities continued only about three years, 
two of them two years, two between one and two years, three only 
a few months, and the other two but a short time. 

One of these efforts deserves a more extended notice. The New 
Harmony Community was started in 1825. Tidings of the new 
social experiment spread far and wide, and people familiar with Mr. 
Owen's views flocked there from all parts of the country, so that in 
the short space of six weeks from the commencement a population 

* History of Amej-ican Socialisms. By John Humphrey Noyes. Philadelphia. J. B. Lip- 
pincott & Co. 1870. P. 15. 



532 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of eight hundred souls was drawn together. An enthusiastic 
admirer of the enterprise has said that the character of the popula- 
tion was '* as good as it could be under the circumstances, 
many being intelligent and benevolent individuals." How stupen- 
dous the revolution was that Mr. Owen contemplated will be best 
seen from the famous words he uttered in the public hall at New 
Harmony, on the 4th of July, 1826, when he delivered his celebrated 

" Declaration of Mental Independence." 

He said : 

I now declare to you, and to the world, that man, up to this hour, has been in 
all parts of the earth a slave to a trinity of the most monstrous evils that could 
be combined to inflict mental and physical evil upon his whole race. I refer to 
private or individual property, absurd and irrational systems of religion, and 
marriage, founded on individual property, combined with some of these irrational 
systems of religion. 

For nearly forty years have I been employed, heart and soul, day by day, almost 
without ceasing, in preparing the means and arranging the circumstances to enable 
me to give the death-blow to the tyranny which, lor unnumbered ages, has held 
the human mind spell-bound in chains of such mysterious forms that no mortal has 
dared approach to set the suffering prisoner free. Nor has the fullness of time for 
the accomplishment of this great event been completed until within this hour. Such 
has been the extraordinary course of events that the declaration of political inde- 
pendence in 1776 has produced its counterpart, the Declaration of Mental Inde- 
pendence, in 1826, the latter just half a century from the former. . . . And 
here we are, as near, perhaps, as we can be in the centre of the United States, 
even, as it were, like a little grain of mustard seed ! But with these great truths 
before us, with the practice of the social system as soon as it shall be well under- 
stood among us, our principles will, I trust, spread from community to community, 
from State to State, from continent to continent, until this system and these truths 
shall overshadow the whole earth, shedding fragrance and abundance, intelligence 
and happiness, upon all the sons of men. 

It has been very fittingly said, " Such were the antecedents and 
promises of the New Harmony experiment. The professor appeared 
on the stage with a splendid reputation for previous traumatology, 
with all the crucibles and chemicals around him that money could 
buy, with an audience before him that was gaping to see the last 
wonder of science ; but on applying the flame that was to set all 
ablaze with happiness and glory, behold ! the material prepared 
would not burn, but only sputtered and smoked, and the curtain 
had to come down upon a scene of confusion and disappointment."* 

From the 27th of April, 1825, to January, 1827, repeated mod- 
ifications of the scheme were made, and not less than seven const it u- 



History of American Socialisms. By J. H. Noyes. P. 46. 



NEW HARMONY. 533 

tions were adopted to ameliorate the condition of the community 
and meet the necessities of the case. At the latter date matters 
were evidently drawing to a close. Owen was selling property to 
individuals, and the greater part of the town was resolved into 
individual lots. Every body saw that it must go down. It was 
11 like a great ship wallowing helplessly in the trough of a tempest- 
uous sea, with nine hundred passengers and no captain or organized 
crew." Down it did go. A majority of the population dispersed, 
chagrined, broken down in confidence, etc., and those who remained 
returned to individualism. Fifteen years after a visitor at New 
Harmony was ki warned not to speak of socialism, as the subject was 
unpopular ; " and the speaker added, " an enthusiastic socialist 
would soon be cooled down at New Harmony." It is a significant 
fact that another sect subsequently arose there devoted to " Indi- 
vidual Sovereignty." 

An enthusiastic admirer of Owen instinctively moralized over his 
master's failure : 

Mr. Owen said he wanted honesty of purpose, and he got dishonesty. He 
wanted temperance, and instead he was continually troubled with the intemperate. 
He wanted industry, and he found idleness. He wanted cleanliness, and found 
dirt. He wanted carefulness, and found waste, He wanted to find desire for 
knowledge, but he found apathy. He wanted the principles of the formation of 
character understood, and he found them misunderstood. He wanted these good 
qualities combined in one and all the individuals of the community, but he could 
not find them, neither could he find those who were self-sacrificing and enduring 
enough to prepare and educate their children to possess these qualitiies. < 

What more convincing evidence of the radical error of Mr. 
Owen's system, and the want of the potent, conserving and inspiring 
influence of Christianity ! The historian of A merican Socialisms* 
comments upon Mr. Owen's failures : 

Napoleon's star deserted him when he put away Josephine. Owen evidently 
lost his hold on practical success when he declared war against religion. In his 
labors at New Lanark he was not an active infidel. The Bible was in his schools. 
Religion was. at least tolerated and respected. He there married the daughter of 
Mr. Dale, a preacher of the Independents, who was his best friend and counselor 
through the early years of his success. But when his work at New Lanark became 
famous, and he rose to companionship with dukes and kings, he outgrew the mod- 
esty and practical wisdom of his early life, and undertook the task of universal 
reform. Then it was that he fell into the mistake of confounding the principles of 
the Bible with the characters and pretensions of his ecclesiastical opposers, and so 
came into the false position of open hostility to religion. . ... Owen at the 
turning-point of his career abandoned the Bible, with all its magazines of power, to 



* By J. H. Noyes. before referred to. Pp. 82, 83. 



S34 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

his enemies, and went off into a hopeless warfare with Christianity and with all 
God's past administrations. From that time fortune deserted him. The splendid 
success of New Lanark was followed by the terrible defeat at New Harmony. 
The declaration of war against all religion was between them. Such is our inter- 
pretation of his life, and something like this must have been his own interpretation, 
when he confessed, in the light of his later experience, that by overlooking spir- 
itual conditions he had missed the most important of all the elements of human 
improvement. 

Fourierism. 

All the Owenite communities came into being and died between 
1825 and 1830. From 1830 to 1841 no other Socialist Communities 
were organized. From 1841 to 1853, the latter year being the date 
of these latest organizations, thirty-nine Socialist bodies were con- 
stituted, either as communities, associations, or brotherhoods. The 
former has been distinguished as the "Owen Epoch" and the latter 
the " Fourier Epoch." The connecting links between the two are 
briefly stated. 

In the transition from Owenism to Fourierism and later Socialist movements 
we rind that Josiah Warren fulfills the function of a modulating chord. After the 
wreck of Communism at New Harmony, he went clear over to the extreme doctrine 
of Individual Sovereignty, and continued working on that theme through the period 
of Fourierism, till he founded the famous village of "Modern Times," on Long 
Island, and there became the master spirit of a school which has developed at 
least three famous movements that are in some sense alive yet, long after the 
communities and phalanxes have gone to their graves. 

Stephen Pearl Andrews, the publishing partner of Warren, 
became an ardent promoter of " Individual Sovereignty " in New 
York, and originated a theory of spiritual and intellectual hierarchy 
called " Pantarchy," and also a system of '' Universology." He has 
been called " the American rival of Comte." Another representa- 
tive leader was Mr. Henry Edgar, "the actual hierarch of Positiv- 
ism, one of the ten apostles de propaganda fide appointed by 
Comte," and a co-worker with Warren in his school at " Modern 
Times." The genealogy from Owen to these later movements has 
been traced thus: 

Owen begat New Harmony ; New Harmony (by reaction) begat Individual 
Sovereignty; Individual Sovereignty begat "Modern Times ; " "Modern Times" 
was the mother of Free Love, the Grand Pantarchy, and the American branch of 
French Positivism. Josiah Warren was the personal link next to Owen.* 

Just before the Fourier movement was inaugurated in America 
there appeared in several localities tendencies which showed that 

* History of American Socialisms, by J. H. Noyes, p. 94. 



BROOK FARM AND HOPEDALE. 535 

the influence of Owen's teachings was still felt in many minds. 
Among these 

The Brook Farm Association 

may be cited, organized near Boston, in 1841. This has been called 
"a child of Unitarianism," suggested originally by Rev. William E. 
Channing, D.D., who had been deeply impressed by the ideas of 
Owen and Fourier. According to Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson,* "in 
the year 1840 Dr. Channing took counsel with Mr. George Ripley 
on the point if it were possible to bring cultivated, thoughtful 
people together and make a society that deserved the name. He 
early talked with Dr. John Collins Warren on the same thing, who 
admitted the wisdom of the purpose and undertook to make the ex- 
periment." Social gatherings for mutual conference followed, in which 
Emerson, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, Frederick H. Hedge, 
Orestes A. Bronson, and others participated. Mr. Emerson proceeds : 

I said the only result of the conversations which Dr. Channing had was to 
initiate the little quarterly called The Dial, but they had a,further consequence in 
the creation of a society called the "Brook Farm," in 1841. Many of these per- 
sons who had compared their notes around in the libraries of each other upon spec- 
ulative matters became impatient of speculation and wished to put it into practice. 
Mr. George Ripley, with some of his associates, established a society, of which 
the principle was that the members should be stockholders, and that while some 
deposited money others should be allowed to give their labor in different kinds as 
an equivalent for money. It contained very many and agreeable persons: Mr. 
George William Curtis, of New York, and his brother, of English Oxford, were 
members of the family ; from the first also was Theodore Parker, etc., etc. 

Miss Margaret Fuller, Hawthorne, Rev. William H. Charming, 
an eminent student of Socialism in France and England, and others 
soon joined the company. After six or seven years the experiment 
failed and the farm was sold. Such was the end of the first roman- 
tic, religious, literary, socialistic, transcendental, Unitarian Com- 
munity in New England. It was not a Fourierite community, and 
yet it was a transitional step, and, in some degree, "a propagative 
organ of Fourierism," through its periodical, The Harbinger, which 
scattered broadcast the seeds of Socialism. 

The Hopedale and Northampton Communities. 

In April, 1842, the Hopedale Community commenced operations 
in Milford, Mass., on the "Jones Farm." This movement was 
another anticipation of Fourierism put forth by Massachusetts. It 

*See Lecture on the Brook Farm. 



B36 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

was similar in many respects to Brook Farm and, in its origin, 
nearly contemporaneous. They enlarged their possessions to about 
six hundred acres, and admitted new members until the community 
numbered 300. Their manufactures were known far and near, and 
eagerly sought for on account of their being exactly as represented. 
Every one had either to work in the factories or else till the soil. 
All lights had to be extinguished and every one at home at 9 
o'clock. No dogs were permitted in the village, and nobody was 
allowed to smoke in the street. "As the Brook Farm was the 
blossom of Unitarianism, so Hopedale was the blossom of Univer- 
salism. Rev. Adin Ballou, the founder, was a relative of Rev. 
Hosea Ballou, and thus a scion of the royal family of Universalists." 
It was dissolved in 1858 — a total failure. Cause — unwisdom, and 
11 the old story of general depravity." " The timber he got together 
was not suitable for building a community." * 

In the same month that the Hopedale Community commenced 
its operations, Massachusetts, the mother of systems, reforms and 
revolutions, anticipated the advent of Fourierism and gave birth to 
another community at Northampton, the home of Jonathan 
Edwards. This was an infidel, or at least a Nothingarian, organi- 
zation, and it lived four and a half years.* 

Such were some of the connecting links between the Owen and 
the Fourier epochs in American Socialism. The date of the latter 
epoch has been fixed in 1842, when the columns of the New York 
Tribune were opened to the advocacy of Socialistic theories. The 
exposition of Fourierism in this country had commenced two years 
before with the publication of the Social Destiny of Man, by Albert 
Brisbane. Parke Godwin also was one of the earliest of the American 
expositors of Fourierism, publishing his Popular View of the Doc- 
trines of Charles Fourier, in 1844. From March, 1842, to May, 
1843, Mr. Brisbane, in a column devoted to him in the Tribune, beat 
the drum of Fourierism, and in the summer of 1843 "Phalanxes 
by the dozen were on the march for the new world of wealth and 
harmony." Not less than seventeen of these associations were 
organized in the year 1843, eleven more in 1844, seven more in 1845, 
one in 1846, one in 1847, one * n 1848, one in 1849, anc * several more 
from 1850 to 1853 — the latest date of any Socialist organization. 

On the 5th of October, 1843, Brisbane started an independent 
Socialistic paper in New York city, called the Phalanx. It was 
published as a monthly about a year and a half, during which time 

* For a fuller account of these communities see Noyes's History of American Socialisms, pp. 
120-132, 154-160, and tract by Mr. Ball u in 1851, also a work on Socialism by Ballou. 



FAILURE. 537 

the subscription list of The Present, a magazine which started nearly 
at the same time as the Phalanx, edited by William H. Charming, 
and devoted to Socialistic ideas, was transferred to Brisbane. " In 
the course of a year after this, Brook Farm confessed Fourierism, 
changed its constitution, assumed the title of the Brook Farm Pha- 
lanx, and on the 14th of June, 1845, commenced publishing the 
Harbinger, as the successor of the Phalanx and the heir of its sub- 
scription list. . . . The concentrated genius of Unitarianism and 
Transcendentalism was at Brook Farm. It was the school that 
trained most of the writers who have created the newspaper and 
magazine literature of the present time. Their work on the Har- 
binger was their first drill. Fourierism was their first case in court. 
The Harbinger was published weekly and extended to seven and a 
half semi-annual volumes, five of which were edited and printed at 
Brook Farm and the last two and a half at New York, but by 
Brook Farm men. The issues at Brook Farm extend from June 14, 
1845, to October 30, 1847, an d at New York from November 6, 
1847, to February 10, 1849. The Phalanx and Harbinger together 
cover a period of more than five years." * 

Mr. Xoyes estimated that 8,641 persons were connected with 
the 45 communities in the Owen and Fourier groups, the number 
generally ranging from 100 to 200 in each, but in exceptional cases 
only 15, and in one as many as 900. The amount of land held, but 
partially cultivated, was reported at 44,625 acres, an average of about 
1,000 acres to each community, not including the extensive tract 
owned by the New Harmony and McKean County settlements, 
the former alone comprising 30.OOO acres. With such opportunities 
and means, involving an expenditure of several million dollars, 
an ample acreage of the best land in the United States, and the 
distribution of many tons of Socialistic literature, 45 communities 
of 8,641 persons, under the varying adjustments of two epochs of 
trial, utterly and disgracefully failed in their experiments. Europe 
nowhere presents such a list of magnificent experiments, under 
such favorable conditions, for testing the wild dreams of Socialism 
as is here given. These quickly succeeding failures were not less 
conspicuous than the ability and zeal with which the experiments 
were inaugurated. What a vindication of the conventional usages 
of Christian society! 



* History of American Socialisms, by J. H. Noyes, p. 210. 



S38 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MORMONISM 



Sec. I. The Earliest Phases. Sec. 3. Organized Mormonism. 

" 2. Secondary Stages. 



Section 1,—Th.e Earliest Phases 

OF Mormonism grew out of popular superstitions for a time 
quite prevalent among the more ignorant classes, about one 
hundred years ago. In the year 1 801 certain persons appeared in 
some parts of Vermont, mostly in Rutland County, claiming to pos- 
sess "St. John's rod," by which roots and herbs could be found which 
would cure all manner of diseases, and also gold and silver in great 
abundance. These were claimed to be the rods referred to in Isaiah 
under which, in the latter day, God would cause his people to pass, 
when the "latter-day glory" would be revealed. The rods were also 
the seals with which one hundred and forty-four thousand were to 
be sealed (Rev. 7) as the servants of God. The lost tribes of Israel 
were to be gathered from among all nations by means of these 
rods: through this agency also vast numbers of the present in- 
habitants of this country who were Israelites, but had lost their 
pedigree, would be able to trace their Israelitish lineage, and be 
brought into the New Jerusalem soon to be built in this country. 
It was further claimed that these rods had power over all enchant- 
ments ; that much gold and silver lay concealed in the earth, held 
under a spell of enchantment which these rods, in the hands of the 
right person, would dispel, and that it would be moved under the 
ground from place to place, and ultimately it would be collected in 
a common field, where " the latter-day saints" would take and use it 
in building the " Holy City." Some excellent, sincere people were 
hallucinated with the story; and in a number of instances young 
women in scanty apparel followed the rods all night over the rocks 
and snow. The whole scheme was finally traced to a gang of coun- 
terfeiters, with one Wingate at the head, who used it as a feint to 



ORIGIN OF MORMONISM. 539 

cover their nefarious operations. He was arrested, but escaped from 
the hands of justice. 

About 1827 the world heard the first rumors of "Joe Smith" 
and his "Golden Bible," found "while hunting for minerals" with 
his "rod." A few years later the Mormons commenced building in 
Ohio and sent out men to preach the doctrine of the " latter-day 
saints" and "glory," a new edition, evidently, of that proclaimed in 
Vermont thirty years before. Gentlemen* of the highest respect- 
ability and excellent judicial talent, contemporary with both dates 
and familiar with all the localities, carefully traced the connection 
between the early Vermont delusion and the riper development of 
Mormonism at that time. They found that Smith's mother was 
from Rutland Count}', Vt., the scene of the aforementioned opera- 
tions, and that Sidney Rigdon, Smith's high priest and revealer, was 
from the same locality where Wingate's counterfeiting operations 
had been carried on under the cloak of " latter-day glory" theories. 



Section ?.— The Secondary Stages 

of the Mormon development were easy and natural. In 1815 the 
Smith family moved to Palmyra, and a little later to Manchester, 
N. Y., where their reputation was bad. A high authority! says: 

Avoiding honest labor, they employed themselves in digging for hidden treas- 
ures and similar visionary pursuits. They were intemperate and untruthful, and 
were commonly suspected of sheep-stealing and other offenses. Upward of 
sixty of the most respectable citizens of Wayne County testified in 1833, under 
oath, that the Smith family were of immoral, false, and fraudulent character, and 
that Joseph was the worst of them. These statements are not in general contra- 
dicted by the Mormons. . . . The Mormon writers say that Smith was very 
poorly educated. He could read with difficulty, wrote an imperfect hand, and had 
a very limited understanding of the elementary rules of arithmetic. The revela- 
tions, proclamations, letters, and other documents put forth by him in the subse- 
quent part of his career were generally written by others. 

According to his own account, Smith at about the age of fifteen years began to 
have visions. On the night of September 21, 1823, the Angel Moroni appeared to 
him three times, giving him much instruction and informing him that God had a 
work for him to do, and that a record written upon gold plates, giving an 
account of the ancient inhabitants of America and the dealings of God with them, 
was deposited in a particular place in the earth (a hill in Manchester, Ontario 



*Rev. Laban Clark, D.D., founder of the YVesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and 
Rev. Tobias Spicer, D.D., of Rutland, Vt. From Dr. Clark the author of this volume received 
a full written account of the Vermont transactions, with names, dates, etc., from which the 
above has been abbreviated. 

t Appleton's Cyclopedia. 1863. Article, " Mormons." 



540 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

County, N. Y.), and with the record two transparent stones in silver bows like 
spectacles, which were anciently called the urim and tkummim, on looking 
through which the golden plates would become intelligible. On September 22, 
1827, the Angel of the Lord placed in Smith's hands the plates and the uri7n and 
thummim. . . . From these plates Smith, sitting behind a blanket hung across 
the room to keep the sacred record from profane eyes, read off, with the aid of the 
stone spectacles, the Book of Mormon, or Golden Bible, as he sometimes called it, 
to Oliver Cowdery, who wrote it down as Smith read it. It was printed in 1830, in 
a volume of several hundred pages. 

The above is the version of Joseph Smith and the Mormons. 

From investigations made soon after the appearance of the 
Book of Mormoji the fact is believed to be fully established that 
the real author of the work was Solomon Spalding, a native of 
Ashford, Conn., a graduate of Dartmouth College. After preaching 
a few years he relinquished the ministry, and engaged in business in 
Cherry Valley, N. Y., whence, in 1809, he removed to Conneaut, 
Ohio. From Conneaut he removed to Pittsburg, Pa., in 1812, and 
thence to Amity, Pa., in 1814, where he died, in 1816. He had a 
strong passion for literary pursuits, especially for writing fictitious 
stories. In the neighborhood where he resided, in Ohio, there are 
numerous mounds and ancient fortifications. Being interested in 
historical antiquities he conceived the idea of writing in the style of 
a story an account of the origin of the mounds. In doing so he 
gave it the form of a translation of a lost manuscript purporting to 
have been found in these mounds and to have been written by one 
of the ancient race. 

As early as 18 1 3 this work was announced in the newspapers as 
forthcoming, and as containing a translation of the Book of Mormon. 
Spalding entitled his book Manuscript Found, and intended to pub- 
lish with it, by way of preface or advertisement, a fictitious account 
of its discovery in a cave in Ohio. His widow, * in a statement 
made by her in the Boston Journal, May 18, 1839, declares that in 
1 8 12 he placed his manuscript in a printing-office at Pittsburg with 
which Sidney Rigdon was connected. Rigdon, she says, copied the 
manuscript, and his possession of the copy was known to all in the 
printing-office and was often mentioned by himself. Subsequently 
the original manuscript was returned to the author, who soon after 
died. His widow preserved it until after the publication of the 
Book of Mormon, when she sent it to Conneaut, where a public 
meeting, composed in part of persons who remembered Spalding's 
work, had requested her to send the manuscript, that it might be 

* Mrs. Spalding was a very respectable woman, and subsequently married a Mr. Davidson. In 
1839 sne w ^s livjng in Monson, Mass. 



THE BOOK OE MORMON. 541 

publicly compared with the Book of Mormon. She says in con- 
clusion : . . . "Thus a historical romance, with the addition of a 
few pious expressions and extracts from the sacred Scriptures, has 
been construed into a new Bible and palmed off upon a company of 
poor, deluded fanatics as divine." 

Rigdon, after getting possession of a copy of this manuscript, left 
the printing-office and became a preacher of doctrines similar to 
those subsequently incorporated into the Book of Mormon. He 
made a few converts, and in 1829 joined himself with Joseph Smith. 
It is asserted that by this means Smith became possessed of Mr. 
Spalding's manuscript, which he read to Cowdery from behind the 
blanket, with such additions as suited the views of Rigdon and 
himself. Immediately upon its publication the Book of Mormon 
was claimed by the widow of Spalding, and also by her brother and 
other friends, as chiefly his work. * 



Section #.— Organized Mormonism. 

The first Mormon church was organized at Manchester, N. Y., 
April 6, 1830. A few individuals were ordained, who professed to 
have power to heal diseases, to cast out devils, to impart the Holy 
Ghost, and also to speak in unknown tongues. In January, 1831, 
the whole body, led by Smith, who claimed to be divinely directed, 
removed to Kirtland, Ohio, which was to be the seat of the New 
Jerusalem. Converts multiplied here, and, soon desiring a wider 
field for the growth of the Church, the leaders sought a new 
location, but did not remove to it until 1838. In the meantime 
they set up stores, mills, and a bank at Kirtland. Of the latter 
Smith was president and Rigdon cashier. Notes of doubtful 
value flooded the country, and Smith and Rigdon were accused of 
fraudulent dealings, dragged from their beds by a mob, and tarred 
and feathered. In 1832 Brigham Young, a native of Vermont, joined 
them. By his talents and shrewdness he became very prominent, 
being reckoned one of the twelve apostles on the establishment of 
that office in 1835. A costly temple was erected at Kirtland in 
1836, and the following year Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball 
were sent out as missionaries to England. In 1838 the bank at 
Kirtland failed, and Smith and Rigdon fled to Missouri, where large 
numbers of Mormons soon collected. Falling into quarrels they were 

* Appletoit's Cyclopedia. 1863. Article " Mormons," which see for further accounts. Also 
History of Mormonism. By Rev. D. P. Kidder, D.D. 
35 



542 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

charged with numerous mischiefs, plundering and burning habita- 
tions, secret assassinations, etc. After various conflicts, in which the 
militia was called out by the governor, they left the State and settled 
in Hancock County, Illinois, where they built the city of Nauvoo. 
Here at one time were 1,500 houses and 15,000 inhabitants. 

In 1843 Smith claimed to have received a revelation from heaven 
authorizing polygamy. In attempting to carry out this practice 
trouble arose, aggrieved parties withdrew, and established a news- 
paper for the purpose of exposing the corruptions of the institution. 
Smith and a party of his followers attacked and destroyed the 
office. A conflict arose with the county authorities, Smith and his 
brother surrendered and were cast into prison, a mob attacked the 
jail and both of them were killed. In 1845 the Legislature of 
Illinois revoked the charter of Nauvoo, and the Mormons made 
preparations to remove to the Rocky Mountains. Early in the year 
they gathered in considerable numbers at Council Bluffs, Iowa. 
Those who remained in Nauvoo again became involved in trouble 
with the surrounding people, and in September, 1845, the city was 
cannonaded and its inhabitants were driven out. The pioneers 
reached Utah July 24, 1847, an< ^ in the following year the great 
body of the " Saints " arrived at the Great Salt Lake. Septem- 
ber 9, 1850, Congress established over them a Territorial gov- 
ernment, and Brigham Young was appointed governor by President 
Fillmore. 



ROMANISM. 



S4S 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



»EC. i. General Progress. 
'• 2. Bishop England and Bishop Hughes. 
" 3. Lay Trustee Contest. 
•' 4 Common School Contest begun. 



Sec. 5. Native American movements. 
" 6. Councils. 
" 7. Propaganda Funds. 
" 8. Statistics for 1850. 



Section /.—General Progress. 

THE Roman Catholic Church in the United States was largely 
re-enforced in 1803 by the acquisition of the vast Territory of 
Louisiana, then comprising the whole region west of the Mississippi 
River, and in 1820 by the purchase of Florida. * x " In these vast areas 
the Roman Catholic had been the only religion. This Church also 
received large accessions by the steady tide of emigration from 
Europe. During the first thirty years of this century the emigrants 
amounted to one third of a million, or ten thousand annually ; from 
1830 to 1840, 59,910 annually ; from 1840- 1845 tne number increased 
to 86,067 annually ; and from 1845 to ^50, in consequence of the 
potato famine in Ireland and the serious political disturbances in 
other European countries, the number suddenly rose to 256,583 
annually. The total number of persons in the United States in 
1850 who were actually born in foreign lands was 2,244,648. As 
estimated by prelates of the Church, about three fifths of all the 
emigrants were originally Roman Catholics, while seven eighths of 
those from Ireland are estimated to have been of that faith. 

The low condition of the masses of the European populations, 
the difficulties experienced in obtaining a comfortable livelihood, 
their limited social and civil privileges, the appalling slaughter at- 
tending their frequent wars and revolutions, the free and inviting 
fields of our large public domain, and our liberal civil institutions, 

* In 1810, seven years after Louisiana was ceded to the United States, her population was 
3^,311 whites and 42,245 blacks. In 1830, ten years after Florida was annexed, her population 
was 34,730, of whom 18,335 were whites. 



544 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

induced multitudes to come to our shores to improve their con- 
dition. The revolutionary fury of France, a revolt against civil des- 
potism; and the papacy as its supporter, and, therefore, fiercely di- 
rected against the Church, gave the first impulse to emigration at the 
close of the last century. After the establishment of the Federal 
Governmenl, guaranteeing religious toleration, the Roman Catholic 
Church began to show itself in all the States along the Atlantic 
coast, from which it had before been excluded, while it also extended 
to the new settlements on the frontier. 

The foundations of this Church in the Western States were not 
laid without severe labor. A zealous, self-sacrificing spirit, not 
excelled by any Protestant pioneers, was exhibited by its emissaries 
on the wild and broken frontiers. 

In 1815 Bishop Carroll, the first Roman Catholic bishop in the 
United States, died, greatly beloved and honored, especially by 
those who knew his devotion to our cause amid the struggles of the 
Revolution. Two important works associated with his episcopacy, 
the founding of the Jesuit College at Georgetown, D. C, in 1791, 
and the Daughters of Charity, at Emmettsburg, Md., have been 
already mentioned. Bishop Carroll's successor was the Most Rev. 
Leonard Neale, D.D., who had been for some time his coadjutor. 
Like Bishop Carroll, Bishop Neale was a native of Maryland, and 
also a member of the Order of the Jesuits. 

The Jesuits and Other Brotherhoods. 

" Bishop Carroll was devotedly attached to this illustrious Order 
and to its members. He never lost hope for its restoration (that is, 
after its suppression in 1773 by the pope), and at the earliest pos- 
sible moment took measures for this end. Though suppressed 
throughout Europe, Russia was not included in the application of 
the decree. The Society continued its existence and labors without 
interruption in that country. As soon as Bishop Carroll learned this 
fact, he and his coadjutor, Bishop Neale, applied to Father Gruber, 
the General, for permission to the members of the late Society in the 
United States to affiliate with the Society in Russia, and renew their 
vows. Their request was granted, and Bishop Carroll called the ex- 
Jesuits together in Baltimore, May, 10, 1805, ar >d at this meeting 
six members of the old Society were re-admitted into the revived 
Society, and on the 21st of June Bishop Carroll appointed Rev. 
Robert Molyneux Superior of the Jesuits in America. The Society 
was soon augmented by arrivals from Europe, and Bishop Carroll 



THE JESUITS. 545 

transferred Georgetown College to them, and restored to them their 
former missions in Maryland and Pennsylvania."* 

The Jesuits. 

In the year 1845 a book was published in Leipsic, Germany, 
entitled, Das Innere der Gesellschaft Jcsu (The Interior of the 
Society of Jesus), which excited considerable interest in different 
parts of Europe. It was the aim of the author to exhibit the 
principles, regulations and operations of the Jesuits at that time, 
and his statements were professedly based upon the documents of 
the Society. This book contains a table prepared from communica- 
tions to the General of the Order. 

The numbers in all the provinces of Europe and America were 
as follows : 

In 1838. In 1844. Increase in 6 years. 

Priests i.2-|6 ^645 399 

Scholars 934 1,281 347 

Laymen S87 1,207 3 2 ° 

Total . ... 3,067 4,133 1,066 

In the United States the Jesuits were comprised in two prov- 
inces, Maryland and Missouri, as follows: 

Jesuits in the United States, January i, 1844. 



MARYLAND PROVINCE. 



Alexandria 

Georgetown 

Fredericktown 

St. Thomas's Manor . 

Newtown 

St. Inigoes 

Bohemia 

St. Joseph J 

Whitemarsh 

Worcester (Masaachusetts). . . 

Philadelphia 

Goschenhappen 

Conewago 

Without the Province. 



From other Provinces, deduct. 
Total 





K 


c 




■£ 




E 






X. 


a! 





&< 


tn 


^ 


H 


1 




•• 


, 


15 


x 3 


26 


54 


5 


lb 


12 


33 


2 




I 


3 


3 




I 


4 


2 




I 


3 


2 


1 




3 


1 


z 




2 


3 


2 


3 


8 


2 






2 


1 






1 


3 




2 


5 


2 






2 


42 


33 


46 


121 


3 


2 


- 


5 


39 


3i 


46 


116 



MISSOURI PROVINCE. 



St. Louis 

St. Charles (Louisiana) 

St. Michael 

St. Stanislaus (Missouri) 

St. Charles 

St Ferdinand 

St. Francis Xavier 

St. Joseph 

Independence 

St. Francis Borgia (Washington). 

Sugar Creek (Potawatomies) 

Cincinnati 

Beyond the Rocky Mountains. . . 
Without the Province 



From other Provinces, Deduct. 
Total...-. 

Aggregate in United States. . . . 



<£ 


is 

"0 

C/3 


B 
to 

B 


14 


13 


*3 


5 


4 


1 


4 


J 3 


16 


3 




2 


1 






1 




3 


1 






3 

6 

5 


7 


3 
5 
6 

1 


46 


37 


56 


r 7 




7 i 


29 


37 


49 


68 


68 


95 



'39 
24 



Summary. — Priests, 68; Scholars, 68; Laymen, 95 ; total Jesuits 
in the United States, January 1, 1844, 231. 

In January, 1838, there were 163 Jesuits in this country — 60 



* Lives of the deceased Roman Catholic Bishops. Vol. I, p. 



54(3 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

priests, 45 scholars, 58 laymen — an increase in six years of 6S 
Jesuits. 

In September, 1803, Bishop Carroll consecrated the Church of 
the Holy Cross in Boston ; and in 1806 he laid the corner-stone of 
the Cathedral in Baltimore. The Augustinians, in Philadelphia, and 
the Dominicans, in Ohio, founded flourishing institutions, and with 
the Jesuits, at Georgetown, and the Sulpitians, at Baltimore, shared 
the favor and benedictions of their chief pastor. Bishop Neale, 
already enfeebled by age and labors, survived Bishop Carroll only 
two years. 

Daughters of Charity. 

The founding of the Order of the Daughters of Charity in 
America is credited to Mrs. Seaton, of New York. She was born 
of Protestant parents, her father, Dr. Bayley, being an eminent 
physician of New York city, holding the office of Health Physician 
for the Port. Attending her father in his visits to the Quarantine, 
at Staten Island, she became much impressed with the suffering con- 
dition of the Irish emigrants, in whose service her father lost his 
life by contagious disease. A subsequent visit to Italy with a 
dying husband and the kind attentions of a distinguished Roman 
Catholic family strongly predisposed her to that faith, and in March, 
1805, sne united with the Church of St. Peter, in New York city. 
Soon after she established a school for young ladies in Baltimore, 
under the auspices of Bishop Carroll. This was followed by the 
founding of the parent house of the Order of the Daughters of 
Charity, at Emmettsburg, Md. The Order was soon extended to 
Philadelphia and elsewhere. In 1834 there were twenty-five branches 
in seven dioceses, and at the present time it has extended itself 
throughout the leading cities and towns of the land. 

New Dioceses. 

The increase of the Roman Catholic population necessitated the 
creation of new dioceses and administrators. In 1808, New York, 
Boston and Bardstown, Ky., were erected into episcopal sees. Then 
followed, in 1809, Philadelphia; in 1820, Charlestown, S.C.; in 1821, 
Richmond, Va. ; in 1823, Cincinnati ; in 1824, Mobile; in 1826, St. 
Louis; in 1832, Detroit; in 1834, Vincennes; in 1837, Dubuque, 
Little Rock, Nashville and Natchez; in 1843, Pittsburg; in 1844, 
Milwaukee, Chicago and Hartford, Conn.; in 1846, Oregon City; 
in 1847, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland and Galveston. Among those 
bishops who attained considerable eminence were Bishops Cheverus, 



ITINERANT PRIESTS. 547 

of Boston; O'Connor, of Pittsburg ; Fenwick, of Cincinnati ; Flaget, 
of Bardstown, Ky. ; England, of Charleston, S. C. ; and Hughes, of 
New York. In the earlier days the dioceses were large, the labors 
of the bishops were arduous, and their travels extensive. A few 
facts will show the situation. 

In 1816-1818 the diocese of New York embraced the whole of the 
States of New York and New Jersey, with a Roman Catholic popu- 
lation of about seventeen thousand.* The Laity s Directory for 1822 
gives the following items : The number of Roman Catholic churches 
in the United States did not much exceed one hundred, thirty nine 
of which, or more than one third, were in the diocese of Baltimore. 
It was by a hard struggle, with slow and patient progress, that 
Romanism invaded the stronghold of the Puritans. The diocese of 
Boston then comprehended the whole of New England, in which 
there were six churches. Two of these were in the city of Boston, 
one in Salem, one in New Bedford, and two in Maine, leaving four 
of the States without any church. The diocese of New York com- 
prised the whole State of New York and the northern part of New 
Jersey, and had but seven churches, with nine priests, including the 
bishop. Two of the churches were in New York and the others were 
in Albany, Utica, Auburn, Newark and Carthage. Under the 
head of " Clergymen Officiating in the Diocese" the following items 
are given, which show the laborious and itinerant character of the 
Romish priests of those days: " Rev. Patrick Kelley, Auburn, 
Rochester, and other districts in the western part of this State. 
Rev. Philip Larissy attends regularly at Staten Island and different 
other congregations along the Hudson River." The Philadelphia 
diocese embraced Pennsylvania and Delaware, with fifteen churches. 
The editor of the Directory says that at that time the Roman Cath- 
olics constituted nearly one fifth of the population of Philadelphia. 
Bardstown, Ky., was at that time the head of a very large diocese 
comprising 19 churches, which were scattered through the States of 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the Territories of 
Michigan, and the limitless North-west. The diocese of Louisiana 
included the whole of ancient Louisiana and the Floridas, and was 
one of the most flourishing domains of the Church, The diocese 
of Richmond embraced the entire State of Virginia, with seven 
churches, and the diocese of Charleston included North Carolina, 
South Carolina and Georgia. There was one church in South Car- 
olina, at Charleston, and three in Georgia ; at Savannah, Augusta 
and Locust Grove. 

* Extracts from a note-book kept by Bishop Conolley, of New York. 



648 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 2.— Bisliop England and Bishop Hughes. 

In the year 1820 the Roman Catholic Church in America received 
an important addition to its working force in the appointment of 
Rev. John England, D.D., to the see of Charleston. Dr. England has 
been regarded as one of the most noted prelates of the papal Church 
in this country. Described as a man of " a vigorous and compre- 
hensive mind, enriched with varied and accurate information, 
thoroughly trained in priestly duties," and with an experience of 
twelve years in an active missionary career in Ireland, high expec- 
tations were cherished as to his work in America. Familiar with 
the political questions of the day, with a personal presence in a high 
degree prepossessing, a quick insight into human character, a ready 
wit, and great facility in dealing with questions outside of the 
immediate province of a minister of religion, he was able to exert the 
most valuable influence with people of position and authority. His 
fame increased with his years, until his name became a household 
word with Roman Catholics of all nations, who regarded him as an 
able champion of their cause. By Irish«ien he was regarded with 
feelings of intense pride on account of his great qualities of heart and 
head and his power both of pen and tongue. His noble, generous 
nature, and his capacity for public affairs won for him many friends 
outside of his church. On the 30th of December, 1820, Dr. En- 
gland landed in Charleston, S.C., and the following day, being Sun- 
day, he entered upon the work of his mission. In a short time he 
visited all the principal places of his diocese and inaugurated a 
vigorous course of instruction among his people. He pursued his 
labors with great diligence and energy, traveling by public and 
private conveyances, preaching in churches, private houses, in the 
open air, and sometimes by invitation in the edifices of other de- 
nominations. He also delivered courses of lectures, prepared cate- 
chisms, established " Book Societies," and started a newspaper. * 

Bishop England's diocese extended about 800 miles north and 
south along the coast, and about 300 miles into the interior. 
Through this territory he often traveled in his carriage, driven by a 
negro boy, preaching, instructing, administering the sacraments 
with all the ardor of his priestly zeal, wherever a few Roman Cath- 
olics might be found. Many a strange incident and startling 
adventure occurred during these journeys. 

The Annals of the Propagation of the Faith for May, 1838,+ 
contain a letter from him, characterized by great ability, broad and 



* The United States Catholic Miscellany, at Charleston, in 1822. t Vol X, p. 253. 



DISCUSSIONS ON ROMANISM. 549 

comprehensive views, and affording a clearer insight into the prog- 
ress and condition of American Romanism than any thing before 
published — an able resume of papal struggles in the United States. 
It was translated and republished* in this country, giving him a 
national reputation. 

Returning from Europe in 1842 he contracted a malignant 
disease in his ministrations to the sick on the vessel, and died soon 
after he landed in Baltimore, universally lamented. At the time of 
his death the Roman Catholic population of his diocese was 
estimated at about eight thousand. 

Bishop Hughes became the most prominent papal ecclesiastic 
of this period, and therefore demands extended notice. Born in 
1798, in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, when quite young his 
family moved to this country and settled in the vicinity of Cham- 
bersburg, Md. Early inclined toward an ecclesiastical life, with 
the approval and assistance of his father he entered the Theological 
Seminary of Mt. St. Mary's, Emmettsburg, Md., where he made 
such rapid progress that he soon became a teacher. In 1825 he was 
ordained a priest and appointed to the pastoral charge of St. 
Joseph's Church, Philadelphia, which position he filled with such 
zeal and ability that he was soon recognized as the foremost cham- 
pion of Roman Catholicism in that city. In 1832 Rev. John Breck- 
inridge, D.D , then recognized as one of the ablest leaders of the 
Presbyterians in America, published in the Philadelphia papers a 
challenge to discuss the question, " Is the Protestant religion the 
religion of Christ?" Mr. Hughes accepted the challenge, and the 
discussion was continued in successive letters in the city papers. 
Four years later he accepted another challenge from the same gen- 
tleman to an oral discussion of the question, " Is the Catholic 
religion, in any or all its principles and doctrines, inimical to civil or 
religious liberty?" In this discussion Mr. Hughes exhibited great 
ability, extensive attainments, and the superior adroitness and tact 
in dealing with men for which he subsequently became distinguished. 

In 1837 Bishop Dubois, of New York, finding himself, from age 
and infirmities, unequal to the care of his large diocese, requested 
the appointment of a coadjutor. Mr. Hughes was at once desig- 
nated for that position and was consecrated on the 9th of January, 
1838. Three weeks after Bishop Dubois was stricken with paralysis, 
and Mr. Hughes was constituted administrator of the diocese. On 
the death of Bishop Dubois, in 1842, the episcopal dignity devolved 

* In the Ainerican Quarterly Register for 1841, occupying fifteen closely printed pages. It 
will amply repay perusal. 



550 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

entirely upon him, and in 1852 he became archbishop. Bishop 
Hughes was a man of great strength and decision of character, 
bold, fearless, and independent in spirit, and a skillful diplomatist. 
He exercised great influence over men, whether in personal inter- 
course or in public discourses to the masses. He controlled mobs 
as with a wand, and politicians were supple tools in his hands. All 
his resources were called into use in his new field. When he came 
to New York his diocese embraced 55,000 square miles, with 40 
priests, 20 churches and a large number of stations. There was 
much opposition to Romanism in the country, and the road to suc- 
cess was not a flowery one. 



Section 3.— The Lay-Trusteeship Contest. 

Some dangers from within, in the estimation of the far-seeing 
ones, more perilous than those from without, seriously threatened 
the Church. These internal causes of apprehension arose chiefly from 
the system of lay-trusteeship which, in some of the cities, had been 
the occasion of long-standing feuds and of public scandal. Certain of 
the laity braved and defied the authority of their bishops, treated 
with contempt the discipline of the Church, and ventured to receive 
and dismiss pastors at their pleasure. Some cases were carried 
into the civil courts. 

This early system of trusteeship provided that all church prop- 
erty should be held by a board of three or more trustees, appointed 
by the people for whose benefit the Society existed, of which no 
priest, bishop, or ecclesiastic could be one. As early as 1830 Bishop 
England, in his correspondence with the Propaganda, had complained 
that this system was one of the greatest obstacles in the way of 
the Roman Catholic Church in this country. The first Provincial 
Council, in 1829, instructed the bishops not to consecrate any more 
churches which would not execute a deed of the property to them. 
Succeeding councils referred to the matter, endeavoring to remedy 
the difficulty; but it was not easily reached. The free spirit of the 
country was opposed to it. There were "desperate struggles," 
"prolonged schisms," "embarrassments which shortened the lives 
of several bishops," "excommunications of several boards of trus- 
tees," and "the interdiction of churches."* 

It was necessary that the bishop who found himself embarrassed 
by such action should be prudent, but firm and determined. In 

* De Courcey's History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, p. 172. 



LA Y -TRUSTEESHIP. 55 1 

some instances, either through gentleness of nature or from weari- 
ness of the contest, or from a spirit of conciliation — in hope of 
healing ugly wounds — some bishops surrendered a portion of their 
authority, while others of a stronger and sterner nature resolutely 
resisted all encroachments upon their prerogatives and vanquished 
the intriguers. Under the mild administration of Bishop Dubois a 
committee of trustees waited upon him and informed him that 
they could not conscientiously vote him his salary unless he com- 
plied with their wishes and gave them such clergymen as were 
acceptable to them. The reply is said to have been characteristic 
of that meek and venerable man, " Well, gentlemen, you may vote 
the salary or not, just as seems good to you. I do not need much. 
I can live in a basement or in a garret; but whether I come up from 
a basement or down from a garret I will still be your bishop." 

When Mr. Hughes became administrator of the diocese of New 
York lay-trusteeship was rampant, and its mismanagement had 
become disastrous to the financial interests of the city churches, 
five out of the eight being bankrupt ; St. Peter's owing a debt 
of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Bishop Dubois was 
past the age of dealing successfully with these increasing diffi- 
culties; but Bishop Hughes was equal to the emergency. The 
churches were all assigned or sold by the sheriff, and passed into 
the hands of Bishop Hughes, who purchased them in his own 
right. By skillful management he cleared off the most pressing 
liabilities, visited Europe the following year, obtained pecuniary 
aid, and thus settled all the obligations and gained the full con- 
trol of the edifices. 



Section 4.— The Common School Contest Com- 
menced. 

It was not long after Bishop Hughes was elevated to the See of 
New York before he undertook the work of revolution. He was a 
man of sufficient courage for great undertakings, and also fertile in 
expedients. Starting with the allegation that the common schools 
were a " Protestant monopoly," that the system was "insidious and 
unfair to Catholics," that the books in use were "replete with sneers 
and libels against the Catholic Church," and that the teachers by 
their explanations gave new force to the calumnious sentiments, on 
these grounds he demanded a division of the school fund in favor 
of the Roman Catholics. 

In order to understand the case fully it will be necessary to 



SS2 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

revert to a few facts of previous history. In the year 1805 "The 
New York Public School Society " was formed for the education 
of poor and neglected children of the city. It was largely aided by 
the School Fund of the State. As early as 1823 the question of 
distributing a portion of that fund to sectarian or church schools 
came up. The first case related to the Bethel (Baptist) Church, 
which had obtained a portion of the school fund for its schools. 
The Public School Society opposed this action, as fatal to the pub- 
lic school system and contrary to the object of the school fund, 
which was intended to promote, not religious, but civil education. 
The case was argued before the Legislature, which turned the 
subject over to the Board of the City Corporation. That board 
appointed a committee to hear the parties. Notwithstanding, the 
Episcopalians, the Methodists, the Baptists, and the Roman Catho- 
lics, at that day, sought for a participation in the school fund, just 
as Archbishop Hughes and his fellow bishops have since done, yet 
the report of the committee convinced every body of " the im- 
policy and injustice of such a division, except the CatJwlics." * 

In 1 83 1 the "Roman Catholic Benevolent Society" obtained 
through the Sisters of Charity a grant of $1,500, which was there- 
after annually made for more than twenty years by the Corporation 
of the city for the orphan asylum schools under their care. This, 
however, did not satisfy them. In 1840 Bishop Hughes appeared 
upon the scene and commenced the agitation of the common school 
question. In the autumn of that year, under his advice and direc- 
tion, the Roman Catholics presented to the Corporation of the 
city a petition, numerously signed, requesting that seven Catholic 
schools be designated as entitled to participate in the common 
school fund. The Corporation determined to have the question 
discussed before the full board, which was done on the nights of 
October 28 and 29. Bishop Hughes was the champion of the 
Romanists and several distinguished Protestants spoke on the other 
side. The Corporation, after visiting and examining all the schools, 
denied the petition. Nothing daunted, the Romanists carried the case 
up to the Legislature, and through the management of Hon. John 
C. Spencer, then Secretary of State, and Hon. Wm. H. Seward, the 
Governor, who encouraged and directed their application, they came 
nigh succeeding. The House favored the petition, but the Senate 
decided against it. This gave a quietus to the matter for a time. 

To conciliate the Roman Catholics the Public School Society 
agreed to strike out of the school books all passages to which they 

* See an address by Hiram Ketchum, Esq., delivered in New York city, July 22, 1853. 



THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 553 

objected, and proposed to have only such portions of the Hoi) 
Scriptures read as " are translated in the same way in the Protest- 
ant and Romish versions," but these concessions did not satisfy. 
The next effort was to have the school system of the State extended 
to the city of New York. This led to the formation of " Ward 
Schools," under the direction of officers chosen in each ward, while 
those of the Public School Society were allowed to remain under 
its control, the two systems operating side by side. As might have 
been expected, however, and as was probably designed, experience 
soon demonstrated that such a plan was attended with many diffi- 
culties. This led the Public School Society to propose to the 
Legislature to retire from the scene, which was allowed. On the 
22d of July, 1853, it transferred its schools and property to the 
Corporation of the city, to be managed by the Board of Education. 
This surrender was made after forty-eight years of valuable 
service to poor and neglected children, and after a long resistance 
against the demands of the Romish hierarchy, under the leadership of 
Bishop Hughes. At that time the Bible had been ejected from more 
than eighty of the public schools in New York city. The Roman- 
ists had not succeeded in obtaining a division of the school fund 
for the benefit of their sectarian schools, but the disbanding of the 
Public School Society was a Roman Catholic triumph. In this 
contest Bishop Hughes managed with consummate tact, persistence 
and ability, sustaining his cause in the municipal Council and in the 
Legislature, and teaching the politicians the value of the Roman 
Catholic vote — a lesson which they soon learned to appreciate. 



Section 5.— Hative American and Know-Hothing 

Movements. 
The year 1844 was remarkable for the " Popish Riots " which 
occurred in Philadelphia. The great cry was, "The Bible is in 
danger; save it from the priests." The immediate cause of this 
movement was the Roman Catholic requirement that when their 
children were compelled to read the Bible in the public schools it 
should be the recognized Catholic version. A fierce spirit raged 
through the city, one or two Catholic churches were destroyed, and 
some lives were lost. A Protestant Irish association of Orangemen 
acted a very prominent part in the affair. About this time also the 
Native American party was organized, which attracted considerable 
attention and greatly annoyed the Catholics. 



5 54 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

But there were several circumstances which conspired to pro- 
duce these results. Since 1840 Bishop Hughes had been exerting 
his influence against the Bible in the schools of New York. In 
October, 1842, a large number of Bibles were burned by the Roman 
Catholics in Champlain, N. Y., intensely arousing the popular mind. 
On the 2d of May, 1843, Maria Joaquina had been condemned to 
death on the Island of Madeira for denying the dogma of transub- 
stantiation. On the 2d of May, 1844, Pope Gregory XVI. had 
issued a bull against Bibles and the Bible societies. And at the 
same time John Rouge, in Germany, was uttering his stern protests 
against the follies and impostures of Rome. The atmosphere, 
therefore, was full of anti-papal excitements. Another similar 
excitement, only more extensive, was aroused about ten years later 
by the famous Know-Nothing party, with its unreasonable and 
impracticable measures. This party however, notwithstanding glar- 
ing defects, attracted to it many good men who did not fully 
approve its measures, and made possible some desirable results in 
consequence of the dismemberment of old political parties which 
it effected. It arose out of the spirit of the times, for which 
Romanists were in part responsible. American Romanism was 
receiving unprecedented accessions to its numbers and strength, 
from the quarter of a million of emigrants yearly coming to our 
shores, and about a quarter of a million of dollars annually received 
from the several European propagandas; it was clamoring for the 
exclusion of the Holy Bible from the common schools and the division 
of the school funds ; and its attitude was felt to be increasingly 
insolent and defiant. 



Section 6.— Councils. 

The First Provincial Council of the Roman Catholic Church in 
the United States convened in Baltimore October 4, 1829, con- 
sisting of five prelates — Right Rev. Bishops Flaget, of Bardstown, 
Ky.; England, of Charleston, S. C. ; Fenwick, of Cincinnati ; Rosati, 
of St. Louis, and Fenwick, of Boston ; four bishops being unable to 
attend. In their two weeks' session the Council enacted thirty- 
eight decrees, formed an association for publishing Roman Catholic 
books, favored the establishment of journals conducted by editors 
of their faith, recommended the organizing of parochial schools, and 
ordered the bishops to refuse to consecrate any churches unless the 
deed of the property was duly executed to them. 

The Second Provincial Council met in Baltimore October 20, 



ROM AX CATHOLIC COUNCILS. 5S5 

1833. It consisted of nine bishops, five members of the second 
order, and fourteen consulting theologians, among whom was the 
name of John Hughes, afterward Archbishop of New York, then a 
young man. This Council remained in session one week. Among 
the items of business transacted was the establishment of a rule 
for electing bishops, a recommendation to the pope to establish a 
mission on the west coast of Africa, near the Equator, a resolution 
in favor of establishing an ecclesiastical seminary in each diocese 
conformably to the rules prescribed by the Council of Trent, and 
the appointment of a committee to revise and expurge the books 
intended to be used in Catholic schools. At that time the number 
of ecclesiastics in the United States was 308 ; of whom 72 were 
American born, 91 were born in Ireland, 73 in France, 13 in Italy, 
38 were Belgians, Germans, English and Spanish, and one was a 
Pole. Of the whole number 170 had been ordained in the United 
States, 43 were Jesuit priests, 14 were Sulpitians, 10 Dominicans, 
12 Lazarists and 3 Augustinians. 

On the 16th of April, 1837, the TJiird Provincial Council assem- 
bled in Baltimore, and the Fourth met also at the same place on 
the 17th of May, 1840. At the former no business of special 
interest was transacted ; in the latter the influence of the Washing- 
tonian movements, then attracting great attention, was seen, the 
Fathers of the Council very earnestly recommending the formation 
of temperance societies among their people. One of the most im- 
portant decrees of this Council related to the preservation of church 
property, to avoid the troubles that existed in some churches grow- 
ing out of the system of lay-trusteeship. Schisms and excom- 
munications had occurred and churches had been interdicted. This 
Council enacted that the bishops should take in their own names 
the religious property of their dioceses. Educational institutions, 
however, were allowed to be held by corporations granted by the 
States. 

The Fifth Council met in Baltimore May 14, 1843. O ne °f the 
most important decrees pronounced the penalty of excommunication 
ipso facto against those who after having obtained a civil divorce 
should contract a second marriage. This Council also expressed its 
disapproval of mixed marriages. 

The Sixth Provincial Council assembled in Baltimore May 10, 

1846, twenty-three bishops sharing in its deliberations. The first 

decree chose the Virgin Mary as the patroness of the United States, 

designating her as "the Blessed Virgin, Conceived without Sin." 

Immediately after the close of the Council tidings arrived of the 



556 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

death of Pope Gregory XVI., and very soon after of the election of 
Pope Pius IX. Great interest was every- where felt in the new 
pope, and many people entertained high expectations on account 
of a few generous measures with which he commenced his reign. 
Public meetings were held in the principal cities, eloquent speeches 
were delivered, and congratulations were addressed to him. Little 
was it expected by the most decided Protestants that under his 
administration the legislation of the Church would turn backward 
rather than forward, and that dogmas and encyclical utterances 
worthy of the Middle Ages would be freely proclaimed. 

The Seventh Council met in Baltimore May 6, 1849, twenty-five 
bishops being in attendance. By the first decree the Council de- 
clared that the " devotion of the clergy and the faithful of the 
United States to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin 
Mary was universal ; " by the second, that they would " regard with 
lively satisfaction the doctrinal definition of that mystery by the 
sovereign pontiff, if in the judgment of his wisdom he deemed the 
definition seasonable." These decrees were adopted with the votes 
of all the members except one, the Bishop of Richmond. In re- 
sponse to the action of this Council the pope divided the United 
States into six ecclesiastical provinces, with suffragan dioceses, thus 
inaugurating among the simple republican institutions of the United 
States a hierarchical organization of bishops and archbishops, with 
miters and pompous forms. 



Section 7.— Propaganda Funds. 

The frequent and moving appeals of the Catholic bishops in the 
United States to their brethren in Europe, representing the urgent 
and pressing necessities of their cause here, led to the organization 
of systematic methods to help forward the papal church by the 
organization of the great papal propagandas. In the seventeenth 
century the first institution of this class was established in Rome 
for raising up and educating young men for the priesthood. In 
1822 the great Propaganda, which has since attracted so much at- 
tention, was organized at Lyons, France, for the purpose of raising 
funds to aid the missions of the Church throughout the world. In 
1829 the "Leopold" Society of Austria was founded for the specific 
purpose of helping the Papal Church in the United States. A large 
portion of the funds of the Lyons Propaganda was yearly appro- 
priated to this country. In 1828 the amount was distributed as 
follows : 



PROPAGANDA FUXDS. 



557 



Francs. | 

To the Bishop of Cincinnati 20,000 

•• " '* " Detroit 7,500 

" " M " Bardstown 20,000 

'« •• " 4i St. Louis 20,000 

•« " '* " New Orleans. .. . 10,000 
Mobile 15,000 



To the Bishop of Baltimore. 
" " " " New York, 
il " " " Charleston. 



Francs. 

5,000 

7,500 

5,000 



Total 1 10,000 



n 1846 the amount of " alms" distributed* by the Lyons Prop- 
Catholics in the United States was 660,207 



aganda alone to the 



francs — equal in United 
divided as follows: 



States money to $124,567 33. It 



wr.s 



Francs. 

54>5 ( >o 
20,784 
29,760 
20,590 
15,872 



To the Bishop of Oregon City.. 

" " " " Dubuque 

" " " " Detroit 

" '• " " Cincinnati.. . . 

•• " " " Philadelphia.. 

" " " " Pittsburg 15,872 

' Richmond 17,856 

•' •• " " New York 19,840 

■' " Mission of Sisters of Merry. 

New York City 5-4QO 

'• " Bishop of Hartford 9.920 

l " Nashville 15,872 

•' Louisville 15780 

" •' " " Vincennes j 39,680 

And Congregation of Holy Cross. \ i_|,88o 

To the Bishop of St. Louis 29,760 



Francs. 
To the Bishop of Milwaukee. ..... 11,904 



Little Rock 



17,856 



" Chicago 37,696 

" Natchez 18,000 

" " Texas 49,600 

" New Orleans 24,800 

" Mobile 37,728 

" Charleston 39,783 

Mission of the Lazarists. . . . 30,000 
" Society of Jesus — 

Missouri 11,920 

" Society of Jesus — 

Rocky Mountains 44,900 
" " Dominicans 3,600 



Total. 



,660,207 



The following statistics of the receipts of the Lyons Association 
and the amount appropriated to the United States (see New En- 
glauder, 1859) wl ^ ^ e interesting to close students of religious history : 



Year. 

1822 

1323 

1824 

1825 

1826 (8 months). 

1827 

182S 

1829 

1830 

1S31 

1832 

1833 

1834 

1835 

1836 

1837 



Appropriated to 

Receipts, the United States 

Francs. 

22,915 



49,487 

82,259 

122,598 

104,888 

254.993 
267,269 
300,660 
293,083 
308,937 
309,947 

354,345 
404,727 
541,675 
729,867 
9^7,304 



Francs. 

6,893 

26,000 

36.2OO 

51,700 

43,700 

103,500 

1 10,000 

121,340 

116,970 

126,470 

114.800 

98,020 

102,850 

145,670 
220,758 
189.582 



Year. 

1838. 
1839. 
184O. 
1841. 
1842. 

1843- 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848. 
1849. 



Appropriated to 


Receipts, the Un 


ited States. 


Francs. 


Francs. 


1,343 640 


267,559 


1,895,682 


305,310 


2,473,578 


649,164 


2,752,214 


660,991 


3,233,486 


656,901 


3,562,088 


795,635 


3,540,903 


771,264 


3,707,564 


674,868 


3,575,775 


660,210 


2,845,691 


409,322 


3,5i3,688 


501,603 


3,060,516 


531,601 


3,082,729 


478,175 



Total 43,662,508 8.977,056 



Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 184S, pp. 2X3 284. 



3$ 



5S8 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Here are 8,977,056 francs, or about 1,775,413 dollars, distributed 
in twenty-nine years by a single papal propaganda for the spread of 
Romanism in the United States. The amount received from the 
Leopold Society and all other similar sources has been estimated as 
high.as one quarter of a million of dollars in some years. 



Section 8.— Statistics for 1850. 

The Roman Catholic Church in the Untted States.* 



dioceses. 



Baltimore , 

Philadelphia 

Charleston 

Richmond 

Pittsburg 

Wheeling 

Savannah 

New York 

Boston 

Albany 

Buffalo. 

Hartford 

New Orleans 

Mobile 

Natchez , 

Little Rock 

Galveston 

Cincinnati 

Louisville 

Detroit 

Vincennes , 

Cleveland 

Saint Louis 

Dubuque and Saint Paul 

Nashville 

Chicago 

Milwaukee 

Oregon 

Monterey 



Apostolic Vicarates. 

New Mexico 

Indian Territory 



Twenty-seven Dioceses. 





■a 






c 




in 


re 




V 






JZ 






£ 


8.2 


en 


3 




V 


X. 


js fS 




O 


UC/2 


P* 


70 


IO 


I03 


88 




Q^ 


17 


40 


16 


10 




8 


67 




57 


4 




6 


n 


30 


12 


70 


60 


109 


63 




61 


70 


40 


61 


58 




53 


12 




14 


64 




82 


9 


18 


22 


11 


32 


11 


7 


12 


6 


23 


5° 


18 


75 


SO 


80 


46 


76 


55 


40 


25 


30 


77 




38 


45 




40 


56 


25 


9i 


17 


II 


25 


6 


20 


9 


74 


6l 


54 


72 


38 


54 


12 


7 


15 


3° 




35 


40 




40 


2 




5 


1.245 


585 


1,303 



(J <u 






65 



.JL c <u 

re >/: re 

S.F c 

4- « 0J 



£5 



-Ed. 
a-, re o 



100,000 

170,000 

5,000 

7,000 

45,000 

5,000 

5,500 

220,000 



80,000 
70,000 
20,000 
[70,000 
11,000 
10,000 



85,000 
35,00° 
85,000 
50,000 
30,000 

8,000 
4,000 
54,000 
65,000 



,334.5oot 



* From the Metropolitan Catholic Almanac for 1851, p. 224. 

t The editor adds, p. 225 : " If we suppose the Catholic population in the Dioceses of St. Louis, 
Boston Little Rock, Galveston, Oregon Territory, Monterey, and the ApostolicVicarates of New 
Mexico and the Indian Territory to be 280 000, the total number of Catholics in the United States 
will be 1,614,000." 



PERIOD III. 

FROM 1850 TO 1895 



MORAL PHASES. 



86 1 



CHAPTER I. 



MORAL PHASES 



Sec. i. Emancipation. 
" 2. Temperance. 

3. Sabbath Observance. 



Sec. 4. Chastity and Divorce. 
" 5. Crime. 



THE period since 1850 has sorely tested the vital power of 
American Christianity. The bold, defiant skepticism of ninety 
years ago has given place to more subtle forms of doubt, silently 
undermining the faith and confidence of many, and the copious 
introduction also of large heterogeneous foreign elements into our 
population has essentially changed the conditions of the field. With 
these foreign acquisitions came large installments of skepticism, 
Rationalism, Communism, Nihilism, Agnosticism, and other kindred 
phases of thought, embarrassing the work of Christianity. No 
auspicious spiritual indications greeted the opening of the period, 
but a religious declension following the Millerite excitement left 
the churches in a low condition. The nation was full of excite- 
ments, often angry and violent, growing out of the antislavery 
agitation then rife in the churches and in the State. The sharp 
conflicts attending the Mexican War and the annexation of Texas 
and California, just before this period opened, were followed by more 
violent contests over the admission of California as a State, the enact- 
ment of the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott decision, the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska imbroglio, the 
election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, and the long and 
terrible civil war, with its destractions and severe exactions. The 
great agitations which had so effectively advanced the temperance 
and Sabbath reforms during the previous decades subsided after 
1856, and left those movements under the overshadowing influence 
of engrossing national issues heavily weighing upon the public 
heart. 

Nevertheless, we do not lose sight of the encouraging fact, 
radiating all history, that Christianity never shuns the surging cur- 
rents of population, nor periods of popular agitation and revolu-. 



662 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

tion, but eagerly grasps new centers of people, and is a competent 
active factor in the sharpest conflicts of intelligent progress. It 
has a special affinity for the most virile races and easily takes pos- 
session of the most vigorous nations. 



Section 1.— Emancipation. 

In previous pages the antislavery struggle was viewed almost 
entirely in its moral and religious bearings. The present section is 
intended to be supplemental, presenting some of the politico-relig- 
ious impediments which embarrassed the reform, and tracing their 
removal amid the stern necessities of the late civil war. From the 
author's point of observation, the religious and political significance 
of that great contest, and the deliverance effected by it are intimately 
related to the progress of American Christianity. 

Long before the outbreak of the late war it had become apparent 
that we were two people, of conflicting interests, of diverse principles, 
tastes and habits ; the one, aristocratic, declaring the true philos- 
ophy of society, in the language of a distinguished representative 
of despotism, Prince Metternich, of Austria, to be " Gentlemen in 
the palace and laborers in the field, with an impassable gulf between ; " 
the other, democratic, proclaiming * l all men created free and equal," 
and the avenues of trade, industry, education and exalted station 
open alike to all. As the natural consequence there came to be a 
sharp antagonism between the two sections — an irrepressible conflict 
of opinions and interests. Said Mr. Iverson,* of Georgia : 

Sir, disguise the fact as you will, there is an enmity between the Northern and 
Southern people which is deep and enduring. . . . Look at the spectacle exhibited 
on this floor. How is it ? There are the Northern Senators on that side, here 
are. the Southern Senators on this side. How much social intercourse is there 
between us? You sit on your side silent and gloomy. We sit on ours with knit 
brows and portentous scowls. Here are two hostile bodies on this floor, and it is 
but a type of the feeling which exists between the two sections. We are enemies 
as much as if we were two hostile States. 

These radical antagonisms culminated in one of the most san- 
guinary wars ever witnessed, seriously threatening the life of the 
Republic ; not a war of mere brute force or geographical divisions, as 
in many other instances, but, in the language of Mr. Mason, of Vir- 
ginia, " A war of sentiment and opinion, by one form of society 
against another form of society, neither of which could concur in the 



* In the United States Senate, December 5, i860. 



THE LEGACY OF THE FATHERS. 563 

requisitions of the other, and neither of which could expand, under 
the same government without encroaching upon the other." It was 
the old conflict of aristocratic privilege and democratic equality. 

The deep significance of that stern and deadly civil contest will 
become apparent by briefly reviewing the origin of these conflicting 
elements : how they became so interwoven into the texture of the 
government as to be beyond elimination, except under extraordinary 
circumstances; how they grew to be so formidable ; how the military 
necessities of the war afforded the opportunity to eliminate them, 
and what remains to be done, now that the physical struggle has 
ended, as security for the future. In thus reviewing the difficulties 
from which the nation has been delivered, we cannot fail to be 
impressed with the terrible darkness of the departing night, and 
appreciate " the dayspring from on high " which hath " visited us." 

The Source of the Troubles. 

The conflicting elements were transmitted to us by our fathers. 
The framers of the national Constitution, wise and good men as 
they were, and transcendently glorious as that document is, never- 
theless bequeathed to their children a legacy of trouble ; and Prov- 
idence devolved upon the present generation the responsibility 
of settling it for themselves and for posterity. This trouble has 
arisen from defects in the Constitution. First, the toleration of slavery; 
second, the ambiguities* which gave opportunity for the dangerous 
dogmas of nullification and State sovereignty : and, third, the omission 
of those moral and religions ideas which give binding force and au- 
thority to government. 

For the first we cannot now justly blame them, although it 
wrought untold mischief. It was a necessity to which they felt 
compelled reluctantly to yield. Nor for the second, for it is impos^ 
sible for a legislative body to anticipate the strange perversions and 
new interpretations of law which the ingenuity of future generations 
may devise. For the third, we think they were blameworthy ; for it 
seems unpardonable in a great constitutional compact, intended to 
bind together a people among whom the religious element had been 
so prominent, and whose history had been marked by religious 
heroism and remarkable providential interpositions, that the 
Almighty Ruler of the universe should not be acknowledged nor 
even directly alluded to, except in the date (Anno Domini) of the 
instrument. But this was in keeping with other acts of that con- 

* Amendment X to the Bill of Rights. 



§64 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES. 

vention, in which, during the entire session of about four months, 
prayer was not once offered ; in the manifold perplexities of their 
deliberations never seeking wisdom from God. This was chiefly 
owing to the influence of French infidelity then tainting many of 
the leading minds of the nation. The unreligious mind of that 
time was misled by atheistical abstractions, discarding moral ideas 
and moral obligations in civil government, regarding it as a human 
composition, deriving its authority from the people and not from 
God. They followed the theory of Rousseau, according to which 
the foundation of all government is in a " social compact," and " the 
consent of the governed " was regarded as the source of civil obliga- 
tion. They failed to see that such a government must necessarily 
be weak and imperfect. Founded on the shifting sands of human 
caprice and passion, it could possess only a fluctuating authority, not 
ruling by the enduring power of moral obligations which press upon 
the conscience, and touch " a throne of order and law above the 
range of mere humanity." 

Notwithstanding these defects the government would have gone 
on well if the popular heart had remained true to the sentiments 
which then prevailed. The national heart was wiser than those 
leading minds, bewildered with the crude notions of French philos- 
ophy, deeper, purer and nearer to God — a prospective safeguard to 
preserve the nation from disaster. 

Conserving Elements. 

The existence of the institution of slavery was then generally 
deprecated at the South as well as at the North, and the Constitu- 
tion was regarded as an instrument of freedom. No other construc- 
tion was then deemed possible, and it was anticipated that under 
its influence the great evil would speedily disappear. So long as 
those convictions were cherished, slavery could not be actively 
aggressive, although its aristocratic tendencies might still militate 
against republican institutions. 

So also in reference to the powers of the individual States. 
When our fathers declared, in the preamble of the Constitution, 
that the design of that document was "to form a more perfect 
union," " to insure domestic tranquillity," and " provide for the 
common defense," they did not dream that it would ever be con- 
strued otherwise than as organizing a consolidated government, very 
different from a "league," or a "confederation." The defects of 
the old confederation were stated in the convention which framed 



A CONSOLIDATED GOVERNMENT. 563 

the Constitution, by Hon. Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, on the 
third day of the session, in a speech in which he opened the main 
business of the Convention. He said, " The Confederation pro- 
duced no- security against foreign invasion, Congress not being per- 
mitted to prevent a war nor to support one on its own authority." 
"The Federal Government could not check a quarrel between the 
States, nor a rebellion in any, not having constitutional power nor 
the means to interpose according to the exigency," and " the Fed- 
eral Government could not even protect itself against encroach- 
ments from the States." These were some of the defects which it 
was desired to remedy by a new constitution, which would make 
a stronger and more consolidated government. The language of 
General Washington, the president of the convention which drafted 
the Constitution, in a letter which accompanied that document 
when it was sent out for approval, still further indicates its design. 
He said, " It is obviously impracticable in the Federal Government 
of the States to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to 
each, and yet provide for the interests and safety of all." 

The colonies had had a sad and mortifying experience under the 
old confederation — they had seen the inefficiency of the merely 
federative principle ; internal distractions were appearing ; a cold and 
lifeless indifference had fallen like a palsy upon the sovereign States, 
and they felt the want of a vigorous central power which should 
exert its sway over all and for all. By a painful experience the 
public heart had been educated up to the point of seeking a " more 
perfect union," in which the sovereignty of the States should be 
merged into a strong general government, holding sovereign power 
over all. The ambiguities of the Constitution, therefore, which 
have given opportunity for the modern doctrine of the sovereignty 
of the States, would have remained well enough, if the national 
heart had remained as it then was. 

So also in reference to the omission from the Constitution of 
the religious ideas referred to. The political convictions of the 
masses had been shaped by religion. This was true not only in 
New England but also in other sections of the country, permeated 
by the influence of the Presbyterians, the Lutherans, the Quakers, 
the Huguenot exiles, the better class of papists under Lord Balti- 
more, and the Protestant Episcopal Church, among all of whom the 
State was regarded as the ordinance of God, deriving its authority 
from him. However organized by human co-operation, its investiture 
was divine, and it ruled by the force of moral obligation. These 
ideas, although not incorporated in the Constitution of the United 



366 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

States, pervaded the public mind, and therefore would be safeguards 
so long as they remained. 

But these omissions proved to be sources of serious trouble. 
Through the doors thus left open the most destructive antagonisms 
entered. They could never, however, have performed their ruinous 
work if the public heart had remained unperverted. But the nation 
subsequently, in some respects, seriously deteriorated, and an irre- 
pressible conflict agitated it from center to circumference, threaten- 
ing a dissolution of the Union. Let us follow the history of the 



Downward Tendency. 

First, the original sentiments of the South in regard to slavery 
deteriorated. About the time when the Southern States were abol- 
ishing slavery, all at once the South found it to be profitable. The 
invention of the cotton gin in 1793, and its introduction soon after, 
had a prodigious effect upon this institution. Previous to this dis- 
covery the interior of the Southern States was languishing, and the 
inhabitants were emigrating for the want of business to engage 
their attention and employ their industry. The introduction of this 
machine opened to them new views and set the whole country in 
motion. From the moment that slavery became profitable there 
was a demand for slave-labor, a sense of the injustice of the system 
weakened, and the original antislavery policy of the nation was very 
distasteful. Soon the promotion of slavery became their chief con- 
cern, and they set themselves to re-examine the doctrinal basis of 
the institution, instituting searching inquiries into the true status of 
the negro, in both a moral and a civil point of view. The doctrine 
of the fathers of the government was discarded, and a theory was 
developed by which slavery was defended, first, as a divine institu- 
tion taught in the Holy Scriptures, and, second, in the language of 
Hon. John C. Calhoun, "the most solid and durable foundation on 
which to rear free and stable political institutions." Thus was the 
South itself first demoralized. 

How was the nation demoralized ? Notwithstanding the vision 
of unparalleled prosperity which had deluded the South, it was dis- 
covered at a very early period (Colonel Benton says prior to the tariff 
of 1816) by her most sagacious statesmen, that the South was not 
competing with the North in the race of prosperity, and that, with- 
out superior management on their part, it must eventually lose the 
balance of power in the general government. What only a few at 
first foresaw subsequently became a general conviction, and led to 



THE BALANCE OF POWER. 567 

the devising of schemes to retain the controlling power in the coun- 
cils of the nation. In process of time a knot of energetic men hit 
upon a plan and entered upon its vigorous prosecution. There were 
two parts to this plan. The first part had reference to remaining in 
the Union if possible, the other to leaving the Union. If they 
could preserve the balance of power they would remain ; if not, 
they would be prepared to leave it. 

How was the balance to be preserved ? By the extension of 
slavery and the continued advantages of the three fifths ratio of 
slave representation. Slavery must be expanded in the national 
domain, and in order to do it the borders of the nation must be en- 
larged on the south and west. Out of this part of the plan grew 
the great contests with slavery on the admission of new States and 
the acquisition of new territory. Grave questions arose in regard to 
the doctrine of the Constitution as to slavery in the Territories, the 
recapture of fugitive slaves, the rights of masters traveling with 
slaves in the free States, etc., the slave party concentrating their 
energies to work out a pro-slavery construction of that document, 
under which they might safely carry their slaves into any section of 
the Union, and slavery thenceforth be admitted into all the Ter- 
ritories. 

All this they did not expect to accomplish at once. They re- 
solved to keep possession of the general government and gradually 
work out this construction. To do this they attempted to unite the 
South, by complaining of grievances suffered from the North. By 
various means they succeeded ; by the subtle seductions of office 
and emoluments in politics; by sophistries, poisoning the fountains 
of religion with pro-slavery theories and apologies ; by threats and 
blandishments, and by many other expedients. The reins of power 
they long held, and but too well succeeded in accomplishing their 
object, as evidenced by the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, the Dred 
Scott Decision, etc., etc. 

As might have been expected, such a course was attended by a 
general deterioration of moral convictions in regard to the sanctity 
of law, illustrated in the Missouri Compromise in 1820, the com- 
promise measures of 1850, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
the Kansas-Nebraska imbroglio, the filibustering schemes upon 
Cuba and Central America, etc. It was a history of political remiss- 
ness and degeneracy, and reached its culmination in the civil war, 
when the Chief Magistrate, in a public message, pleaded the strange 
doctrine that the general government had no power to " coerce " a 
State. 



668 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, in i860, 
convinced the South that the part of their plan which had reference 
to remaining in the Union by making slavery the controlling power 
had failed. The other part of their programme was therefore in 
order — the dissolution of the Union and the establishment of the 
Southern Confederacy. The demoralizing processes through which 
they had sought to accomplish the first part of their plan also 
helped to prepare for the second. The Southern heart had been 
fired, and so much sympathy for the South had been begotten in 
the North, over their alleged grievances, that many were ready to 
tolerate the most monstrous dogmas. 

The doctrine of the independent sovereignty of the States had 
been long promulgated. It grew out of certain ambiguities of the 
Constitution (Amendment X), and was invented in the interest of 
slavery. It was the favorite scheme of Hon. John C. Calhoun. 
General Quitman, of Mississippi, an early and active promoter of this 
dogma, organized a " State Rights Association" in his State in 1831. 
Next to Mr. Calhoun, General Quitman was the leader of this party 
in the South, and in 185 1 he was toasted in South Carolina as " The 
First President of the Southern Confederacy." Hon. Mr. Yancey 
organized throughout the South secret lodges of armed men pledged 
to carry out the State Rights policy, if need be, " through fire and 
blood." Through such agencies the way was prepared, States were 
forced into secession, the South was arrayed in arms, and the South- 
ern Confederacy was organized. 

We do not censure the framers of the Constitution, deeply as 
the nation suffered in consequence of the ambiguities of that in- 
strument. But Providence has given the nation an opportunity, 
through deep suffering, to do what those men could not have done, 
and the "dayspring" has arisen out of the long night of slavery's 
lust and dominion. The antagonistic elements so closely interwoven 
in society and protected by the Constitution have been eliminated. 
The tree of slavery which bore such bitter fruit has been cut down 
and cast into the fire. Its abolition was first effected in the District 
of Columbia, next it was forever interdicted in the common Terri- 
tories of the Union, and finally the absolute, unconditional emanci- 
pation of slavery in the rebellious States was proclaimed and rapidly 
carried into effect, by the progress of our armies into the interior of 
the South. Then came the amendment to the Constitution abolish- 
ing it forever, in ratifying which each State seemed in haste to out- 
run the others. Some of the old slave-holding States came at last 
to loathe slavery and rejoiced to cast it away. 



THE NEGRO AFTER THE CIVIL WAR. §69 

The Strategy of Providence. 

By very profound but successful strategy Providence wrought in 
the civil war, the intensity of the Southern leaders furnishing the 
opportunity, to rid the nation of this complicated evil. Arraying 
slavery against the government, and putting the Republic on 
trial, in self-defense the government put slavery on trial. The main 
arteries were opened and the monster at last succumbed. The 
dogma of State Sovereignty, the other antagonism to the Union, 
invented by slavery out of the ambiguities of the Constitution, to 
prepare the way for disunion, is also now exploded. With the 
removal of slavery the other antagonisms which fed upon it are rap- 
idly disappearing, and the two sections are coming into cordial 
relations. 

After the war closed the question of security for the future 
arose. Strong minds were bewildered in its presence, as if standing 
on enchanted ground. Shall the negro, who has demonstrated his 
manhood and fought his way up to citizenship, be invested with all 
the rights and privileges of a citizen ? Having laid aside the mus- 
ket he used so well for his own and for our defense, shall he be 
permitted to carry the ballot? The struggle could not end until 
this question was settled. It was another test of public virtue and 
of our progressive Christian civilization. The national heart did 
not fail, and the double triumph was achieved — emancipation and 
the ballot — a blessing and a security for the blessing. 

At the commencement of the rebellion the South counted 
largely upon aid from the North. Many Northern minds had been 
bewildered by " South side views " and bowed obsequiously to the 
slave-holders' rod. Some Northern Congressmen and editors at first 
echoed the imbecile cry against ''coercion." But the fall of Sum- 
ter aroused the virtues of patriotism and showed a united North. 
When Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and 
forbade it for all future time in the Territories, some feared division 
and embarrassment, but the virtues of the popular heart came to the 
aid of the government. So also when the Confiscation bill was 
passed, when military arrests w r ere made, when the proclamation of 
emancipation was issued, and when colored soldiers were enlisted, 
the consequences of each successive step were feared, lest large 
masses might be estranged from the support of the war; but in 
every instance the moral sentiments of the people proved equal to 
the emergency, and the government was fully sustained. We were 
not at first prepared for such radical measures ; but " by tears in our 



570 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

houses and blood in our fields," by successive disasters, painful and 
humiliating, God pressed upon us until we came "to apprehend 
that for which we were apprehended." The discipline of the war 
proved a tonic to languid moral natures ; conscience was quickened 
and moral perceptions became clearer. Prayers were many and 
earnest, partisan feelings gradually wore away, faith in the sanctity 
of law increased, and loyalty to the government became less an im- 
pulse and more a principle. 

The Solution Not Complete. 

But the problems are not fully solved. More than twenty years 
have passed since the close of the war, and there are serious indica- 
tions that a formidable part yet remains to be wrought out. The 
system of slave labor disappeared in the civil war. " But," said Hon. 
George William Curtis,* " slavery had not been the fatal evil that it 
was if, with its abolition, its consequences had at once disappeared. 
It still holds us in mortmain. Its dead hand is strong, as its living 
power was terrible. Emancipation has left the Republic exposed to 
a new and extraordinary trial of the principles and practices of free 
government." 

The solution of the problem requires time, but the elements 
involved are of such an urgent character that we feel we cannot 
wait centuries. What is needed is both culture and manhood. 
Homes, not huts and hovels, must be builded in order to a 
higher civilization. The question of education is getting itself, in 
a multitude of ways, into public thought and into the provisions of 
the State, and good results appear. The morning light of realiza- 
tion is slowly breaking. Race prejudice still lingers, and within 
the last eight years brutality has been rampant in the form of 
frequent lynchings. Negro suffrage has been virtually nullified, 
and republican institutions in some of the States are a sad failure. 
Wise statesmanship and firmness are needed. 



Section £.— Temperance. 

In the sketch of this reform in the previous period we reached 
the year 1850; the time of the best condition of temperance senti- 
ments and habits, as a whole, ever known in the history of this 
country. Especially was this true of the older States and the large 

* Concord Centennial Oration, April 19, 1875. 



ENACTMENT OF THE MAINE LAWS. 57 J 

cities. It was comparatively easy then, with the greatly diminished 
consumption of, and consequently decreased demand for, alcoholic 
liquors, to procure the enactment of the Maine laws — the most rad- 
ical form of prohibition — in about fifteen States, from 1850 to 1856. 
Social life had greatly changed its drinking customs since 1820, and 
wore new aspects, domestic economy was improved, materia medica 
felt the influence, the number, frequency, and fatality of diseases 
were reduced, and the moral and spiritual forces of the nation were 
augmented. But reverse movements soon became apparent — 
eddies along the stream of progress, deflecting many from the cur- 
rent and leaving them to loiter far behind the beneficent advances 
of the age. 

The first reverse tendency grew out of a disposition to rest in 
having put upon the statute books the most radical suppressive 
legislation against the traffic in alcoholic beverages. The reformers 
left the law to enforce itself, forgetting the palpable fact that no 
law, however good or complete, can do this. Jollification over the 
achievement of radical prohibition also, in too many cases, took the 
place of the inculcation of total abstinence principles in the minds 
of the rising youth, so that it was not long before a new generation 
came forward who had never been subjected to temperance tutelage, 
and many of whom became easy victims to specious drink sophis- 
tries. It was the old story repeated, "While men slept the enemy 
sowed tares." 

Simultaneously with the enactment of these radical temperance 
laws, a new class of inhabitants were pouring into the country in 
large numbers, who had always been addicted to the unrestrained 
use of alcoholic liquors, without the temperance instruction and 
reform influences which had prevaded most of our communities. 
Settling down in the large centers of population, with ideas and 
habits so antagonistic to the new liquor laws, becoming a large 
voting element, and many of them after a little time elevated to 
official and police positions, the enforcement of the Maine laws 
was weakened, and often seriously obstructed. Thus the demand 
for intoxicants increased, and with it the traffic in such beverages. 

Then followed the civil war, its distractions and its demoraliza- 
tion. The plea was made that we must concentrate upon the 
maintenance of the Government; that no other questions must be 
allowed to divide or alienate ; that, therefore, the prosecution of the 
liquor traffic must be suspended, or at least not severely pushed, 
because the General Government needed the co-operation of the 
whole people. During the war the evil of intemperance increased. 



572 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The post bellum period was a carnival of rum, dissipation, extrava- 
gance and crime. The attempt then to revive and enforce the 
Maine laws met with stern resistance, and, as might have been 
expected, one by one, in all the States in which they had been 
enacted except Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, they were 
repealed. It could not have been otherwise, for public sentiment 
had greatly changed, and the non- enforcement of the laws in such 
large sections had only too fully demonstrated their failure. Men 
did not stop to consider how much better the condition of things 
was, even under the partially enforced Maine laws, than under the 
license laws elsewhere, but frantically cried out against them, and 
rested not until they had secured their repeal. 

In the meantime other tendencies worked in the same direction. 
The 'first was a re-opening and a re-investigation of the question of 
total abstinence, which among most native Americans had been quite 
well settled. Some British medical and literary journals presented 
fresh discussions of the question, which were as seed sown in literary 
and scientific circles in America, soon to spring up and bear evil fruit. 
The investigation of this question before the Liquor Committee of 
the Massachusetts Legislature, in 1867, under such eminent lead- 
ership as Ex-Governor Andrews and Hon. Linus Child, afforded an 
opportunity for bringing to an intense and powerful focus the 
reactionary ideas against total abstinence which had been widely 
generating. The influence of the testimonies thus produced and 
of Ex-Governor Andrews's plea w T as hurtful to the cause of total 
abstinence, in large influential circles, to a degree impossible to 
estimate. The second was the development and proclamation by 
Henry I. Bowditch, M.D., of Boston, Chairman of the Massachu- 
setts Board of Health, of the cosmic theory of intemperance, which 
takes this evil largely out of the realm of reform, and makes it 
dependent almost wholly upon natural laws — an evil to be tolerated 
and regulated, but not suppressed. This view was widely circulated 
and sifted into a large class of intelligent minds, with effects very 
harmful to the cause of temperance. The third of these reverse 
tendencies was the great beer invasion, coming in upon the na- 
tion since 1850. In 1850 the consumption of beer in the United 
States was 37,316,393 gallons, or 1.61 gallons per capita; in i860, 
102,956,441 gallons, or 3.27 gallons per capita; in 1870, 204756,156 
gallons, or 5.31 gallons per capita; in 1880, 414,186,367 gallons, or 
8.25 gallons per capita, and in 1886 it was 640,746,288 gallons, or 
1 1. 18 per capita. The custom of drinking beer engrafted upon a 
great many of our native population has proved one of the most 



TOTAL ABSTINENCE MOVEMENTS. 573 

demoralizing tendencies of our times. Many, formerly total 
abstainers, have been misled by specious pleadings for beer and 
have lapsed from their steadfastness, and numberless youth have 
taken their first step in dissipation by using this seductive beverage. 
The effect of the use of so large a quantity of beer is very percepti- 
ble in most of our communities — a new feature in American society 
and most prolific of evil. 

These three reactions have been more perceptible in some sec- 
tions of the country than in others. The first two have been more 
deeply and fatally felt in the New England and the Middle States 
than in the South and the West, but the influence of all of them 
has been widely disseminated. 

Rebutting Agencies. 

While these reverse tendencies were widely and powerfully spread- 
ing their baleful influences, several rebutting agencies arose which 
have been exerting a powerful sway in the department of reform. 
The National Temperance Society was reorganized upon a more effi- 
cient basis. The Roman Catholic Total Abstinence societies consti- 
tute one of the most hopeful of the reform agencies. Starting in 1870, 
they now comprise over 40,000 enrolled abstinence members. In 
1874 the Woman's Crusade, soon organized into the Woman's Chris- 
tian Temperance Union, came to the front, exerting a widening and 
most potential influence. Then came the reform clubs, the Mur- 
phy and Reynolds movements, with large throngs of followers. 
The Protestant Episcopal Church Temperance Society, the Law 
and Order leagues and the National Temperance League followed. 
Most of these agencies, now exerting so great an influence, have 
been formed since 1870, re-inforcing many others long in the 
field.* 

Notwithstanding the reaction which followed the enactment of 
the Maine laws, and the coming in of many other untoward influ- 
ences, there have been great and strong advances in many portions 
of the country. At no former period in the history of this reform 
has the cause advanced in the South as during the last ten years.. 
The same may also be said, probably, of Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, 
and of some localities in the older States. Some phases of temper- 
ance thought have also been sharpened and broadened almost every- 
where. Public attention has been aroused and is being concentrated. 
One half of the total area of the South is under prohibition in a 

* For fuller accounts of the progress of this reform the author refers the reader to his volume-, 
The Liquor Problem in All Ages. Phillips & Hunt, 805 Broadway, New York city. 18S4. 
37 



874 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

local option form ; more than half of the State of Missouri, also a 
dozen counties in Illinois, and large portions of some other States 
all through the North. Five States — Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, Iowa and Kansas — have statutory prohibition; Kansas, Rhode 
Island and Maine have constitutional prohibition, and several States 
have taken their first legislative steps toward submitting constitu- 
tional prohibitory amendments to the people. Iowa once obtained 
constitutional prohibition by 30,000 majority, but the courts decided 
against it, not on its merits, but on account of a clerical oversight 
at the time, the measure passed through the Legislature. Ohio 
polled 323,000 votes for constitutional prohibition, Michigan, 178,479, 
Tennessee, 117,504, Texas, 129,273 votes. Laws providing for 
temperance instruction in the public schools have been enacted in 
thirty-two States and Territories. Many other beneficent legislative 
acts have been obtained against the liquor traffic, and public senti- 
ment is fast advancing toward still more radical action, 

The liquor fraternity also was never more fully aroused and organ- 
ized for defensive and aggressive action than at present. The large 
cities are their strongholds, and many politicians bow in subserviency 
to their behests. Into these seething, festering, fermenting centers 
of liquordom, it is exceedingly difficult to inject temperance influ- 
ences which produce perceptibly beneficial effects ; and liquor laws 
of whatever kind are almost or quite inoperative in such localities. 
The conflict in these dark fields seems a dubious one. But the 
organization and growth of the Roman Catholic Total Abstinence 
unions is a source of hope for these large centers. More than any 
other temperance body can these reach the large masses of the 
foreign populations and win them to sobriety. This movement is 
the day spring of the cities, but the great need is a clarified and 
invigorated temperance sentiment. 

The centennial of the Temperance Reform was celebrated quite 
extensively throughout the country, in the week beginning with 
September 20, 1885. The Conference of temperance workers at 
Philadelphia, September 23 and 24, was an occasion of great 
interest and profit, when representatives from more than twenty 
States and the British Dominion conferred together upon the inter- 
ests of this great cause, closing with audiences of at least 8,000 
persons in the Academy of Music and in Horticultural Hall, in the 
evening of the 24th. 

A discriminating rtsumt of the temperance gains of the century 
would show that while the slums in the large cities have remained 
the strongholds of the drink traffic nevertheless there are larq;e areas 



THE NEW YORK SABBATH COMMITTEE. 



575 



of the country which have been greatly purified,* and, in many 
circles, the drinking customs and ideas of olden times have been 
sloughed off. But much remains to be done to deliver the land 
from the saloon power. 



Section 3.— Satotoatli Observance. 



This period opened after the great Sabbath reform movement, 
conducted so ably and effectively by Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., as 
the General Agent of the American and Foreign Sabbath Union, 
organized in 1842, and described in the chapter on Reforms in the 
sketches of the previous period. The year 1850 marks the time of 
the best general observance of the Sabbath known for the last one 
hundred years in this country. About that time, however, a very 
large new element was introduced into the American population, 
destined to seriously modify our habits and life. The great European 
emigration came in rapidly-swelling waves, bringing with it Sab- 
bath ideas and habits radically different from ours. A decline in 
Sabbath observance soon became apparent. To resist these reverse 
tendencies, in 1854 the New York Sabbath Committee was organ- 
ized, whose labors are worthy of more extended notice than we can 
devote to them. 

At the date of which we speak more than one half of the popula- 
tion of New York city were either foreign-born or their immediate 
offspring, with European ideas of the Sabbath. Few of the cities 
of Ireland had a larger Irish population, and few cities of Germany 
a larger German population, than New York city, and it was partic- 
ularly the Germans who took the lead in Sabbath profanation, trans- 
planting to our shores not merely the German Sabbath, but many 
of the most irreligious and atheistic ideas of that people. In the 

* Consumption of Alcoholic Liquors in the United States. 



1810. 
1823. 

1830. 
1S40. 
1850. 
i860. 
1870. 
1880. 
1890. 
1893. 



Malt Liquors. 



Total Gallons. 



5,411,058 



23,310,843 

36,563,009 

101,346,669 

204,756,156 

414,220,165 

855,792^35 
1,074,546,336 



Gallons per 
Capita. 



O.71 



1.36 
1. 61 
3-27 
5-33 
8.25 
13.67 
16.08 



Distilled Spirits. 



Total Gallons. 



31.725,417 
75,000,000 
77,196, 120 
43,060,884 

51,833,473 
89,968,651 
79,895.708 
63,526,684 
87,829,562 
101,197,753 



Gallons per 
Capita. 



4-39 
7-50 
6.02 
2.54 
2.21 
2.86 
2.05 
1.26 
1.40 
i-5i 



Wine, Foreign and 

American. 



Total Gallons. 



i,553,o88 

2,893,689 
4,873,096 
6,315,871 
11,069,141 
12,225,067 
28,329,541 
28,902,810 
31,987,819 



Gallons per 
Capita. 



0.27 
O.26 

o.35 
0.31 
O.36 
0.46 



576 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

new soil of our country these evils are reaching an enormity of 
development that may yet astonish the old European communities. 
Released from the legal necessity of a theoretical religious educa- 
tion, and living under a government which nowhere recognizes Go:l 
in its constitution, perusing newspapers in their own language which 
blasphemously discard not only the Sabbath, but the Bible and the 
existence of God, the growth of evil is most alarming. Sunday 
with them is a day to eat, drink, and be merry. The American 
people are too largely yielding to this influence. Instead of assim- 
ilating the foreign elements to our customs we have been assim- 
ilated by them. This seed has been widely scattered in the land, 
and an evil harvest is ripening. 

At one time, reviewing the work of the Sabbath Committee, 
Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring said : " They have not labored in vain. 
They have suppressed the vociferous cries of the Sunday newsboys 
. . . in defiance of the most violent ribaldry and abuse. They have 
suppressed the Sunday pageant of the Fire Department, so that it 
has fallen into disuse under the weight of its own folly. They have 
rectified the abuses of the Sabbath in Central Park. They have 
suppressed the Sunday liquor traffic to a certain extent . . . and 
driven it into corners. They have suppressed the Sunday theaters 
and beer-gardens, the Sunday concerts, etc. They have carried the 
reform into our canals, our steam-boats, our flouring and salt estab- 
lishments and our fisheries." 

Since that time, however, the wave has receded, and Sunday 
newspapers, excursions, family visiting, riding, etc., etc., have 
increased ; but, after all, Sabbath desecration is the exception rather 
than the general practice. Few, relatively, of the railroad trains rum 
Nearly all of the engines lie still. Business is almost entirely hushed. 
But few stores, libraries and museums are opened. With almost no 
attempts by legal prosecutions to enforce the observance of the day, 
its very general voluntary observance becomingly and sacredly by 
such large masses of people is clear evidence of a large amount of 
elevated moral sentiment which dominates the land, speaking more 
loudly of real virtue than the constrained observance secured by 
rigorous civil penalties under the regimen of the Puritan fathers. 

■It must be confessed that theoretical changes have been working 
in many minds, the views of good men of the highest rank, morally 
and religiously, having undergone some modifications. The Puritan 
Sabbath has come to be regarded as an extreme toward the Tal- 
mudical Sabbath of the Pharisees, encumbered with vestments not 
Scriptural nor even Mosaic, and far removed from the spirit and 



ESSENTIAL SAXCTITY OF THE SABBATH. 577 

character of the Christian Sabbath. The tendency now is toward a 
Christian ideal of the sacred day. Many, however, have gone to 
the extreme of laxity. 

Late Inquiries. 

The recent history of public sentiment presents two facts: that 
Christian usages in respect to Sabbath observance have undergone 
changes in the direction of larger liberty, and that this larger liberty 
has been indulged in without a definite revision of principles. The 
growing Sunday laxity can hardly be claimed to be an adjustment 
of practice to new convictions. The evil omen is that, to a large 
extent, it must be admitted, there has been a suspension of con- 
science. There has been, however, in some directions a revival 
of Christian inquiry,* as to whether the Lord's day ought to be 
made more largely a day for physical recuperation ; whether in 
modern society, with machinery, steam locomotion, street railroads, 
printing-presses, etc., etc., there have not been revolutionary changes 
in the condition of labor which require new Sabbath adjustments; 
whether modern society should be subjected to Mosaic prohibitions 
regardless of the changes in our civilization, any more than to other 
Mosaic penalties. These and other inquiries are coming to be in- 
telligently and conscientiously investigated, under the conviction 
that men should act from intelligent opinions, not from impulse 
stretching Christian liberty in the dark. The result cannot be 
doubted. A Christian Lord's day, neither the secular Sunday nor 
the Mosaic Sabbath, with an essential sacredness, will, we trust, 
not fail to be recognized and widely observed. 

Each age requires for its peculiar necessities a restatement of 
familiar truths and principles, which are continually assailed from 
new quarters and by new arguments. The Christian Church is 
adjusting lines of discussion which will meet those demands, and is 
freshly presenting and arguing fundamental principles, which we 
doubt not will effectually vindicate the eternal sanctity of the Sab- 
bath. It is demonstrating that the essential sanctity of the Jewish 
Sabbath belongs to' the Christian Sunday; that the evidences for 
the necessity of a day of rest are inwrought in man's physical, 
intellectual and religious nature, and that the laws requiring Sab- 
bath observance are compatible with perfect personal freedom, " the 
law of rest of all being necessary to the liberty of rest of each." 

* Rev. Austin Phelps, D.D., in the Congregationalist, in 1885, had valuable articles on this 
topic, particularly in the number for December 24, 1885. 



678 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 4.— Chastity and Divorce. 

In considering these topics in relation to moral progress, it will 
be difficult to appreciate the present situation without first taking a 
brief survey of earlier times. Social and domestic relations suffered 
severely in this country from the French infidelity so prevalent, dur- 
ing about thirty years at the close of the last and the opening of 
'the present century. The grossest licentiousness prevailed in large 
sections of the country, and unchastity, in slightly milder forms, in 
the better communities. Shocking examples can now be cited, from 
reliable records, of indiscriminate sexual relations between parents 
and children, continuing for years without civil interference, not in 
festering centers of population, but in the sparser communities. 
Regularly drawn and duly attested affidavits verify this declaration. 
Data now exist showing that rural towns in Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut of more than average thrift, rank and intelligence, favored 
with the ministrations of some of the most eminent and faithful 
divines, were not exempt from this evil ; that enforced marriages 
were frequent in the middle and the higher circles ; and that the 
churches, more frequently than in our days, were under the neces- 
sity of administering discipline for offenses against chastity. 

In large sections of the land newly settled, and either without 
churches, ministers and magistrates, or only scantily supplied with 
them, there was little or no civil or ecclesiastical recognition of 
matrimony, and men and women assumed and dissolved family 
relations without marriage forms. These cases were very numerous, 
and some of our most eminent civilians were the fruits of the low 
habits prevailing at that time. In the older portions of the land 
"runaways" from matrimonial relations were frequent. The strin- 
gency of the divorce laws gave little hope of relief from unhappy 
unions, and the comparative seclusion of local communities, then 
not penetrated by railroads and telegraphs, and unvisited by ubiqui- 
tous reporters, gave abundant opportunity for concealment and re- 
marriage, even though removed but a short distance from a former 
residence. All through the first third of this century the news- 
papers contained numerous advertisements of runaway wives, and 
down to a little past the middle of the century reports of elope- 
ments were very common. These were the escapes from unhappy 
matrimonial relations before the larger civil provisions for divorce 
were granted. 

The radical socialistic theories of Robert Owen and Fanny Wright, 
promulgated widely for many years all over the land, seriously im- 



MARRIAGES A XL) DIVORCES. 679 

paired the sanctity of the family relation. More recently, chiefly 
within the last thirty years, legal restrictions upon divorce have 
been removed, and the sundering of family ties has become so fre- 
quent as to occasion much deep concern, In 1785 it was an occa- 
sion for serious animadversion by Governor Trumbull that there 
had been 439 divorces in Connecticut in a century, and that all but 
fifty had occurred in fifty years. Twenty years later President 
Dwight lamented that there was one divorce in every one hundred 
marriages annually. Down to 1843 only two causes for divorce were 
recognized in Connecticut courts. That year two more were added. 
In 1849 tne y were increased to nine, and other States followed the 
example. Since that time divorces have multiplied in all the States, 
and elopements and runaways have decreased. The ratio of divorces 
in New England in recent years has been said to exceed those of 
France pro rata. Another painful fact is the relative decrease of 
the number of marriages. In Massachusetts, in nineteen years, the 
ratio was one divorce to 36 marriages; in the three years following, 
one to 23 marriages.* 

Several grave considerations demand attention : 

1. In the most liberal view of the matter the increase of divorces 
during the past thirty years is an ominous symptom, and can but 
awaken concern for the permanence of social order and the stability 
of public virtue. 

2. In comparing the number of marriages with the number of 
divorces the financial condition of the country should not be over- 
looked, for it has been noticed that in times of financial embarass- 
ment, like that following 1873, the number of marriages has been 
diminished, while the number of divorces has not been reduced. 
Also reference should be had to whether additional facilities for 
obtaining divorces have been granted in any given years. 

3. Loose legislation in regard to the matrimonial relation evinces 
a modification of the moral standard and a change in the type of 
morals. 

4. The mere fact of the increase of divorces does not imply an 
increase of wickedness, if the causes for which the divorces are 
granted do not imply immorality. * 

5. Considered in respect to the question of the progress of 
morals, the runaways from matrimony and the illegal assumptions 

* For fuller exhibits see Problem of Religious Progress by the author of this volume. Hunt 
& Eaton. New York city. 1894. Pp. 230-245. Also Report of the Bureau of Statistics of 
Labor in Massachusetts. By Col. Carroll D. Wright. 1880. Pp. 199-235. Also Monday Lec- 
ture, by Rev. S. W. Dike, of Royalston, Vt., in Tremont Temple. Boston Traveller, January 
25, 1881. Marriage and Divorce. By Hon. C, D, Wright, Washington, D. C. 1889. 



680 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of marriage relations, both of which classes of cases were very 
numerous less than a century ago, should be counted against the 
divorce cases of our times. Elopements and runaways are now very 
few as compared with even twenty-five years ago. 

6. Laws in regard to marriage have been purified and improved. 
How much honor and influence are accorded to woman, and how 
greatly has the sacredness and sweetness of home-life been devel- 
oped throughout Christendom ! 



Section o— Crime. 

The want of sufficient exact data makes definite comparisons of 
the present with the past impossible. The public statistics of pre- 
vious periods are scattering and imperfect, and many of those of the 
present time are not sufficiently discriminating to form a definite 
basis of calculation. Collateral parts, so necessary to an intelligent 
judgment, are wholly omitted from statistics of criminal jurispru- 
dence, though much improvement is now being made in collecting 
such data. Since the civil war flagrant crimes have been shock- 
ingly frequent, and the large cities have become centers of crime, 
where it multiplies and often claims impunity. Nor in large cities 
only; rural communities have also furnished cases of daring atrocity. 

Crimes against life and property have seemed to move in waves. 
The newspapers have freely discoursed of the "Reign of Violence," 
" The Era of Blood," "The Carnival of Crime," and sounded notes 
of alarm. Astounding cases of defalcation, forgery and other 
offenses against trust and honor, involving in crime men of highest 
respectability, of lofty religious profession, conspicuous in Christian 
and charitable labors, and pillars of churches, have been the most 
painful and staggering to public confidence of all recent develop- 
ments. While setting their hands to deeds for which they now lie 
in penitentiaries they were "repeating every Sabbath the prayers 
of the Church, singing songs hallowed by the voices of martyrs, 
giving freely of stolen money to Christian benevolences, and seem- 
ingly delighting in deeds of charity more than in hoarding gold, 
so tortuous, serpentine and idiotic, under the wiles of evil, have con- 
sciences become." The effect of these oft-repeated defalcations has 
been fearfully cumulative. Sermons, homilies, scathing editorials, 
public and social indignations have multiplied, inculcating virtue, 
protesting against venality, and warning of the consequences of dis- 
honesty. Then straightway one supposed to be incorruptible takes 



APPARENT INCREASE IN CRIME. . 581 

a hand in the unequal game and surprises the public with a fresh 
example of perfidy and ruin. 

No theory fully accounts for the increase of crime. Sometimes 
it is said to be owing to the recent infusion of a large immoral for- 
eign population into the country; but the next moment we hear of 
some horrid atrocity by a native American of education and good 
social standing. Then we talk of the cities as the peculiar abodes of 
crime; but the next day a quiet rural district furnishes a case which 
for savagery matches any thing perpetrated in the vilest haunts of 
the large centers. It is impossible to go to the deepest root of 
homicidal crime, for it "involves some of the most occult and dif- 
ficult problems of mental and moral psychology." Malignant ulcers, 
horrid deformities, and infectious distempers have always afflicted 
the highest civilizations, and probably will continue to do so. 

After such emphatic declarations of these palpable facts of evil 
it will not be charged that we unduly eulogize our times. It is 
due that a broad and discriminating analysis of these unfavorable 
aspects of present society be made in the light of previous times. 
The scope of this volume calls for this treatment of the case, while 
it also compels a curtailment of the space devoted to it. If intelli- 
gently done it will appear that the indications are not altogether 
doleful, but reasonably hopeful ; that some of the dark symptoms 
are temporary reactions under transient causes ; that others are eddy- 
ing movements in the stream of progress ; others, first, and probably 
transient, outputtings of new and immature stages of civilization, and 
that, whatever shadows here and there may darken the picture, its 
average light and beauty are vastly greater than in former days. 

Alleviating Facts. 

There are many weighty considerations which shed an alleviating 
light upon the situation. First of all, it will not be denied that a large 
part of what many regard as an increase of crime is apparent rather 
than real. It is not simply that more crimes are committed, but 
mere are reported. "We read about defalcations and rascalities, 
but we forget that we skim the whole creation every morning and 
put the results in our coffee. Years ago a crime had to be of un- 
usual proportions to make its way into an adjoining State. Only 
the giant crimes could cross the continent. But now we see and 
'know every thing." * 

"The ubiquitous reporter," says the editor of the Boston Journal (July II, 
1879), "is responsible for the gloomy showing-. His note-book and pencil are 
*Rev. Bishop C. H. Fowler, D.D., LL.D. 



582 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

every-whefe, and the telegraph is the ready agent for transmitting news to all 
parts of the world. The scope of the press has vastly broadened of late years, and 
its facilities for collecting news are immensely multiplied. We have had the 
curiosity to look back over some early files of the Journal, in order to show by 
comparison the change which has taken place. Selecting an issue of the paper at 
random, in July, 1850, we find that out of thirty-two columns contained in the paper 
precisely one third of a column is taken up with telegraph news, and two thirds of 
a column with local news, half of the latter space being devoted to an account of 
tenement-house life on Fort Hill. Of actual news, gathered by reporters and by 
telegraph, the paper contained hardly more than half a column. The Jow'nal of 
that day was not less enterprising than its contemporaries ; but journalistic ideas 
and ideals were altogether different. The newspaper reader then was content with 
the narrow horizon which his paper supplied him, and troubled himself very little 
about matters which went on at a distance. The newspaper editor presented news 
as it happened to come, and when it came, and was not given to making special 
exertions for procuring it. How different this is from the journalism of to-day, 
with its net-work of agencies, embracing the most insignificant places and the 
most remote quarters of the world ; with its complex facilities and mighty rivalries; 
with its special correspondent here, there, and every-where — scouring the desert of 
Central Asia, exploring Africa, watching the military movements in Zululand, and 
even going out in quest of a way to the North Pole — we hardly need say. The 
editor of thirty years ago would have stood aghast at the expenditures for news 
collecting necessary to a journal of to-day. But we may note in passing that in 
the scanty space devoted to news in the issue of July, 1850, to which we refer, we 
find mention of nine crimes." 

What proportion of crime is apparent and what is actual cannot 
be satis r actorily answered. Our bureaus of statistics are preparing 
materials which may at some time assist us. Unquestionably, more 
crimes are now committed than twenty or thirty years ago. But 
during this period great changes have taken place in the number 
and composition of our population. 

It must be evident to all that as society develops life becomes 
more intense, and the liability to break down under overstrain in- 
creases in persons naturally frail or ill-balanced ; but such failures 
do not indicate a general deterioration of morals. An overwrought 
civilization must exhibit painful features ; a high nervous tension 
easily slips into derangement, aberration, or enfeebled self-control, 
and makes men easy victims of temptation and passion to which in 
a healthy normal condition they would not succumb. An English 
writer recently said : " Any period of great mental activity will be 
prolific of crime. The Greeks were sad knaves. . . . The knavery 
of the Italian republics was enormous— hidden from us, however, to 
some extent by their astounding ruffianism. Macchiavelli, Guic- 
ciardini, and a host of other writers show how deeply the depravity 
of actual life had corroded all moral principles." 



INDICATIONS OF IMPROVEMENT. 883 

Another effect of advanced civilization is that the higher the 
taste is cultivated the fewer pictures do we see which challenge 
admiration. A nearer inspection of the Fenelons, Madame Guyons, 
Augustines, etc., presents to us points of criticism which did not 
arrest attention in their age. 

Much has been said about the decline of morals in New En- 
gland. But where is New England? Large sections of the West 
are essentially New England, but New England without the hood- 
lums. Not far from 600,000 people, born in New England, are now 
in the portions of the United States outside of New England; and, 
in their stead, New England has taken in 800,000 foreign-born 
people, who have come from different conditions of civilization and 
culture — enough to change the moral and social aspects of New 
England villages and cities. 

Periods of financial straits, depressing business, exposing large 
masses of unemployed men to fatal allurements, account for the 
more alarming waves of crime. Sensational accounts of vice spread 
upon the pages of newspapers, leniency in judicial sentences, fla- 
grant abuse of the pardoning power, eulogies upon the "smartness" 
of criminals, maudlin sentimentalism interfering with the execution 
of penalties, etc., etc., have diminished restraints upon crime and 
perverted the popular moral sense. The addition of fourteen mill- 
ions of foreigners, besides their offspring, since 1845, a number 
equal to more than one half of the total increase of the population 
in this period, has been a severe strain upon public morals. Their 
different type of moral culture, their drinking customs, their holi- 
day Sabbath habits, the infidelity of many, and the socialistic ideas 
of others, have caused communities where they have largely con- 
gregated to wear aspects very different from former times. The 
official census of the United States in 1870 showed that while the 
foreign-born population of New England were twenty per cent, of 
the whole they furnished seventy-five per cent, of the crime. 

Nevertheless it is idle to say that the greatest crimes are com- 
mitted by foreign-born criminals. We must confess that sons of 
our own nursing are among the most flagrant offenders, that mael- 
stroms of vice on our shores speedily engulf newly-arrived emi- 
grants, that we have allowed too many of the offspring of poor 
Europeans to become waifs, familiar only with brutal indulgences, 
and that young men from our rural districts too easily become vic- 
tims of city seductions and rapidly descend the terrible gradations 
of crime. It is also noticeable and encouraging that large portions 
of our foreign population have improved greatly in morals and 



684 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

intelligence since they came among us, purchasing houses and 
lands, making deposits in savings banks, and promoting the educa- 
tion of their offspring, so that American Romanism exhibits a 
higher moral type than European Romanism. 

A misconception often leads to hasty and improper conclusions. 
Statistics of crime are often accepted without considering the prog- 
ress of criminal legislation, which is constantly increasing the 
number of crimes cognizable by law. Such figures show an appar- 
ent increase of crime, though much of it is affected by legislation. 
''Civilization has raised many things formerly considered perhaps as 
immoral, and as offenses against moral law, into well-defined crimes, 
and subject to punishment as such. The result is we are constantly 
increasing the work of criminal courts by giving prosecuting officers 
new fields to canvass and by adding to the list of offenses defined 
as crimes. The number of sentences is thus increased compara- 
tively.* The number of offenses designated as crimes by the 
criminal code of Massachusetts largely exceeds that of other States; 
for instance, the statutes of Massachusetts comprehended in i860 
one hundred and fifty-eight offenses punishable as crimes, while the 
code of Virginia for the same year recognized but one hundred and 
eight, or fifty less. The same is true, to a greater or less extent, of 
nearly if not quite all the other States." f 

No class of inquiries requires more careful and intelligent dis- 
crimination than those which pertain to the progress of morals. At 
best such inquiries are beset with great difficulties, for to judge our 
times is much like judging ourselves. Future judges may modify 
our best conclusions. So many diverse elements, currents, ebbs 
and flows enter into the life of any people, and especially of a 
young nation like ours — an asylum for all nations and with condi- 
tions at times stimulating, intense, and revolutionary in the realm 
of ideas and customs — that there is liability to err in our conclu- 
sions. First appearances, fancies, and prepossessions should not 
supplant definite bases of facts. Currents of evil there are, some 
new, some manifestly increasing, some alarming ; nevertheless we 
believe that a broad survey of all the conditions of American 
society indicate a substantial improvement in the average moral 
purity of the people. 

Note.— The author has discussed the question of crime at length on pp. 251-290 in a new 
edition of his Problem of Religious Progress. Hunt & Eaton. 1894. 

* Eleventh Annual Report, Bureau of Statistics of Labor, State of Massach setts. January, 
1880. P. 193. t Ibid., p. 178. 



ROMAN CA THOLICISM. 



885 



CHAPTER II. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



Sec. i. General Progress. 

2. The System of Church Tenure. 

3. The Common School Contest. 
" 4. Religious Orders. 



Sec. 5. Benevolent Institutions. 
" 6. Educational Institutions. 
" 7. Growth. 



Section i.— General Progress. 

DURING the last forty years the Roman Catholic Church in 
the United States received large accessions by foreign emi- 
gration, far exceeding any other time in its history. The stream of 
emigration, which had slowly advanced during the previous 
decades, after 1845 was suddenly swollen to enormous proportions. 
From ,1845 to 1855 two and a third times as many emigrants 
landed on our shores as in the previous fifty-five years, and from 
1845 to l88 7 nearl y ten times as many as from 1790 to 1845. 
Nearly sixteen million immigrants infused into our population 
since 1845 is about one third of our total increase since that date. 
The offspring of these new comers of the first generation, partak- 
ing largely of the ideas, prejudices and customs of their parents, 
would amount to from one half to three fourths as many more. 
Three fifths of these foreign-born accessions, it has been estimated, 
come from Roman Catholic stock. Such a large contribution to 
the strength of that Church has emboldened its priesthood an 1 led 
to aggressive movements upon some American institutions. 

Encouraged by the augmentation of numbers and the flattery 
of political demagogues, the papal leaders ventured upon a fuller 
development of the peculiarities of their system than had ever 
before been made in this country. Roman Catholic "festivals'" 
have become more numerous and prominent, public processions, in 
some instances led by the priesthood, have appeared on the streets, 
and pictures, rosaries, crucifixes, images, relics of apochryphal 
saints, etc., have been obtruded upon public attention. The cere- 



886 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

mony of " baptizing bells " was publicly performed in the city of 
New York and " indulgences " are officially advertised. In the 
chastisement of offenders and for the purpose of keeping others in 
subjection, recourse has been had to the whip, to excommunications, 
with their terrific accompaniments, and a refusal of the rites of 
burial to the dead — a great advance toward that type of Roman 
Catholicism long prevalent in Europe. The activity of the Jesuits. 
and other orders, in bringing forth their peculiarities has at times 
awakened serious apprehensions in many minds lest European 
Romanism should be fully and permanently established among us. 
Hence the Know-Nothing party of 1 85 3—1 85 5 , and the legislative 
enactments bearing against foreigners in some States — movements 
which sprang out of the jealousy naturally engendered by the bold, 
defiant, and revolutionary conduct of Roman Catholics. Most of 
these legal enactments were, however, subsequently repealed after 
the popular frenzy subsided. 

Plenary Councils. 

On the 10th of May, 1852, the first Plenary or National Council 
assembled in Baltimore, consisting of 6 archbishops, 23 bishops, 40 
theologians, and 18 other ecclesiastics. This Council laid down 
rules for ecclesiastical property, declaring that the administration 
of boards of trustees should be subject to the approval of the bish- 
ops of the diocese. It condemned secret societies, especially Free 
Masonry. It dwelt upon the rapid growth of the Church in the 
United States and stimulated the faithful to meet its wants. It 
also condemned the system of public schools, where children of all 
denominations are admitted and religious teaching is excluded. 

The second Plenary Council was held in Baltimore in 1866 — a 
very imposing spectacle, comprising 44 mitered prelates, 2 mitered 
abbots, and 1 procurator. Of these 16 were Americans, 9 Irish, 12 
French, 2 Flemish, 3 Spanish, 2 Swiss, 1 Austrian, and 2 German. 
Of the 16 American prelates one half were of Irish parentage and 
nearly all of Irish descent. Archbishop Spaulding presided. The 
session of this Council was regarded as a great occasion, and unu- 
sual pains were taken to produce a deep impression. There were 
pompous processions with gorgeous trappings, extraordinary cere- 
monies, and many other things which to the simplicity of the 
American mind seemed puerile relics of the fast decaying hierarch- 
ical folly of the Old World. This Council gave special attention to 
the importance of providing for the education and religious culture 



ARCHBISHOP HUGHES. 587 

of the emancipated negroes. Parochial schools, recommended in 
the previous Council, were commanded wherever possible. The 
last decree of the Council recommended the erection of fifteen new 
episcopal dioceses. 

The third Plenary Council* was held in Baltimore, November 9 
to December 7, 1884, the Rev. James Gibbons, D.D., Archbishop 
of Baltimore, presiding, and was composed of 14 archbishops, 60 
bishops, 5 visiting bishops from Canada and Japan, 7 abbots, 1 pre- 
fect apostolic, 11 monsignors, 18 vicars general, 23 superiors of 
religious orders, 12 rectors of seminaries, and 90 theologians. Of 
the foregoing 15 were Jesuits. Of the 74 prelates 24 were born in 
the United States, 19 in Ireland, 9 in Germany, 7 in France, 4 in 
British America, 4 in Belgium, 3 in Spain, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in Scot- 
land, and 2 unknown. The Pastoral Address of the Council treated 
upon the education of the clergy, pastoral rights, Christian education, 
the Christian home, marriage, literature for the people, the Holy 
Scriptures, the Catholic press, the Lord's day, forbidden societies, 
Catholic societies, home and foreign missions, and temperance. The 
utterances upon the Sabbath and temperance were very emphatic. 
The Council attracted wide attention, and many of its declarations 
were pronouncedly anti-Protestant. 

The death of Archbishop Hughes, the most prominent Roman 
Catholic prelate of this period, occurred on Sunday evening, Jan- 
uary 3, 1864, after a short illness. The announcement created a 
profound sensation in New York, where he had been a conspicuous 
figure in public life. No other ecclesiastic had done so much for 
the upbuilding of the Church in the United States, except, perhaps, 
Bishop Carroll. Distinguished by marked ability, he wielded the 
power of a Wolsey, and, wherever known, produced the impression 
of an experienced and sagacious man of affairs, a worker of great 
perseverance and energy, and a prelate of undoubted ambition. 
His name will ever be associated with the most prosperous period 
of Roman Catholicism in the United States. Although the Arch- 
bishop of Baltimore outranked him in the hierarchy, yet he was the 
recognized leader of the Church and its acknowledged champion 
before the public. His administrative abilities were unequaled. 
For this reason he was selected by the national Government for an 
important semi-official mission to Europe in the early period of the 
late civil war. His great influence over the New York mob in 1863 
has been a topic of frequent favorable comment. In a state of 



* See Memorial Volume of the Third Plenary Council. Baltimore Publishing Company. 
1885. Pastoral Letter, pp 10-30. 



688 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES.* 

great feebleness from serious physical infirmities he addressed and 
quieted the enraged masses — the last public act of his life. 

During the last thirty-five years the Roman Catholic dioceses 
have considerably increased. At the close of 1850 they numbered 
26, and 6 archdioceses. At the close of 1886 there were 12 arch- 
dioceses, 61 dioceses, 9 vicarates apostolic, and 1 cardinal. March 
15, 1875, Archbishop John McCloskey, of New York city, was created 
"Cardinal Priest," under the title of Sancta Maria supra Minervam, 
holding this office until his death, October 10, 1885. In the Con- 
sistory at Rome, June 7, 1886, Pope Leo XIII. created Archbishop 
Gibbons, of Baltimore, cardinal. 

Defalcations. 

Two great instances of pecuniary defalcations by Roman Catho- 
lic officials in high position have attracted much attention in recent 
years — that of Bishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, amounting to three 
or four million dollars, financially wrecking many persons, and the 
other at Lawrence, Mass., in 1883, by the Augustinian Fathers. 
About thirty years ago Bishop Fitzpatrick gave the priests of Law- 
rence permission to borrow money of parishioners to erect eccle- 
siastical edifices. A form of a bank was instituted, administered 
by the priests. By high living, the erection of extravagant edifices, 
incompetent financial management, and over-indulgence on the 
part of too-confiding parishioners, it became hopelessly insolvent, 
occasioning serious losses and much scandal. "A Church Debt 
Society" is now undertaking to make up the losses. 

Dogma of Immaculate Conception. 

On the 8th of December, 1854, a new dogma, the Immaculate 
Conception — that the Virgin Mary was conceived and born without 
inherited depravity — was added to the Roman Catholic creed. 
Through many centuries an open question, Aquinas, Bernard, the 
Dominicans, and others, steadily resisted all attempts to commit 
the Church in its favor. Ever held in high esteem by the Jesuits, 
after the resuscitation of their Order, in 18 14, they championed its 
adoption. Proceeding cautiously, sending circulars to all the bish- 
ops, and obtaining the assent of a large majority of them, the 
Pope publicly announced the dogma, much to the surprise of the 
Christian public. The action of the sixth and seventh Provincial 
Councils* at Baltimore has been elsewhere noticed, the former 



* Held in 1846 and 1849. 



PAPAL INFALIBILITY. 589 

adopting the " Blessed Virgin, conceived without sin, as the special 
patroness of the United States," and the latter, with only one dis- 
senting vote, recommending the pope to declare the dogma of the 
Immaculate Conception. The Roman Catholic cletgy of the 
United States have ever been the devoted advocates of this doctrine, 
and Mr. De Courcey cites a long list of instances of its recognition 
by the early founders of Romanism in this country, which is both 
curious and instructive. The ship which bore Columbus to the New 
World was the St. Mary of the Conception ; the second island which 
he discovered was called " La Conception;" the first chapel built by 
Champlain in Quebec was dedicated " La Conception;" in 1635 the 
Jesuits dedicated to the Immaculate Conception their adventurous 
Huron Mission ; Father Le Jeune relates that the next year they 
consecrated the country in a special manner to " Mary, conceived 
without sin;" and in 1673 the River Mississippi was baptized with 
the name " Conception " by its discoverer, James Marquette. 

Infallibility of the Pope. 

The Ecumenical Council was held in Rome, 1869-70. On the 
13th of September, 1868, a most remarkable document proceeded 
from the Pope, addressed " to all Protestants and other non-Catho- 
lics," as " those who, while they know the same Jesus Christ as the 
Redeemer, and glory in the name of Christian, yet do not profess 
the true faith of Christ, nor hold to, nor follow the communion of 
the Catholic Church." He exhorted them " to avail themselves of 
the opportunity of this Council," to "satisfy the longings of their 
own hearts, and free themselves from that state in which they can- 
not be assured of their own salvation;" to " continually offer fervent 
prayers to the God of mercy that he would throw down the wall 
of separation, scatter the darkness of error, and lead them back 
into the bosom of the Holy Mother, the Church, in which their 
fathers found the healthful waters of life, in which alone the whole 
teaching of Jesus Christ is preserved and handed down, and the 
mysteries of heavenly grace dispensed." " We address these letters 
to all Christians separated from us, and we again and again exhort 
and conjure them speedily to return unto the one fold of Christ." 

A few individuals and some religious bodies replied to this let- 
ter, among whom may be cited, as of particular appropriateness and 
value to American citizens, the action of the Presbyterian General 
Assembly in the United States. They declared their unhesitating 
belief in the Apostles' Creed and the doctrines of the first six Gen- 
38 



590 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

eral Councils, denying that they were schismatics, declining to 
accept his invitation, because they held principles which the Council 
of Trent had pronounced accursed ; among which were — that the 
Word of God is the only infallible rule of faith and practice ; the 
right of private judgment ; the universal priesthood of believers ; a 
denial of the perpetuity of the apostleship, etc. They closed their 
address with the following noble and appropriate words : 

While loyalty to Christ, obedience to the Holy Scriptures, consistent respect 
for the early councils of the Church, and the firm belief that "pure religion is the 
only foundation of all human society," compel us to withdraw from the fellow- 
ship of the Church of Rome, we, nevertheless, desire to live in charity with all 
men. We love all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. We cordially 
recognize as Christian brethren all who worship, trust, and serve him as their 
God and Saviour according to the inspired Word. And we hope to be united in 
heaven with all who unite with us on earth in saying, " Unto Him who loved us 
and washed us from our sins with his blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 

On the 8th of December, 1869, the Ecumenical Council assem- 
bled, all reporters being excluded and its members pledged to 
secrecy. What was transacted has not yet been fully disclosed. 
There have been strange whisperings that eminent jurists in Rome 
at that time critically studied the laws of the United States, to 
ascertain what opportunities the field afforded for the Church. 
Whether the ostensible and avowed object of the Council was the 
real one has been a matter of conjecture. 

On the nth of July, 1870, in the Council at Rome, the vote 
was taken on the celebrated dogma of papal infallibility. We are 
principally concerned in these pages with the action of the prelates 
from the United States. The vote was taken in two forms, condi- 
tionally and unconditionally. Eighty-eight prelates voted uncon- 
ditionally against it, of whom four were from the United States ; 
namely, the archbishop of St. Louis, and the bishops of Pittsburg, 
Little Rock, and Rochester. Sixty-two voted conditionally against 
it, of whom four were from the United States ; namely, the arch- 
bishop of New York and the bishops of Oregon City, Monterey, 
and Savannah. Seventy bishops were absent, of whom three were 
from the United States ; namely, the bishops of Cincinnati, Cleve- 
land, and Bardstown, Ky. Of the fifty-seven bishops in the United 
States forty-six, or more than four fifths, voted for the dogma of 
infallibility.* Others have since assented to it. 

* The following lines tersely and unequivocally express a bald and shocking, but logical 
sequence of the do^ma of papal infallibility. " We maintain that the Church of Rome is intol- 
erant—that is, that she uses every means in her power to root out heresy. But her intolerance 



ACQUISITIONS OF ROMANISM, 59 i 

Public Funds. 

It has not escaped frequent notice by the press that the Roman 
Catholic officials in New York city have secured for that Church 
"the lion's share" of such public funds as have been paid out as 
benevolent appropriations.* From 1861 to 1869, inclusive, $897,039 
were given to the Roman Catholic institutions, while all other insti- 
tutions, Protestant, Jewish, etc., received $284,491 33. 

In The Christian Advocate, January 1, 1880, Dexter A. Hawkins, 
Esq., gave a later view of the amount of public money and public 
property bestowed upon the Roman Catholic Church in New York 
city. He says it obtained from the city donations of real estate to 
the amount of $3, 500,000, t and in eleven years, 1869 to 1879, it 



is the result of her infallibility. She alone has the right to be intolerant because she alons has 
the truth. The Church tolerates heretics where she is obliged to do so. but she hates them with 
a deadly hatred and uses all her powers to annihilate them. If ever the Catholics should become 
a considerable majority, which in time will surely be the case, then will religious freedom in the 
Republic of the United States come to an end. Our enemies know how she treated heretics in 
the Middle Ages and how she treats them to-day where she has the power. We no more think 
of denying these historic facts than we do of blaming the Holy God and the princes of the 
Church for what they have thought fit to do " 

* The following table, incomplete, taken from the New York Times, will serve as a specimen 
of these appropriations: 

St. Patrick's Cathedral $.^,928 S4 St. Bridget's School 33,540 on 



Home of the Good Shepherd 95,000 00 

Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum .... 57,080 71 

The Institution of Mercy 35, 000 00 

Society for the Protection of Roman 

Catholic Children 30,000 00 



St. Joseph's Church, Asylum, Or- 
phan Asylum, Parish School, Pa- 
rochial School, Male and Female 70,712 64 

St. Teresa's School 15. 730 00 

St. Lawrence Church 15,151 31 



Immaculate Conception School 10,000 00 St. Mary's School 25 000 00 



Hospital of Sisters of St. Francis... 10,00000 

House of Mercy t 55,000 00 

House of Mercy, Bloomingdale 20,00000 

Parish School of St. Lawrence Church 10,000 00 
Sisters of Mercy, St Dominic 10,10620 



St. Gabriel's School 16,830 00 

St. Andrew's Church 7,008 98 

Church of the Immaculate Concep- 

tmn 5,000 00 

School of the Immaculate Conception 10.000 00 



Society for the Reformation of Juve- Free School of St Vincent de Paul. 25,000 00 

nile Delinquents 58,000 66 St. Vincent Hospital and Roman 



Sisters of Mercy 28,893 00 

School of St. Nicholas, Older of St. 

Dominic 11,800 00 

St. Nicholas's School 10,000 00 



Catholic Orphan Asylum 33, 000 oo 



Total $730,782 34 



t He specifies the following real estate given by the city of New York to the Roman Catholic 
Church. (The Catholic World says the trustees paid $5,500 for the land of the two blocks in 1829) : 

>l The Cathedral Block and the block in the rear, which has a small brick chapel on it, were 
obtained from the city as follows: 1. The Church got possession of a lease from the city at a nom- 
inal annual rent. 2. When forfeited for non-payment of this rent the city waived the forfeitures, 
and on payment by the Church of $83 32 converted the lease into a fee. 3. This lot, eight 
hundred feet long, running from Fifth to Fourth Avenue, had no frontage on Fifty-first Street, 
but was cut off from that street by a strip ten inches wide on Fifth Avenue, and five feet six 
inches wide on Fourth Avenue. The city made an even exchange with the Church of this free- 
hold strip for a much smaller leasehold strip on the block above. This gave the Church the 
whole block— now, by the extension of Madison Avenue through it, two blocks— and then the city 



592 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

received from the public treasury $5,827,471 19 — an average annual 
donation of $529,770 10. In 1887 the statement appeared that the 
disbursements from the State treasury of New York to Roman 
Catholic institutions during the past twelve years aggregated 
$8,052,528 48 — an average of nearly $700,000 annually. 

When the United States census was taken in 1870 the vicar 
general of the Roman Catholic Church in New York city declined 
to give to the officials a schedule of the property of that Church in 
the city, notwithstanding other denominations had promptly given 
such reports. He would neither give the items nor the aggregate.* 
To save time and avoid legal entanglement an officer was appointed 
by census officials to inquire in regard to the property and appraise 
the value, which was found to amount to about sixty million dollars — 
considerably more than that of any other religious body. This 
property, it was concluded, could not have been acquired from so 
poor a membership in the usual way of gifts, bequests, etc., but 
had been obtained largely by grants from the State and city gov- 
ernments. Thus, though theoretically there is no State Church, by 
the votes and influence of the Roman Catholic population this 
Church has managed to get the lion's share of public donations — a 
bribe for its political influence. 

Political Action. 

The case of Rev. Dr. McGlynn is just now receiving much 
attention, the old Ultramontane question. All persons acquainted 
with New York politics and the familiar relations long existing 
between the Roman Catholic hierarchy in New York and Tammany 
Hall understand the true inwardness of the archbishop's opposition 
to Dr. McGlynn. The George Labor movement, with which Dr. 
McGlynn was identified, was the most formidable threat ever made 
against Tammany's control over the votes of the majority of work- 



paid the Church $24,000 for said extension of the avenue, and also gave it $8,928 84 to pay an 
assessment, thus making substantially a donation of these two blocks— worth now, without 
buildings, at least $1,500.000 — and a gift in money of $32,928 84. 

" The city also gave the Church the block above this, from Fifth to Fourth Avenue, now 
two blocks, by two leases for ninety-nine years at $1 a year rent each, The-e two blocks, with- 
out buildings, are worth now at least another $1,500,000. The city for $1 a year gave to the 
archbishop for the ' Sisters of Mercy' half a block of land on Madison Avenue, between Eighty- 
first and Eighty-Second Streets. This, without buildings, is worth now at least $200,000. The 
city for $1 a year gave for the ' Sisters of Charity ' a whole block of land on Lexington Avenue, 
between Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth Streets. This, without buildings, is worth now at least 
$300,000. 

" Total, five and a half blocks of land in the best part of the city, worth $3,500,000." 

*See speech made by Mr. Cowley before the National Club, London. Also editorial 

in The Methodist (New York city), January 25, 1873. 



ROMANISM IX AM ERICA X POLITICS. 593 

ingmen, and particularly the Irish Catholic workingmen of New 
York, and Tammany had in turn appropriated large sums of money 
to the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church.* 

The actual and direct interference in politics of bishops, vicars 
general, and priests in their ecclesiastical capacity and because of 
their influence, is one of the facts of the times which is destined to 
receive more serious attention. In regard to such action we have 
a recent testimony from right out of the bosom of Rome. Dr. 
McGlynn says: 

Recent instances of this, not a few, could be mentioned. It must suffice here 
merely to refer to the letters and messages of the late Vicar General Quinn, of 
New York, sent to clergymen to secure their influence as churchmen to defeat 
constitutional amendments which, even after their adoption, have been practically 
overridden and overruled in the interest of Catholic institutions, and to secure 
the election to the Legislature of such men as Mr. J. W. Husted, because he was 
willing to favor "generous appropriations; " the instance referred to in this article 
of the clerical alliance with the Tweed ring ; the letter of Monsignor Preston to 
Joseph O'Donoghue in the late Mayoralty canvass; the denunciation of one of 
the candidates and his party from Catholic altars ; the secret prohibition to a 
priest, who went not as a priest, but as a citizen, to keep his engagement to speak 
at a political meeting-, the chief demerit of which speech was clearly in the fact 
that the movement it was intended to help was likely to bring disaster upon 
i he Tammany ally of the ecclesiastical machine; the abuse of the confes- 
sional in forbidding men under penalty of refusal of absolution to attend the 
meetings of one political party; and last, and worst of all, the effort of an arch- 
bishop in the late election to defeat at the polls, by the abuse of his ecclesiastical 
position, the call for a constitutional convention which, as the result proved, was 
demanded by an overwhelming majority of all those who voted on the question — 
an effort in full keeping with the action of the same archbishop, when Bishop of 
Newark, in sending to the Catholic pastors of New Jersey a secret confidential 
letter, telling them to " instruct " their people how they " must " vote upon certain 
proposed constitutional amendments, giving minute details as to the striking out 
of certain clauses, and suggesting that for greater surety it might be better that 
the Catholic voters should strike out all the clauses. The heinousness of this 
action will be better understood when it is mentioned that the object of the pro- 
posed amendments was to protect the public treasury, and to prevent the people 
of counties and towns from being oppressed and robbed by railroad and other 
corporations.! 

Here are presented two leading features of an Established 
Church — ecclesiastical institutions supported by the city, and poli- 
tics controlled by ecclesiastical influence. It only remains to add 
two more; namely, the mantle of civil authority and protection 

* We cannot enter very much into this case for want of space and because it is too soon to 
judge what will come out of it. For a full statement of the history of the case the reader is 
referred to The Independent (New York), August 4, 1887. 

t North American Review, August, 1887, pp. 201-2. 



394 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

thrown over a single denomination, and a military force at the com- 
mand of that denomination, and there will be no occasion to look 
elsewhere to find a State religion. The first of these two remain- 
ing requisites was disclosed in the overhauling of the lunatic asylum 
and other charitable institutions in New York city. The American 
Protestant * relates the story : 

We need not go to Rome to find a State religion. The overhauling of the lunatic 
asylum and other charitable institutions reveals a state of corruption and sectarian- 
ism that is very startling. The Catholics hold the rule in these institutions, and 
out of the thousands scarcely one can be found who has not the brogue. Laws 
have been passed by the Legislature for the express purpose of keeping devoted 
and earnest missionaries from laboring among the destitute, the criminal and the 
lowly. Where Protestants are allowed to work among our charitable institutions 
great honor is put upon the Catholic worship— comfortable chapels are provided, 
and the pall of authority is thrown over it — while Protestants are left to shift for 
themselves. The Tombs is a good illustration of this. A fine chapel is fitted up 
for Catholic worship, the prisoners are marched into a room where stands an 
altar, with the paraphernalia of worship, and music lends its attractions. Protest- 
ants hold their meetings in the narrow gallery that runs around the prison. The 
prisoners remain in their cells. A few peep out of the iron grating. Those who 
choose lie in bed, read newspapers or novels, draw down their blinds, and show 
the utmost contempt for public worship. The officials are not even respectful. 
Without music, without attention, without even an audience in sight, the minister 
opens his services. He is liable to constant interruption, not only from the cells, 
but from the coming and going of officers, the loud call for prisoners and the 
opening and slamming of the iron doors. The order, decency and accommodation 
afforded to the Catholic worship, and the neglect and contempt thrown upon the 
Protestant service, show the difference between a State religion and one that is 
tolerated in New York. 

They obtained control of the chaplaincies of Bellevue Hospital, 
Blackwell's Island, Hart's Island, Randall's Island and Ward's 
Island institutions, a considerable number of Jesuit priests occupy- 
ing positions in them. The education on Hart's Island and the 
school-ship Mercury has been declared to be " as sectarian as it 
is possible for the commissioners of public charities to allow and 
for an eminent Jesuit to effect." On Blackwell's Island the Jesu- 
itical pressure is felt in the lunatic hospital, the Work-house, the 
Penitentiary and the Charitable Hospital, and these Jesuit chap- 
lains are supported chiefly by Protestant taxpayers. 

The last requisite of a State Church — a military force at the 
command of a single denomination — was obtained by the organi- 
zation of " Roman Catholic regiments" in the State of New York, 
composed wholly of members of that Church. Late in 1872 the 



x " January n, 1873. Boston, Mass. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC REGIMENTS. C93 

New York Daily Witness called attention to the formation of " mil- 
itary bands of the papal Church " in that State — a gross and alarm- 
ing perversion of the military system from its original purpose — 
and the fault of the authorities, authorizing regiments to be con- 
stituted for admission to which it was prerequisite that the applicant 
should be a Roman Catholic. No well-regulated State pretending 
to recognize religious equality can recognize the formation of 
denominational military companies. The Christian World* spoke 
out emphatically on the subject, and against the marching on Sun- 
day in the streets of New York city of 2,000 men belonging to the 
44 Emmet Zouaves," " Wolf-Tone Guards," and " Emerald Guards" 
in uniform, though without arms, preceded by bands of music. 



Section £.— The System of Church Tenure. 

This was one of the most important movements in the Roman 
Catholic Church in the early part of this period. In a chapter in 
the previous period the earlier efforts of Bishop Hughes to reform 
the system of lay trusteeship were related. Bishop Hughes still 
persisted in this work, purging from the system of church tenure 
all limitations conflicting with the fundamental principles of the hier- 
archy — complete ecclesiastical control. At that early date, when 
the Roman Catholics were comparatively weak in numbers and 
influence, it was not deemed prudent to request the State legis- 
latures to embody such principles in legal enactments ; they 
therefore first attempted to reach the difficulty by ecclesiastical 
action. Under the skillful leadership of Bishop Hughes, the Plen- 
ary Council in 1852 adopted canons to effect this object, not 
directly asking for the titles of the churches, but deciding that no 
priest should be sent to a church which had not placed its title-deed 
in the hands of its bishops, thus compelling the surrender under 
the threat of withholding the means of grace. This action, attributed 
to Bishop Hughes, has been called the most important act of his 
life. Dr. Bailey, in his funeral discourse at the decease of Bishop 
Hughes, said that but for this action 44 the whole future of the Cath- 
olic Church in this country would have been paralyzed." Bishop 
Hughes was a man of consummate prudence as well as of strong 
nerve, and so carefully administered the law as to save all his 
churches. A few congregations withstood the canon for some 
time. As late as 1855 the St. Louis Church, Buffalo, was in con- 

* February, 1873. 



596 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

fiict with its bishop. Intent upon success, other expedients were 
adopted. 

The first step in the scheme, the ecclesiastical, had been taken, 
and another remained. The aid of the civil powerwas next invoked. 
Under the forms of the civil law an effort was made to induce the 
reluctant congregations to vest their property in the hands of their 
bishop. During the session of the New York Assembly, in 1853, 
Hon. Mr. Taber introduced into the Senate a specious document 
intended to exactly meet the case. It was entitled, "An act to 
authorize the incorporation of Roman Catholic congregations or 
societies." It provided that, " Any officer or officers, person or per- 
sons, being citizens of the State, who, according to the discipline 
and usage of the Roman Catholic Church, may be designated to 
represent any Roman Catholic congregation or society in holding 
and managing the temporalities thereof, may become incorporated 
as the trustee or trustees of such congregation or society," etc. This 
bill, it will be noticed, provided that a single officer or person might 
constitute the corporation, so that the bishop of the diocese might 
be chosen the trustee and become incorporated as such. For this 
Bishop Hughes had been for years struggling, intending thus to 
acquire the control of all the church edifices, parsonages, and ceme- 
teries, so that even Christian burial would depend upon his will and 
word. But "the Taber Bill" failed to receive the approval of the 
Legislature ; and with that failed what was intended to be the 
initiatory step, to be followed up in other States of the Union, cloth- 
ing the Roman Catholic hierarchy with unlimited possessions and 
power. 

Under the influence of the famous " Know-Nothing " movement, 
during the years 1854 and 1855, radical legislative action took place 
in several States relating to the holding of church property. The 
much-discussed "Church Tenure Bill" was passed in New York 
by an overwhelming majority, after the able advocacy of Senators 
Putnam, Brooks, Whitney, etc. The bill required all denominations 
to hold their property by boards of trustees, from which priests 
and bishops should be excluded. A similar law was passed in 
Michigan, and came also before the Legislature of Pennsylvania, 
the only State in the Union which had previously, unwittingly, 
as is believed, passed a law which gave to three Roman Catholic 
bishops of that Commonwealth all the power over ecclesiastical 
property with which the Plenary Council at Baltimore had resolved 
to invest all bishops. About the same time the legislatures of 
Connecticut,- Massachusetts, and some other States took conserva- 



CONTROL OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 597 

tive action. Many Roman Catholics, particularly Germans, favored 
it. But the New York law was repealed eight years later. 

A Sharp Contest. 

Bishop Hughes was absent at Rome when this subject was before 
the Legislature of New York, in 1853. . On his return he found that 
Hon. Erastus Brooks had spoken in the State Senate of an enor- 
mous amount of church property of which "John Hughes was the 
legal owner, supposed to be worth at current values nearly five mill- 
ions of dollars." Thereupon the bishop penned a long and jesting 
letter, professing his " astonishment at finding himself so very rich," 
and promising, if the Senator would find the property for him, to 
build and endow a public library in New York at an expense of two 
million dollars, to be called the Erastus Brooks Library. A long 
correspondence ensued. The Senator produced a list of deeds duly 
recorded vesting a large amount of real estate in the arch-prelate, 
with such comments as were requisite to show that they sustained 
the position he had taken. The bishop was driven into close quar- 
ters, out of which he attempted to escape by ttie most transparent 
subterfuges. At one time he said he owned it, " not as plain John 
Hughes, but as Archbishop " Another time he said that "the 
property belonged to God," and that he, poor man, " did not even 
own the furniture of the house he lived in ;" and yet he was con- 
tinually selling and mortgaging God's property, as if it were 
" Mr. J. Hughes's estate." The public were convinced that the 
bishop was the legal owner of the property notwithstanding his 
quibbles. 

The necessity, therefore, came to be felt by Protestants to fix 
a limit to the accumulations of real estate by the Church of Rome 
in this country as in some European countries, where there are 
rigid limitations, impartially enforced, sustained by public sentiment. 
The Church of Rome, seeing the chance in this country — a chance 
denied in some portions of Europe — was buying up all the land it 
could in city and country, and many fears were entertained that 
peril might come to important public interests from such accumu- 
lations. It was felt that the law of self-preservation and the law of 
freedom demanded that such dangers should be made impossible by 
wise and timely legislation. Limiting statutes, bearing alike upon 
all religious bodies, were therefore enacted,* in the years 1856 and 
1857, by tne legislatures of New York, Connecticut, and Ohio. A 



* In some instances, however, these limitations were subsequently repealed. 



598 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

writer in Putnam's Magazine for July, 1869, estimated the landed 
estate then held or controlled by the five Roman Catholic prelates 
in the State of New York to be worth from thirty to fifty million 
dollars. But Mr. James Parton, in the Atlantic Monthly for April, 
1868, estimated that in the archdiocese of New York alone at fifty 
million dollars. 

In 1866 the late Bishop Fitzpatrick and others presented a peti- 
tion to the Massachusetts Legislature, asking for an " Act authoriz- 
ing the several Roman Catholic churches or congregations in the. 
Commonwealth to assume corporate powers with the same rights to 
hold property and estate which religious parishes have by law, and 
that such corporate powers in every case shall be vested in the Roman 
Catholic bishop, the vicar-general of the diocese in which such 
church or congregation may be, the pastor of such church or congre- 
gation for the time being, and two laymen thereof, to-be appointed 
by the said bishop, vicar-general, and pastor, or a majority of them." 
The petition was referred to the Committee of " Parishes and Re- 
ligious Societies," of which Rev. Samuel M. Worcester, D.D., was 
the chairman. After due deliberation the committee, by a unani- 
mous vote, reported adversely on the petition. In their very able 
report they say : 

By this arrangement the congregational or society corporations would " in every 
case " be merely nominal. The real corporation would be composed of three 
ecclesiastics and the two laymen of their choice, the members of the congregational 
body having no vote in the appointment of their nominal representatives. In short, 
the congregational corporation would have no corporate powers whatever. No 
such anomalous bodies, we affirm with all confidence, can ever be created or legal- 
ized by an act of the Legislature. They would be contrary to the whole theory and 
practice of our civil and religious institutions. 

Bishop Gilmour, of Cleveland, O., in January, 1873, issued a 
" Pastoral " in which the following declaration appeared, demanding 
that all the ecclesiastical property should hereafter be conveyed to 
himself: 

Hereafter there are and will be no trustees. The bishop is the only trustee in 
the diocese, and in his name all property is held. Under no circumstances will we 
allow laymen to hold church property, or in any way control it. Titles to church 
property, whether in the form of deeds or land contracts, shall be made directly to 
the bishop, "his heirs and assigns," without qualification or condition. Nearly all 
the troubles we have noticed in the diocese have arisen from a failure to strictly 
comply with the orders laid down in the " Rules and regulations for the adminis- 
tration of the temporal affairs of the church in the diocese." We hereby require 
every priest to have a copy of them, read and explain them to their congregations, 
then follow them. 



EDUCATION AXD THE CHURCH. 599 

Section 3,— The Common School Contest 

has been one of the most important struggles which American 
Romanism has aroused in the United States. The origin of the 
movement in the city of New York was related in the chapter on 
Romanism in the previous period. After the Common School 
Society transferred their property to the city, all of the schools 
came under the control of the Board of Education, with local 
officers chosen in the several wards. This occurred in 1853, at 
'which time the Bible had been excluded from eighty schools in 
New York city. Thus was successfully inaugurated a great struggle 
which was destined to shake many other communities. But the 
Roman Catholics were not satisfied with what they had gained. 
They had protested against the schools as sectarian because the 
Bible was read in them, and it had been excluded. They next 
complained that the schools were " godless," " atheistical," " infidel." 
As early as 1 853 Bishop Hughes said : 

Experience has since shown that the new system, although administered with 
as much impartiality as could be expected under the circumstances, is one which, 
as excluding all religious instruction, is most fatal to the morals and religious prin- 
ciples of our children, and that our only recourse is to establish schools of our own, 
where sound religious instruction shall be imparted at the same time with secular 
instruction. 

In this single sentence the next line of action was indicated. It 
was a blow aimed at the public school system, and could not fail to 
arouse intense indignation. The Journal of Commerce came out 
with a stirring article, in which these lines occurred : 

Novv the question is, Are our public schools still to be tampered with, at the 
instigation of Romish priests? And how far is this pusillanimous compliance with 
their demands on the part of our School Commissioners to be carried? Shall the 
whole school system be first sacrificed and then Romanized ? The object of this 
crusade against our public schools is, first, to bring them into contempt and suspi- 
cion as irreligious and ungodly, and, next, to build up Romish schools on their ruins. 

After a long, exciting contest, the action of the Cincinnati Board 
of Education excluding the Bible from the public schools was taken 
on the 1st of November, 1869. On the 20th of the same month 
the New York Tablet (Catholic) said : 

If this has been done with a view to reconciling Catholics to the common 
school system its purpose will not be realized. It does not meet nor in any degree 
lessen our objection to the public school system, etc. 

On the 25th of December it said : 

We hold education to be a function of the Church, not of the State; and in 
our case we do not and will not accept the State as educator. 



600 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

On the I ith of December the Freeman s Journal said : 

• 

The Catholic solution of this muddle about Bible or no Bible in schools is, 
''Hands off." No State taxation or donation to any schools. You look to your 
children and we will look to ours. We don't want you to be taxed for Catholic 
schools. We do not want to be taxed for Protestant or for godless schools. Let 
the public school system go to where it came from — the devil. 

Parochial Schools. 

Next, Roman Catholic children were taken from the public, 
schools and collected into parochial schools, and the demand was 
made that a portion of the public school money raised by taxation 
should be paid over to them — not that the portion of that money 
raised from their own people should be divided to them, which 
would have been quite small, but that they might receive in propor- 
tion to the number of children they could muster. In 1853 tms 
demand for a portion of the public school money was made in eight 
different States — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, Ohio, Michigan, and California. If they had suc- 
ceeded in these demands they would have gained two important 
objects: First, they would have drawn large sums from Protestant 
purses to support Roman Catholic schools ; and, second, they 
would have effected a partial union of Church and State — an object 
dear to every Romanist. The money of the State would have been 
devoted to the payment of sectarian teachers, all ofowhom impart 
religious instruction. It was also expected that if they succeeded 
in this object all other religious denominations would ask their share 
of the public school money. Thus the funds provided in common 
for all, being dissipated among the different sects, the common 
school system itself must perish. But this demand was not ac- 
ceded to. 

Up to 1863 there was no sectarian instruction in the public 
reformatory and charitable institutions of New York. All denom- 
inations shared without jealousy in the work in an unsectarian way. 
But in the spring of 1863, at the instance of Rev. Dr. Ives, a per- 
vert to Romanism from the Protestant Episcopal Church, a charter 
was obtained for a "Roman Catholic Protectorate" for destitute or 
unfortunate children, to be supported by a public tax. All its 
officers and instructors were to be of one faith, the Roman Catholic, 
and they were to receive annually $110, instead of $70 per capita as 
before. This was another triumph. This action against the com- 
mon school system was greatly quickened by the celebrated Ency- 
clical Letter and the Syllabus of Errors which it condemned, issued 



THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER. 60 1 

by the pope in 1865. Among the so-called errors " condemned," the 
following were conspicuous : 

The entire direction of public schools in which the youth of Christian States 
are educated may and must appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so far 
that no other authority shall be recognized as having any right to interfere in the 
discipline of the schools, the arrangements of the studies, etc. 

The most advantageous conditions of civil society require that popular schools 
open without distinction to all children of the people, and public establishments 
designed to teach young people letters and good discipline and to impart to them 
education, should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority and interference, and 
should be fully subjected to the civil and political powers for the teaching of mat- 
ters and opinions common to the times. 

The foregoing principles, fundamental to the educational system 
of the United States, were condemned as "errors" by the pope, and 
the Roman Catholics of our country were counseled to oppose them. 

On the T2th day of May, 1869, the " tax levy" law for New York 
city was passed by the Legislature, allowing <k an annual amount, 
equal to twenty per cent, of the excise moneys received for said city 
for 1868, to be distributed for the support of schools educating chil- 
dren gratuitously in that city." Under this law there was appro- 
priated to sectarian schools about $250,003, of which the Roman 
Catholics received about §200,000, while all other institutions, Prot- 
estant and Jewish, received only about $50,000. It should be stated 
that nearly all Protestants declined to receive these funds, protest- 
ing not only against the unequal distribution proposed, but against 
the principle recognized in the "Bill" of appropriating money to 
sectarian schools, as fatal to the common school system. The peo- 
ple found themselves taxed for the support of sectarian education — ■ 
the Roman Catholic faith being taught in their schools. The State 
and the Church were virtually united. A powerful agitation fol- 
lowed, and through the vigorous efforts of Francis Lieber, LL.D. f 
and the Union League Club this law was repealed in April, 1870. 

This demand for the distribution of the school money was intro- 
duced after the session of the Plenary Council in Baltimore in 1852. 
It has been general, open and persistent, chiefly in large cities, though 
sometimes the efforts have been temporarily suspended. In many 
of the cities the Roman Catholics have provided schools of their 
own in which nuns, monks, etc., are employed as teachers, and many 
have been the petitions for the public money for their support. In 
March, 1870, the Tablet said: 

There is no help but in dividing the public schools, or in abandoning the sys- 
tem altogether. 



602 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In their periodicals and lectures the common schools have been 
ridiculed and denounced as " pits of destruction" and " public soup- 
houses where our children eat with wooden spoons." The editor of 
the Freeman 's Journal said, "Every such school is an insult to the 
religion and viitue of our people." And a Roman Catholic orator 
said, "The prototype of our school system is seen in the institutions 
of paganism." 

As early as i860 over fifty thousand Roman Catholic children 
had been gathered in parochial schools. In 1870 the number had 
increased fivefold. In numerous cases, like that of the Bishop of 
Cleveland in 1873, pastorals have been issued commanding Catholic 
parents to transfer their children from the public to the parochial 
schools, threatening, in case of non-compliance, the withholding of 
the sacraments from said parents. In 1875 Bishop McQuaid said. 
in Worcester, Mass.: "We are going to have a desperate struggle 
on this question all over this country for the next generation." 

The last Plenary Council avowed " the determination to es- 
tablish all over the country a great system of parochial schools in 
opposition to the public schools, and it is made the most urgent 
duty of the priests every-where, under threat of expulsion, to found 
such schools."* Dr. McGlynn says: 

The hope is not concealed that when the so-called "Catholic vote" shall be- 
come larger, the politicians may be induced to appropriate, through State legisla- 
ture or local governments, all the funds necessary for the support of these schools. 
This has already been accomplished in Poughkeepsie, New Haven, and elsewhere, 
and for a brief period during the offensive and defensive alliance between a certain 
set of priests and the Tammany Ring of the days of Tweed, Connolly and 
Sweeney, an appropriation procured by a legislative trick and fraud, under the man- 
agement of Peter B. Sweeney, awarded several hundred thousand dollars to the 
parochial schools of New York city. . . . The extraordinary zeal manifested for 
the getting up of these sectarian schools and institutions is, first of all, prompted 
by jealousy and rivalry of our public schools and institutions, and by the desire to 
keep children and other beneficiaries from the latter; and, secondly, by the desire 
to make' employment for and give comfortable homes to the rapidly-increasing 
hosts of monks and nuns, who make so-called education and so-called charity their 
regular business, for which a very common experience shows that they have but 
little qualification beyond their professional stamp and garb. It is not risking 
much to say that if there were no public schools there would be very few parochial 
schools: and the Catholic children, for all the churchmen would do for them, 
would grow up in brutish ignorance of letters ; and a commonplace of churchmen 
here would be the doctrine taught by the Jesuits in Italy, in their periodical maga- 
zine, the Civilta Cattolica, that the people do not need to learn to read; that" all 
they do need is bread and the catechism, the latter of which they could manage to 
know something of even without knowing how to read. A confirmation of this is 

See also paragraphs 428, 429 of the Second Plenary Council. 



THE ENTERING WEDGE. 608 

to be found in the very general illiteracy in countries where churches and church- 
men have been exceedingly abundant and have exercised temporal control. It is a 
remarkable fact that in Italy, France, and other so-called Catholic countries, in 
spite of the hostility to the government schools, the clergy do not establish paro- 
chial schools. The ecclesiastical authorities of Italy, while willing enough to im- 
pose on our Catholic people of America so heavy a burden, do not dare to try to 
impose a similar burden upon their people nearer home. — North American Review. 
August, 1887. P 199. 

Within a few months the Catholic Review has said : 

There is no longer a school question for Catholics. It is closed. The door of 
discussion, which was slightly ajar prior to 1884, was closed, locked, bolted and 
barred by the Plenary Council held in that year, which diiected that Christian 
schools should be maintained by all the parishes in the United States not prevented 
by extreme poverty from carrying them on. That decree is law for priests and 
people. 

In the New York Legislature, January, 1887, a bill was intro- 
duced by Hon. Michael C. Murphy- which provided that, 

The schools established and maintained by the New York Catholic Protectory 
shail participate in the distribution of common school funds, in the same man- 
ner and degree as the common schools of the City and County of New York, 

A plain demand for sectarian appropriations and the destruction 
of the common school system. The bill failed, but it is a key to the 
purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. 

In August, 1887, the Roman Catholics in Lowell, Mass., applied 
to the School Board of the city for a supply of school-books for 
their parochial schools, on the plea that they are bought by money 
raised by tax for the free use of pupils. In Maiden, Mass., in the 
same month, the Roman Catholics asked the city authorities to 
grant them the use of public school-rooms for their parochial 
schools. In each case the reply was made that the Constitution of 
Massachusetts forbids the use of money raised for school purposes 
for any denominational schools. Later, the request was made in 
Maiden that the unoccupied rooms might be leased to them for 
a compensation. The issue is still pending. Is it the thin edge 
of the wedge? Will the compensation be fixed, in time, at a 
merely nominal fee? And in some future partisan contest, or in 
some other unlooked for emergency, will the fee be remitted by un- 
scrupulous politicians for the sake of Roman Catholic support? 
These inquiries have been started. 

This parochial school policy has been widely adopted in all the 
larger cities and towns, and in many of the smaller communities of 
the United States. Statistics, confessedly incomplete, given in 



604 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Sadlier's Roman Catholic Almanac, give the number of pupils in 
their parochial schools in 

Pupils. Schools. 

i860 57,6ll 660 

1870 257,600 1,214 

ISSO 423.383 ■ 

1885 492,949 2,631 

189O 665,328 3.227 

1894 768,498 3,6io 



Section 4.— The Religions Orders. 

The monastic and conventual orders of the Old World have been 
transplanted into the United States, and monks, nuns, religious 
houses and fraternities have already become numerous, assiduously 
toiling in the religious, philanthropic and educational work of the 
Church. As instructors in parochial schools, seminaries and col- 
leges, they carry out the educational policy of the hierarchy. Dur- 
ing the last thirty-five years these orders have rapidly multiplied, 
and through them the seeds of the effete civilization of papal Europe 
are being sown in American soil. They constitute too large an 
element in the Roman Catholic Church to be omitted in any exhibit 
of its strength or to be ignored by the citizens of the United States. 
In 1876 Mr. J. O'Kane Murray* gave a table of 27 male religious 
orders, 24 of which reported 228 houses, and 21 of which reported 
2,714 members. He also gave a table of 23 female orders, 17 of 
which had 541 religious houses (convents, etc.,) and 21 had 9,488 
members. But they have increased very greatly since 1876. 
Sadlier's Catholic Directory, Almanac and Ordo, for 1887, gives a 
list of 24 " orders " of " priests," 1 1 of " brothers," and yj of " sis- 
ters and nuns" — total, 112 in the United States. Six of the 
afore-mentioned orders were introduced into the present limits 
of the United States prior to 1800; 9 between 1800 and 1840, 
and the remainder since 1840. They exist in every State in the 
Union. 

The statistics are given here in considerable fullness, as a legiti- 
mate part of a true representation of the Roman Catholic Church 
in the United States, showing how widely and thoroughly it is 
organizing its forces, and concentrating its influence upon its people, 
to hold and utilize them in their ranks. They deserve close atten- 
tion and study. 

* History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Pp. 384, 415. 



STRENGTH OF AM E RICA X ROMANISM. 



603 



Religious Orders and Communities in the United States. 

Priests. 



Augustinians. 

Benedictines. 

Capuchins. 

Carmelites. 

Dominicans. 

Fathers of the Society of Mary. 

Franciscans (Conventual). 

Franciscans. 

Holy Cross, Priests of the. 

Holy Ghost, Fathers of the. 

Jesuits. 

Lazarists. 



13. Mercy, Priests of. 

14. Missionary Fathers of the Sacred Heart. 

15. Oblates. 

16. Passionists. 

17. Paulists. 

18. Precious Blood. 

19. Redemptorists. 

20. Resurrection, Congregations of the. 

21. Servites. 

22. St. Viateur. 

23. Sulpitians. 

24. Trappists. 



Brothers. 



1. Alexian Brothers, or Cellites. 

2. Brothers of Charity. 

3. Brothers of the Christian Schools. 

4. Brothers of Good Works. 

5. Brothers of Mary. 

6. Brothers of the Third Order of St. Francis. 



Brothers of St. Viateur. 
Brothers of the Sacred Heart. 
Brothers of the Holy Cross. 
Franciscan Brothers. 
Xavierian Brothers. 



Nuns and Sisters. 



Benedictine. 
Carmelite. 

Daughters of Charity. 
Daughters of the Cross. 
Dominican. 
Felician Sisters. 

Franciscan Nuns of the Immaculate Conception. 
Franciscan Sisters, or Sisters of St. Francis. 
Franciscan Sisters of Charity. 
Gray Nuns. 

Hospital Sisters of St. Francis. 
Ladies of the Sacred Heart. 
Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary. 
Little Sisters of the Poor. 
Marianite Sisters. 

Missionary Sisters of the 3d Order of St. Francis. 
Oblate Sisters of Providence. 
Perpetual Adoration. 
Poor Clares. 
Poor Handmaids. 
Presentation Nuns. 
Religious of the Holy Heart of Mary. 
School Sisters of Notre Dame. 
School Sisters of St. Francis. 
Servite Sisters. 

Sister-Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 
Sisters of Bon Secours. 
Sisters of Charity. 
Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. 
Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine. 
Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. 
Sisters of Charity of the B. V. M. 
Sisters of Christian Charity. 
Sisters of Divine Providence. 
Sisters of Loretto. 
Sisters of Mary. 
Sisters of Mercy. 
Sisters of Notre Dame. 

Sisters of our Lady of Charity, Mother of Mercy. 
Total in the th 



40. Sisters of our Lady of Charity ol the Good Shep'd. 

41. Sisters of our Lady of Mercy. 

42. Sisters of Peace. 

43. Sisters of Providence. 

44. Sisters of St. Agnes. 

45. Sisters of St. Ann. 

46. Sisters of St. Clara. 

47. Sisters of St. Dominic. 

43. Sisters of St. Frances of Joliet. 
40. Sisters of St. Joseph. 

50. Sisters of St. Mary. 

51. Sisters of St. Nazianz. 

52. Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. 

53. Sisters of the Good Shepherd. 

54. Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus. 

55. Sisters of the Holy Cross. 

56. Sisters of the Holy Family. 

57. Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. 

58. Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. 

59. Sisters of the Humility of Mary. 

60. Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 

61. Sisters of the Incarnate Word. 

62. Sisters of the Most Holy and Im. Heart of Mary. 

63. Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic. 

64. Sisters of the Order of St. Francis of Assisium. 

65. Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. 

66. Sisters of the Precious Blood. 

67. Sisters of the Presentation. 

68. Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary. 

69. Sisters of the Second Order of St. Dominic. 

70. Sisters of the Third Order of Mount Carmel. 

71. Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic. 

72. Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. 

73. Sisters of the 3d Order of St. Francis of Assisium. 

74. St. Mary's Sisters (Servants of the Divine Heart). 

75. Ursulines. 

76. Ursuline Sisters. 

77. Visitation Nuns. 

ree classes, 112. 



SO 



606 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Convents, Monasteries, etc. * 



dioceses. 



Baltimore 

Boston 

Chicago 

Cincinnati . . . 
Milwaukee. .. 
New Orleans. . 

New York 

Oregon City. . 
Philadelphia... 

St. Louis 

San Francisco. 

Santa Fe 

Albany 

Alton 

Brooklyn 

Buffalo.. 

Burlington. . . . 
Charleston. . . . 

Cleveland 

Columbus 

Covington 

Davenport 

Detroit 

Dubuque 

Erie 

Fort Wayne.. . 

Galveston 

Grand Rapids. 
Grass Valley. . 
Green Bay. . . . 
Harrisburg . . . 

Hartford 

Helena 

Kansas City. . . 
La Crosse. . . . 
Leavenworth . 
Little Rock. . . 
Louisville 



Female. 


Mj 


H 




S.* 






O 3 

\C 




2 u"5 


%X 


a 3 


2 ° 


c • 
0*7; 

St* 


30 


603 


12 


24 


504 


1 


34 


86 


3 


18 


1,112 


6 


10 


1,248 


3 


32 


497 


2 


3b 


1,911 


J 5 


7 


82 


1 




1,053 


4 


9 1 


703 





7 


153 


3 


7 


70 


1 


12 


59° 


6 


12 


47i 


2 


8 


680 


1 


46 


604 


9 


1 1 


74 




4 


78 




23 


79 1 


6 


5 


192 


1 


18 




1 


6 


165 


1 


12 


166 


1 


20 


370 


1 


*4 




2 


19 


643 


5 


8 


89 




12 




1 


11 


61 


1 


8 


162 


2 


12 


i°3 




28 


37o 


1 


3 


54 




21 


182 


3 


2 


193 


1 


8 


299 


5 


9 


74 


2 




1 091 


6 



269 

27 

314 

,79 
33 

3°9 
26 

155 



DIOCESES. 



Manchester 

Marquette 

Mobile 

Monterey 

Nashville 

Natchez 

Natchitoches 

Nesqually 

Newark 

Ogdensburg 

Omaha 

Peoria 

Pittsburg, etc. . . . 

Portland 

Providence 

Richmond.. 

Rochester 

San Antonio 

Savannah 

Scranton 

Springfield 

St. Augustine. . . . 

St. Paul 

Trenton 

Vancouver's Isle. 

Vincennes 

Wheeling 

Wilmington 

Arizona 

Brownville 

Colorado 

Dakota 

Idaho 

North Carolina.. . 
North Minnesota. 
Indian Territory. 



Total. 



Female. 



Ul 



g.g-3 



8;- 6 
84 
175 

550 
"3 

245 



[80 



75 
45i 
146 

790 
156 

45 
69 
140 



20,126 



Male. 



°v! "I 



~ o 

££ 

c • 



166 



Here are 928 female conventual houses, three dioceses not reporting-, with 
20,126 sisters, novices, etc., 144 houses not reporting the number of sisters; also 
166 monastic or male religious houses, 23 dioceses not giving this item, with 
3,094 brothers, etc., 10 houses not reporting the number of brothers. 

The sisterhood of St. Joseph is one of the largest religious orders 
of the women in this country, having a membership, in 1893, of 
2,46.1, with 238 novices, 74,906 pupils were under instruction, 3,180 
orphans under care, 1,146 inmates in other asylums, and 1,035 pa- 
tients in hospitals. The School Sisters of Notre Dame is another 
large order, numbering 2,150 sisters, 299 novices, 73,860 pupils, 
2,173 orphans. The Sisters of Mercy number 2,275, with 52,017 
pupils, 956 orphans, and 956 inmates of other asylums. 



* It is not claimed that this table is complete, but it is as full and accurate as the data furnished 
make it possible. The data are given in a great variety of forms by the different dioceses, and, 
in come cases, are either wholly or partially omitted. 



RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 



607 



The Roman Catholic Year Books for 1884 and 1894 furnish data 
from which the following tabulation is made, showing the strong 
and steady increase of these orders and their work, particularly in 
the parochial schools: 

Diocese of Cleveland. 



Ursuline Sisters 

Si ters of St. Joseph 

Sisters of Sacred Heart of Mary. 
School Sisters of Notre Dame. . . 
Sisters of the Humility of Mary. 

Sisters of St. Francis 

Sisters of St. Dominic 

Franciscan Sisters 

Sister Servants of Mary 

Sisters of Charity 

Felician Sisters 

Sisters of the Holy Cross 



iSS).. 



-9V 



57 97 Sisters of St. Agnes 

14 -2 Sisters of the Most Precious Wood... 
1 3 Brothers of Mary 

Franciscan Brothers 

Lay teachers 

Christian Brothers 



70 

20 


'3 
101 

36 




35 


34 
*7 

T2 

2 

SO 


( 



Total 



Parochial schools 

Parochial .school pupils 



[SQ4. 



3| 3 


nj 131 
17 18 


1 




103 


in 
6 


357 


576 


125 


137 


22,000 


33.54° 



Diocese of Pittsburg and Allegheny. 



Sisters of Mercy 75 

Si-tors of Charity 

Sisters of St. Francis 34 

Sisters of St. Benedict j 15 

Sisters of Divine Providence | 7 

School Sisters of Notre J lame 10 

Felician Sisters 

Sisters of Providence 

Sisters of the Poor. 

Sisters of St. Charles. 



Sisters of St. Joseph 
Sisters of St. Agnes. 
Brothers of Mary. . . , 
Franciscan Brothers, 
I. ay teachers 



Total 



Parochial schools 

Parochial school pupi 



In this diocese are 8 monasteries and 68 convents 



16,552 



1884. 


1894. 


9 
7 
10 


34 
'4 
12 


4 
16 


5 
35 


237 


54i 



26,050 



Diocese of Newark. 



1884. 


1894. 




1884. 


1894. 


Sisters of Charity i i 

Sisters of St. Joseph j 18 


279 
32 

16 
29 
50 




14 

2 

38 










41 


Sisters of Charity (another order) 14 


Total .. 














62 
20,000 


80 


Franciscan Brothers 


Parochial school pupils 


2519*3 



In this diocese are reported 3 monasteries, 84 convents, 28 brothers of religious 
orders, and 1,060 sisters. 



Examples of Leading Houses of Female Orders. 

Mother-house of the Sisters of Charity, Mount St. Vincent-on-the-Hudson, 
New York. The community numbers at present 1,080 members; 877 professed 
sisters, 147 novices, 56 postulants, with 103 dependent establishments or branch 
houses, in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and 
the Bahama Islands. 

School Sisters of Notre Dame. MOTHER-HOUSE at Milwaukee, divided into 
two provinces. Eastern Mother-house. at Baltimore, Md., Western at Milwaukee,, 
with the following exhibit : 



608 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Province. Province. 

Sisters 620 1,530 2,150 

Novices 42 65 107 

Postulants 96 203 29,999 

Parochial schools. .. . 50 163 213 

Pupils 18,551 54,625 73,176 



Eastern Western ™ , 

Province. Province. l otals - 
Institutes for young 

ladies 3 5 8 

Pupils 1 70 5 14 684 

Orphanages 8 6 14 

Orphans 1,382 731 2,113 

Sisters of St. Joseph. MOTHER-HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo., with branch houses in 
21 dioceses in the United States, as follows : St. Louis, 12 houses; St. Joseph, 5 ; 
Kansas City, 5 ; Denver, 3 ; Arizona, 3 ; Los Angeles, 5 ; San Francisco, 1 ; Mo- 
bile, 1; Belleville, 1; Alton, 2; Indianapolis, 1; Peoria, 2; Chicago, 4; Green 
Bay, 6; Marquette, 5; La Cross, 1; St. Paul, 9; Winona, 2; Jamestown, 1; Al- 
bany, 18; Syracuse, 5; all kept by Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Mo. The 
following" is an exhibit : 



Professed sisters 972 

Novices 125 

Houses (convents) 92 

Academies and schools. . . „ 95 

Pupils in same 25,659 

Sodalities in care of sisters 115 

Sodalists 13,380 



Orphanages 12 

Orphans 1,136 

Indian pupils 885 

Deaf mute pupils 62 

Hospitals 6 

Average number of patients in the 

same 1,035 



Besides the above are independent MOTHER-HOUSES of same 
order in ten other dioceses, which, added to the above, make 2,461 
Sisters of St. Joseph in all, 238 novices and postulants, 74,906 pupils 
in schools, 3,180 orphans, IJ46 inmates in other asylums, and over 
1,000 patients in hospitals. 

These are specimens which will help the reader to understand 
the magnitude of this movement of Romanism in all parts of the 
United States. 

The Jesuits. 

The most conspicuous of these orders in its influence is that of 
the Jesuits. Among the strange vicissitudes of its history it has 
ever been noted for its unfaltering devotion to the Church. Of 
its past history, its peculiar principles, its tactics, the abilities and 
accomplishments of its distinguished members, the extent of its 
missions, and the influence it has exerted with courts and cabinets, 
nothing need here be said. We have elsewhere noticed that three 
Jesuits, Carroll, Dubourg and Neale, became American bishops. 
They founded Georgetown College. The property of the Order 
obtained in the colonial era remained intact — sufficient to support 
thirty persons. Thirteen Jesuits,* " nearly all broken with age," on 
the resuscitation of the Order renewed their vows, and Father 
Robert Molineaux was appointed Superior for the United States. 
At the session of the Provincial Council, in 1833, the pope was re- 
quested to confide the Indian tribes living beyond the limits of the 
fixed dioceses to the care of this Order. At that time, of the 308 

* In 1815. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 609 

Roman Catholic ecclesiastics in the United States forty-three are 
said to have been Jesuits, twenty-five of whom were graduates of the 
Georgetown Jesuit College. As late as 1853, of the l & 2 priests who 
had been ordained within the Diocese of Baltimore seventy-two* 
were Jesuits, mostly graduates from said college. 

In 1850 in the Province of Maryland the Jesuits numbered, 
priests, 70; scholastics, 60; total, 130, employed in different insti- 
tutions or missions. The Jesuits of this province directed fifty 
churches in the Dioceses of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Pitts- 
burg and Richmond, including the Indian missions in the State of 
Maine. The vice-Province of Missouri, the fathers of which were 
furnished by Maryland, in 1823, numbered in 1 8 50, priests, 75 ; 
scholastics, 56; lay brothers, $3 ; total, 214. Its priests directed 
twenty-eight churches in the dioceses of St. Louis, Louisville, Cin- 
cinnati, Milwaukee and Chicago, and sixteen churches or stations 
among the Indians in the Territories. A " mission " dependent on 
the Province of France, and lying partly in Canada, had in the State 
of New York in the same year twenty-one priests who directed the 
diocesan seminary, St. John's College, and several churches in the 
dioceses of New York, Albany and Buffalo. At the same time the 
Province of Lyons had a mission in the Southern States, employing 
twenty-two ''fathers " in the dioceses of New Orleans and Mobile, 
where they conducted St. Charles College at Grand Coteau, the 
School of Jesus, in New Orleans, and Spring Hill College, near Mobile. 

The Roman Catholic Year Books have been carefully searched 
for statistics of this order, but the data seem very imperfect and 
confusing. The following statement has been published : 

The Order of the Jesuits, which elected a new general not long ago, has now a 
membership of 12,047 in the world. The English-speaking branch has 2,308 
members, of whom 1,162 are in the United States. There are in the province of 
Maryland and New York, 564; of Missouri, 405; of New Orleans, 195. An 
American, the Rev. R. I. Meyer, of New York, has just been appointed Secretary 
of the English-speaking department of the famous order, the smallest in size in 
proportion to its influence and activity. 



Section 5.— Benevolent Institutions. 

American Romanism has numerous hospitals, asylums, and 
" homes" under the care of members of the various religious orders. 
In 1870, 131 orphan asylums were reported, in 86 of which there 

* De Courcey's History of the Catholic Church, pp. 552-554. 



610 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



were 11,321 orphans, and 10 asylums for "infants," in five of which 
were 572 infants. There were nine "homes" for destitute persons, 
with 414 inmates; 12 homes for fallen women, with 1,447 inmates, 
and 61 hospitals under the care of " sisters," in 14 of which during 
a single year were 7,595 patients. In the foregoing 222 benevolent 
houses there were 21,353 beneficiaries. In addition to these, infirm- 
aries, retreats for the insane, deaf and dumb, industrial schools, pro- 
tectories for boys and girls, "benevolent societies," etc., are reported. 



i8 94 . 
1886. 



Increase in 8 years. . 



Hospitals 

237 
i54 



Patients. 

64,630 



Asylums. 
421 



«3 34,543 IQI 

Charitable Institutions. 



In all asylums. 
62,659 
39.983 



22,676 



DIOCESE." 



A rcJidioceses 

Baltimore 

Boston 

Chicago 

Cincinnati 

Dubuque 

Milwaukee 

New Orleans .... 

New York 

Oregon City 

Philadelphia. . . . 

St. Louis 

St. Paul... 

San Francisco.-. 
Santa Fe 

Dioceses. 

Albany 

Alton 

Belleville 

Brooklyn 

Boise City 

Burlington 

Buffalo 

Charleston 

Cheyenne 

Cleveland 

Columbus 

Concordia 

Covington 

Dallas 

Davenport 

Detroit 

Denver 

Dubuque 

Erie 

Fort Wayne . 

Galveston 

Grand Rapids... 

Green Bay 

Grass Valley 

Harrisburg 

Hartford 

Helena 

Jamestown 

Kansas City, Mc 



Hospit'ls. 


Asylums, Ref- 
uges, Homes, &c. 


u 


m 






^ 












-2 


rt 


cS " 


£y 


Eog 


- 


£ 




P,« 


«*S 


►5.5 


ri<! 




~"oX 


6 




16 


1,600 


2,177 


7 


* 2,663 


21 


1,000 


1,698: 


5 


555 


17 


850 


2,053 


4 


*6,32i 


1.3 


6S5 


i,i94 


3 


60 


1 


106 




6 


208 


13 


300 


474 


2 


221 


18 


1,440 


848 


9 


* 4 , 5 68 


4 1 


2,450 


12,428 


2 


210 


2 


132 




4 


*4.245 


19 


2,026 


i,993. 


9 


*5,74° 


4 


550 


5io 


3 




9 


210 


355 


3 
1 


45o 


7 


1,400 

62 


250 


2 


* 1,239 


I 3 


1,109 


498 


4 


596 


1 


80 




4 




1 


330 




5 


*6,8i 4 


17 


3,783 


2,351 


1 


40 


2 


107 




4 


* i,57o 
25 


3 


4&5 
125 


1,168 


6 




14 


829 


406 


3 


*2,235 


3 


3°o 


i8o| 


2 


*g62 


2 


111 


135 


4 




4 






9 










4 




b 


455 


395 


5 


210 


5 


270 


285 


9 










2 


30 


2 


5i5 




5 




2 


250 




2 


175 


2 


120 




4 




3 


170 




3 




3 


200 




1 




2 










3 


282 


30 


7 
6 






"5 

'25 




-05 


' - 


230 



DIOCESES. 



Kansas City, Kan. 

La Crosse 

Lincoln 

Little Rock 

Louisville 

Manchester 

Marquette 

Mobile 

Monterey, etc 

Nashville 

Natchez 

Natchitoches 

Nesqually 

Newark 

Ogdensburg 

Omaha 

Peoria 

Pittsburg 

Portland 

Providence 

Richmond 

Rochester 

Sacramento 

San Antonio 

Savannah 

Salt Lake 

Scranton 

Sioux Falls 

Springfield.. ...... 

St. Augustine 

St. Cloud 

St. Joseph 

Syracuse 

Trenton 

Vancouver 

Vincennes 

Wheeling 

Wichita 

Wilmington 

Winona 

Arizona 

Brownville 

North Carolina. . . 
Indian Territory.. 



Total 



Hospit'ls. 



1,250 
3,106 



*i4,32: 



*8 75 



Asylums. Ref- 
uges, Homes, &c. 



oS 



237 64,630 420 30,766 31,893, 



C o K 



380 



296 



* In a year. 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 



61 1 



Section 6.— Educational Institutions. 

It would be a very difficult task to give a full sketch of the 
educational work of the Roman Catholic Church in the United 
States without unduly extending this volume. Only a few leading 
points can be noticed. The first college of this denomination was 
founded by the Jesuits at Georgetown, D. C, in 1789. In 1791 
the St. Mary's Seminary of St. Sulpice, a theological school, was 
established in Baltimore, Md. ; in 18 19, St. Joseph's College, at 
Bardstown, Ky. ; in 1820, the second Jesuit college, the St. Louis 
University; in 1830, another Jesuit institution, the St. Joseph's 
College, at Spring Hill, Ala.; and, in 1S31, St. Charles College, at 
Ellicott, Md. 

One college was founded prior to 1800, four from 1800 to 1840, 
and the remainder since 1840. Many of them are only the founda- 
tions of colleges, and some give only slight evidence that they will 
ever mature into institutions worth)- of bearing that title. 



Jesuit Colleges. 



NAME OF INSTITUTION. 



LOCATION. 



Report of Dr. Harris, 
Commissioner of 
Education, 1890. 



Professors. 



Students in 
course for A. B 



~± "Z- u S "5 o> 



St. Joseph's College Spring Hill, Ala. . . . 

St. Ignatius College San Francisco, Cal. . . 

Santa Clara College Santa Clara, Cal 

College of the Sacred Heart Denver, Col 

St. Mary's College St. Mary's. Kan 

St. Ignatius College Chicago, 111 

St. Mary's College St. Mary's, Ky 

College of the Immaculate Conception.. New Orleans, La 

St. Charles College Grand Coteau, La 

Loyola College Baltimore, Md 

Boston College Boston, Mass 

College of the Holy Cro^s Worcester, Mass 

Detroit College jDetroit, Mich 

St. Loui> University St. Louis, Mo 

Creighton College Omaha, Neb 

Cannisius College I Buffalo, N. Y 

St. John's College Fordham, N. V 

College of St. Francis Xavier New York city, N. Y. 

St. Xavier's College Cincinnati, O 

St. Mary's College Galveston, Tex 

Marquette College Milwaukee, Wis 

Georgetown 'Georgetown, D. C 



221 

197 

IOD 

eg 
51 

50 
312 



163 
51 
83 

"3 
162 
102 
3i7 

70 

90 
208 

8q 



100 

298 
392 

95 
35° 

33 
209 
3S0 
225 

87 
3i8 
160 
35o 
260 
533 
423 
100 
232 
CC6 



22 Colleges 



409 



2,814 



,o93 



All the above are recognized as colleges in the Report of the United States Commissioner of Edu- 
cation for 1890. Besides these, the following are mentioned in the Roman Catholic Year Books as 
Jesuit colleges. 

Six Other Institutions. 

St. Peter's College Jersey City, N. J 150 pupils. 

St. Joseph's College Philadelphia, Pa 153 pupils. 

College of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Prairie du Chien, Wis 

Gonzago College Washington, D. C. 

St. Ignatius College Cleveland, O 160 pupils. 

Gonzago College.., Spokane, Wash 90 pupils. 



612 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Other Roman Catholic Colleges, 



Roman Catholic Colleges which are 
recognized as such by the com- 
MISSIONER of Education, 
Report 1890-91. 



Where Located. 



Statistics Given in 
Report of Commis- 
sioner of Education, 
1890-91. 



Profess- 
ors. 



Students 
in course 
for A.B. 



v £-° o 
3 & u c 



St. Mary's College 

St. Vincent's College 

St. Viateur's College. 

St. Joseph's College 

St. Francis College 

St. Meinrad's College 

University of Notre Dame 

St. Benedict's College 

St. Mary's College 

Jefferson College 

St. Charles College 

Rock Hill College. 

St. John's University 

St. Vincent's College 

College of Christian Brothers 

Seton Hall College 

St. Benedict College 

Manhattan College 

College of St. John the Baptist 

St. Francis College 

Niagara University 

St. Bonaventure's College 

St. Joseph's College 

Augustinian College 

La Salle College 

St. Vincent's Seminary and College. 

St. Francis College 

Holy Ghost College 

Christian Brothers College 

St. Mary's University 



Total, 30 Colleges 

Add 22 Jesuit Colleges 

Total, 52 Colleges 



Oakland, Cal 

Los Angeles, Cal 

Bourbonnais, 111.. 

Teutopolis, 111 

Quincy, 111 

St. Meinrad, Ind 

Notre Dame, Ind 

Atchison, Kan 

St. Mary's, Ky 

St. James Parish, La 

Ellicott City, Md 

Ellicott, Md 

Collegeville, Minn 

Cape Girardeau, Mo 

St. Louis, Mo 

South Orange. N. J 

Newark, N.J 

New York city 

Brooklyn, N. V 

Brooklyn, N. Y 

Suspension Bridge, N. Y. 

Allegany , # N. Y. . 

Cincinnati, O '. 

Villanova, Pa 

Philadelphia, Pa 

Beatty's, Pa 

Loretto, Pa 

Pittsburg, Pa 

Memphis, Tenn 

Galveston, Tex 



28 



526 
409 



200 
140 
215 



95 
90 
250 
135 



160 
60 
329 
165 
26 s 
160 
i37 
i75 
115 
218 
205 
60 



213 
100 



4,860 
6,093 



Additional. 



Other Institutions reported as Colleges in 
Roman Catholic Year Books, but not 
recognized in Report of Commis- 
sioner of Education of 
the United States. 



Where Located. 



Statistics from 

Roman Catholic 

Year Books. 



Profess- 



Students. 



Sacred Heart College 

St. Joseph's College 

St. Bede's College 

St. Xavier's College 

St. Benedict's College 

St. Isidore College 

Thibideaux College 

Mt. St. Mary's College 

Mt. St. Joseph's College 

St. Louis College 

St. Francis Ecclesiastical College 

College of Christian Brothers 

College of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. 
College of St. Lawrence of Brundusium . . 
Gonzaga College 



Total, 15 Colleges. 



San Francisco, Cal. . 

Dubuque, la 

Peru, 111 

Louisville, Ky 

Atchison, Kan 

— , La 

Thibideaux, La 

Emmettsburg, Md.., 

Carrollton, Md 

New York city, N. Y 

Cincinnati, O 

Nashville, Tenn . . . . 

Watertown, Wis 

Mt. Calvary, Wis 

Washington, D. C... 



526 



92 
250 



,7Q8 



SUMMARY OF EDUCATIONAL WORK. 613 

The three preceding tables, with the six institutions under the 
table of Jesuit colleges, make seventy-three Roman Catholic institu- 
tions which bear the name of colleges or universities. There are 
others about which the Year Books make statements very meager or 
say nothing at all, so that we are unable to properly tabulate them. 
Sadlier's Catholic Year Book reports 117 colleges, but after long and 
wearisome research we are unable to classify many of them with 
collegiate institutions. They may represent well-intended efforts to 
advance the cause of education, but their status is evidently infuturus 
esse. The quality of education in the Roman Catholic institutions is 
much inferior to that in non-Catholic institutions. It is backward 
looking, having reference to mediaeval ideals, methods, and principles. 
Until recently they have not given much attention to the natural 
sciences, and even now they occupy a small place in their collegiate 
curriculum. The Jesuit colleges maintain the highest standard, 
giving special attention to logic — particularly the art of logical ad- 
vantages — and make Latin the principal language taught, continuing 
it during the whole college course, even extending its use to extem- 
pore debates. Little attention is given to Greek, no more than is 
required for admission to most non-Catholic colleges. The author 
has obtained and examined closely the catalogues and curricula of 
studies of more than twenty Roman Catholic colleges — the Jesuit, 
the Dominican, the Franciscan, the Augustinian, and those of the 
Christian Brothers — and with few exceptions the course of study 
seldom carries the student further than is attained at the end of the 
sophomore year in such institutions as Brown University, Boston 
University, Amherst, Dartmouth, and Williams Colleges. And yet 
it should be said that the Roman Catholics are raising their standard 
of scholarship year by year. 

The Roman Catholic Catechism, usually by Deharbe, the eminent 
Jesuit, is kept in the curriculum of studies in all their institutions, 
from the lowest parochial school to the highest university — that 
used in the colleges being an elaborate body of divinity. The most 
ultra hierarchical principles are inculcated, in this series, in radical 
conflict, when logically construed, with free institutions. Their 
loud boasts of devotion to the flag of the United States and cordial 
support to our government seem strange when viewed in the light 
of catechetical instructions which teach that all good Catholics must 
yield full obedience to the priests, the priests to their bishops, and 
the bishops to the pope — making the source and center of authority, 
in all matters whatever, in the Vatican at Rome. But such is popery. 
The idea of freedom and free institutions are wholly foreign to it. 



614 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Section 7.— Growth. 

The increase of the Roman Catholic Church in this country is 
one of the striking religious phenomena of this century. Conced- 
ing heavy losses in Europe, it has been their habit to boast of large 
gains in the United States. Its churches, schools, convents, eccle- 
siastics and adherents have increased many fold, and it has become 
a conspicuous factor in the main centers of the population. It 
exerts a large and, in some localities, a controlling influence in pol- 
itics. Its magnificent cathedrals, artistic music, subtle logic and 
political patronage have captivated and led away some of the Prot- 
estant population. Never was it plotting more deeply and deter- 
minedly than now, and some persons have grave fears for the safety 
of our free institutions. 



The Church Edifices, etc., 

of Romanism in the United States, as given in the U. S. census re- 
ports, were: in 1850, 1,222; in 1860,2,550; in 1870,3,806. Estimated 
value in 1870, $60,985,506. The census of 1880 did not give eccle- 
siastical statistics. For 1890 the census gives churches, 8,776; sit- 
tings, 3^3 6 5754 I valuation, $118,069,746. 



1775- 


1800. 


1830. 


1845. 


1850. 


i860. 


1870. 


1880.* 


1890. 




I 


9 


22 


29 


48 


58 


69 


85 


52 






67s 


1,245 


2,519 


3,912 


6,817 


7,631 








592 


585 


1,278 


1,480 


1,723 


2,841 


26 


50 


232 


707 


1,302 


2,316 


3,966 


6,402 


8,778 








220 


322 
35 


499 
100 


1,015 
"5 


1,170 
+176 


1,711 








. 28 


65 


173 


297 


+673 






4 




89 


123 


*66o 
57^ii 


467 

1,214 

257,600 


618 
423,383 


3,277 
665,328 






.. 


94 


108 




295 


386 


II218 



1894. 



Dioceses, Vicar Apostolics 

Churches, etc 

Chapels and stations 

Priests 

Ecclesiastical students 

Male religious homes.:}: 

Female religious homes. § 

Educational institutions for young 

men and ladies 

Parochial schools 

Pupils in Parochial schools 

Hospitals and asylums 



8,512 

3,795 
9,686 



840 

3,732 

768,498 

655 



The total estimated Roman Catholic population in 1800 was 100,000; 1830, 500,000; 1845, 1,071,800; 
1850, 1,614,000 ; i860, 2,789,000 ; 1870, 4,600,000 ; 1880, 6,367,330 ; 1890, 8,579,966 ; 1894, 8,806,648, The 
statistics for 1894 have been taken from Sadlier's Catholic Directory. 

Note. — Statistics from 1830 to i860, from the Metropolitan Almanac, and later from Sadlier's and 
Hoffman's Catholic Almanac. They do not entirely agree with Father Hecker's table in Catholic World \ 
for June, 1870. The author prefers to rely upon the Year Books, faulty though they are. Each Year 
Book is made up of data collected in the previous year, and hence 1893 statistics are in the Almanac for 
1894, and so on. Almost all the Roman Catholic statistics are little better than guesses or estimates. They 
have not yet reduced the collection and tabulation of data to scientific methods. 

* From Sadlier's Catholic Directory for 1881, giving the statistics collected in 1880. This rule has 
been observed throughout this table. 

+ Not tabulated in the "Year Book," but collated from the reports of the dioceses. It is difficult some- 
times to distinguish between the convents and the academies. 

$ Monasteries. § That is, convents. || Orphan asylums. 



Roman Catholic Population of the United States. 

Without any definite statistics of their population, and depend- 
ent upon conjectural estimates, it is not strange that the most 



STATISTICS OF POPULATION. 



615 



diverse and even amusing statements of their numerical strength 
should be made. Taking only those of the Roman Catholics them- 
selves, and going no farther back than the famous letter of Bishop 
England, in 1837, we present the following contradictory but instruc- 
tive estimates and the authority for each : 



Year. 

1800. 

1837. 

1840. 

1845. 



1850. 



1853. 
i860. 
1865. 
1866. 
1868. 



;6 9 . 



Estimates. 



Catholic Authorities. 



100,000. 

1 ,000,000 

to 
1,200,000. 

1,300,000. 
1,500,000. 
1,071,800. 



1,614,000. 

2,000,000. 
3,000.000. 
3,500,000. 
1,930,000. 

3, 500,000. 
4,000,000. 
4.500,000. 
4,400,000. 
5,000,000. 
5,000,000. 
9,000,000 

to 
10,000,000. 

3,354,000. 



6,000,000 

to 
7,000,000. 



Rev. I. T. Hecker, Catholic World, 1879, generally 
accepted. 

Bishop England, of South Carolina, in letter to the 
Propaganda at Lyons, said: "It is doubtful whether 
the number of Catholics rises above a million, but it may 
amount to 1,200,0000." 

Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1841. 

Rev. I. T. Hecker, Catholic World, 1879. 

Metropolitan Catholic Almanac for 1846. Four- 
teen dioceses, estimated by the bishops, gave 811,800. 
Eight dioceses, estimated by the editor, 260,000 more. 
The editor says this number "cannot iall short of the 
truth," though " less than for several years past." 

Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 1851. 

Annals of the Lyons Propaganda. 

Archbishop Hughes. 

Rev. I. T. Hecker, in Catholic World, 1879. 

Metropolitan Catholic Almanac. Also indorsed by 
Rev. Dr. Mullens, of Ireland. 

Archbishop Hughes. 

Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburg. 

Rev. I. T. Hecker, in Catholic World, 1879. 

The Catholic World. 

Civita Catholica, papal organ, Rome. 

The Catholic World. 

Hon. J. F. Maguire, member of Parliament from 
'Cork, in his book, The Irish in America, p. 539, says : 
|"I am inclined to agree with those who regard from nine to 
ten millions of Catholics as a fair and moderate estimate." 

German Catholic Year Book, by Rev. E. A. Reitter, 
a Jesuit priest, Buffalo, N. Y. In the preface, pp. 6, 7, 
the editor says ; "After the nearest possible account of 
the German Catholics in the United States — that is, such 
as have their children baptized, their number is 1,044,000. 
The number of Catholics of all other nations is 2,310,000, 
making the whole number 3,354,000, which is less than 
is commonly thought. . . . If to these are added the 
incredibly large number of those who, after their arrival 
in this country, have only too soon thrown over their 
Catholic faith, we may with good reason, as the judg- 
ment of those who know, and my experience of fifteen 
years has taught me, add one half to the number above, 
which would bring it to 5,031,000. Yet such cannot 
now or ever be taken into account ; as in this country 
nothing is more seldom than a backslidden Catholic ever 
to be reclai?ned, even on their death-beds. 1 ' 

Catholic World. 



616 CHRISTIANITY IN THE U XI TED STATES. 

Roman Catholic Population of the United States— Continued. 



Year. 



Estimates. 



Catholic Authorities. 



1§70. 4,600,000. 



10,000,000. 





5,000,000. 


1872. 


8,000,000, 


1875. 


6,000,000. 


1876. 


9,000,000. 


" 


6,500,000. 


<< 


6,240,000. 


1877. 


Over 

6,000,000. 
6.304.950. 


1878. 


Over 
7,000,000. 
7,000,000. 
9,000,000. 

6.375,630. 


1879. 


6,143,222. 


1880. 


6,367,330 


1884. 


6,623,176. 
7,000,000. 


.. 


8,000.000. 



8,000,000. 



Sadlier's Catholic Directory gives thirty-four dioceses 
reporting estimates amounting to 2,649,800. The re- 
maining twenty-four dioceses comprise eight of the very 
largest, five quite large and others much smaller. Sup- 
posing the twenty-four not reporting to average with 
those reporting, we have 4,600,000 for the total. 

The St. Peters, in reply to the New York Times, 
said, " The Roman Catholics in the United States are 
ten millions strong." 

The Catholic Telegraph. Cincinnati, said the estimate 
of The St. Peter's would be correct had Romanism 
kept all its children received by emigration, but it had 
lost half of them. 

Catholic World, June, 1872, "We number 8,000,000 
souls." 

Kehoe, Manager of the Catholic Publication Society, 
New York. 

Father Sack ; estimated on the basis of three masses 
to each priest, and each priest representing a congre- 
gation of 2,000 devout, indifferent, children, ete. 

History of the Catholic Church in the United States. 
By J. O'Kane Murray, p. 577. 

Sadlier's Catholic Directory ; five dioceses not re- 
porting that year, supplied from estimates given in other 
years. 

Catholic Family Almanac, 1S76. 

Sadlier's Catholic Directory ; eight dioceses not re- 
porting that year, supplied from estimates given in other 
years. 

Mr. Kehoe's report to Bureau of Statistics, Washing- 
ton. D. C. 

Rev. I. T. Hecker, in Catholic World. 1879. 

A priest in Indiana, estimating like Father Sack 

Sadlier's Catholic Directory, 1879 
ported. 

Sadlier's Catholic Directory, 1S80. al 
ported. 

Sadlier's Catholic Directory, 1881. 
very small dioceses reported. 

Sadlier's Catholic Almanac for 1884. 

John A. Russel, A.B., in a prize essay before the Third 
Plenary Council, at Baltimore, November, 1884. -Me- 
morial volume, p. 27. 

Bishop McOuaid, of Rochester, N. Y., at the Council. 
said, " The Directory estimates the Roman Catholic 
population at 6,623.176. It is easy to see that these 
figures are not based on correct information. The editor 
fulfills his task in accurately counting up the numbers 
sent him. But estimates of population, year after year 
the same in rapidly-growing dioceses, must be at fault, 
for they are clearly wide of the mark. An estimate that 
would 'place our 'Catholic population at eight millions 
would, in my judgment, not be far from the truth." 

The Catholic Union, Baltimore. 



all dioceses re- 
'1 dioceses re- 
All but three 



DIAGRAM VII. 

ABSURD ROMAN CATHOLIC ESTIMATES ILLUSTRATED. 

(See payes 615-617.) 

The perpendicular lines represent millions. 



1850 



1860 



1868 



1870 
1872 



1875 
1876 



1878 
1880 



1884 



1890 



1893 
1894 



ESTIMATES. 



YEARS. 


LOWEST. 


HIGHEST. 


1850 

i860 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1872 

1876 

1878 

1884 

>893 

1894 


1,614,000 
4,500,000 
5,000,000 
3,350,000 
4,600,000 
8,000.000 
6,240,000 
6,375,63 
6.623,176 
10,000,000 
8,806,648 


3.500.OOO 
4,500,000 

10.000,000 
9.000,000 

10,000,000 

9,000,000 
9,000,000 
10,000,000 
14,000,000 
15.000,000 I 




VARYING ESTIMA TES. 6 1 7 

Roman Catholic Population of the United States — Continued. 



Year. 



884. 



189O. 
1893. 



1894. 



Estimates. 



8,000,000 

to 

IO.OOO.OOO. 

More than 
8.000,000. 
8,000,000. 

8,579,966. 

12,000,000 

to 

14,000,000. 

8,902,033. 

8,806,64§. 

13,775.000. 



Catholic Authorities. 



Hugh P. McElrone before the Third Plenary Council. 
Memorial Volume, p. 29. 

Judge William M. Merrick, Plenary Council. 

Bishop J. L. Spaulding, D.D., before the Plenary 
Council, Baltimore, 1884. Memorial Volume, pp. 100-188. 
Hoffman's Catholic Directory, Milwaukee, Wis. 

Dr. R. H. Clark, in Catholic Quarterly Review. 

Hoffman's Catholic Directory. 

Sadlier's Catholic Almanac ana 7 Directory. 

Hon. Patrick Egan, in a public letter, October, 1894, 
said, " The Roman Catholics number at present nearly 
one fifth of the population of the United States." 



The striking variations of the foregoing estimates by high 
Roman Catholic officials show* the necessity for careful discrimi- 
nation when speaking of the Roman Catholic population. Seven 
estimates may be noticed in the foregoing table, between i860 and 
1880, which exceed all official estimates since 1880. And it will 
also be noticed that those given in the Catholic Year Books con- 
trast with the random figures of others. The Year Book statistics 
are made up from reports by bishops of the dioceses, each esti- 
mating the Catholic population in their respective dioceses. 

The statistics of the communicants of the Protestant Churches 
will be made up for the years 1800, 1850, 1870, 1880, 1 890, and 1894. 
The following are the most reliable estimates of Roman Catholics: 



1800 100,000 

1S50 1,614,000 

1870 4,600,000 



1880 6,367,330 

1 890 . . . 8, 579,966 

1894 8,806,648 



A table in the Appendix will show that, from 1890 to June 
30, 1894, 17,654,400 immigrants landed in the United States. Of 
these, according to wise estimates, three fifths, or 10,592,640, were 
originally Roman Catholics, which is nearly two millions more 
than all the Roman Catholics in the United States, at the pres- 
ent time, as given in their Year Books, not to speak of growth by 
natural increase. That the Roman Catholic Church has grown 
very largely in the United States is unquestionable, and it is 
likely to grow more ; for every thing grows in this country. 
But the gains have been almost entirely by immigration, and its 



618 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



losses have been greater than its gains. By its own acknowledg- 
ment it has lost millions here. '• This country is the biggest grave 
for popery ever dug on earth." 

A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses in the United 
States, as Acknowledged by Romanists. 



Year. 



Estimated Losses. 



1837. 



1852. 



1855. 



1862. 



1864. 



1875. 



2,800,000 

to 

3,000,000. 



2,000,000. 

One third of 
all the Irish emi- 
grants. 



Tho usands 
lost in cities 
more in thecoun 
try. 

Typical cases 
of loss of de- 
scendants. 



Sixty per cent 
of the children. 



3,000,000 
to 4,000,000. 

Five hundred 
lost to popery to 
one convert from 
Protestantism. 

" 1,700,000 in 
1 5 years." 

Thousands 
upon thousands. 



Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc 



Bishop England, of South Carolina, in a letter to the 
Lyons Propaganda, said : "If there had been no losses 
the number of Catholics would have amounted to 
4,000,000." Deducting his estimate (1,000,000 to 
1,200,000) of Catholics then living in the United States, 
we have the annexed figures. 

Rev. Robert Mullen, D.D., based upon an elaborate sta- 
tistical calculation. He said : "Of the number of Irish 
Catholics emigrating to the United States one third at 
least are lost to the Roman Catholic Church." He also 
said that Rev. Bishop Reynolds, of Charleston, S. C. ; told 
him, " You will save religion by proceeding, on your re- 
turn to Ireland, from parish to parish, telling the people 
not to lose their«immortal souls by coming to America ; " 
and that Archbishop Hughes said to him : " The people 
at home (Ireland) do not fully understand the position of 
the emigrants, thousands being lost in the large cities, 
while in the country the faith has died out of multi- 
tudes." — Christian Union, August, 1852, p. 251. 

In the Freeman s Jour?ial, June 5, 1852, a correspond- 
ent said : "We know of a Catholic couple who settled 
in an adjoining county some seventy or eighty years ago ; 
their descendants are very numerous, but there is not a 
Catholic now among them ! In another county an old 
Irish couple are still living and still preferring the Cath- 
olic faith, whose children, grandchildren and great- 
grandchildren number something over one hundred souls, 
yet there are but two or three Catholics at present among 
them." 

The editor of the Celt, lecturing in Ireland, advised 
his countrymen to " stay at home, because the Roman 
Catholic Church loses sixty per cent, of the children of 
Roman Catholic parents in the United States." 

Bishop of Toronto. 

The Tablet, New York city, said : " Few insurance 
companies, we venture to assert, would take a risk on 
the national life of a creed which puts five hundred daily 
into the grave for one it wins over to its communion ; 
and yet this is what the Catholic Church is doing in these 
States while we write." 

German Catholic Year Book. 

An archbishop in Ireland, after visiting the United 
States, told his people in Ireland, " It is far better for 
you to live here in poverty and die in the faith, and be 
sure of saving your immortal souls and going to heaven, 
than to go to a country where thousands upon thousands 
of our race, our Irish race, deny the faith." 



ESTIMATED LOSSES OF ROMANISM. 619 

Roman Catholic Losses in the United States— Continued. 



Years. 



Estimated Losses. 



1876. 



Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. 



More fa 
away than 
living. 



18,000,000. 



Loss greater) Life of Archbishop Spaulding. Speaking of the 

than the gain. period " in which the hierarchy has been In existence 

j(i 790-1876)," the biographer says: "We have lost in 

numbers by far more than we have gained, if I may ex- 

jpress an opinion, beyond all doubt." 

1 1 e nj J. O'Kane Murray, History of Roman Catholic Church 

now in the United States, p. 583, says : " It may be safely said 

that more Catholics have fallen away from the faith in 

this country during the last two centuries and a half 

than are to-day living in it." 

J. O'Kane Murray, History of Roman Catholic Church 
in the United States, pp. 610, 611. The following is 
Mr. Murray's full statement, and the basis on which it is 
predicated : 

"Two points frequently discussed are, I. What are 
the relative proportions of the Celtic and the Anglo- 
Saxon or English element in the population of the United 
States ? 2. How many members has the Catholic 
Church probably lost in this country ? In regard to the 
first question, there can be no doubt that the Celtic ele- 
ment far exceeds that of the Anglo-Saxon. This is a settled 
fact. A careful analysis of our statistics proves it. Just 
a quarter of a century ago the Hon. William E. Robin- 
son, in a remarkable speech at Hamilton College, Clin- 
ton, N. Y., said : ' I think it would be quite good-natured 
in me to allow that about one eighth of this country is 
English, or what is called Anglo-Saxon. By means of 
statistics he then clearly demonstrated the correctness 
of this opinion. (See New York Tribune, July 30, 1851.) 
Rev. Stephen Byrne, O.S.D., in his Irish Emigration to 
the United States, 1873, puts the Celtic element at one half 
of our present population, the Anglo-Saxon at o?ie fourth. 
The New York Irish World, whose editor, Mr. Ford, is 
well known as a diligent student of statistics, holds that 
two thirds of our people are Celts by birth or descent, 
and only about one ninth are Anglo-Saxon. 

" As to the Church's loss in the United States, it is no 
easy problem to solve. Neither higher algebra nor 
calculus can help us to grapple it. The geologists say 
that past time is long. As to its exact length they hesi- 
tate to put it into figures, or when they do scarcely two 
are alike. It is the same with the American loss to the 
faith. The earnest student of our history is obliged to 
confess that it was large ; but how large it may have 
been is an unsettled question. The Irish World of July 
25, 1 874, maintained that 1 8,000,000 havebeenlost to Cath- 
olicity in the Republic. It backed up the assertion with 
the following table, which I believe, is, in the main, reliable: 

" Table Showing the Relative Proportions of the Con- 
stituent Elements of the Population of the United 
States in 1870, in which is Indicated the Number of 
Catholics that shoidd be in the Country now (1874). 

I. Total white population 
of the thirteen colo- 



620 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Roman Catholic Losses in the United States— Continued. 



Years. \ Estimated Losses. 



1876. 18,000,000. 



Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. 

nies at the close of the 
Revolutionary War. . . 3,172,000 
II. Relative proportions of 
constituent elements in 
colonial population — 
Celtic (Irish, Scotch, 
Welsh, French, etc.). . 1,903,200 

(Irish separately) 1,141,920 

Anglo-Saxon 841 ,800 

Dutch and Scandina- 
vians 427,000 

III. Product, in 1870, of the 

population of 1790 . . 9,496,000 

IV. Product, in 1870, of the 

separate elements of 

the population of 1790 : 

Celtic 5,697,000 j 

(Irish separately) 3,418.200 \ 

Anglo-Saxon 2,504,000 I 

Dutch and Scandinavians 1 ,295,000 j 

V. Product, in 1870, of pop- 

ulation gained by ac- 
quisition of new terri- 
tory since 1790 1,500,000 

VI. Product, in 1870, of Irish 
and French emigration 

from Canada 2,000,000 

VII. Total strength of colored 

element in 1870 4,504,000 

VIII. Total emigration to U. S., 

1790 to 1870 8,199,000 

Irish emigration from 

1790 to 1870 3,248,000 

Anglo-Saxon emigration, 

from 1790 to 1870. . . . 796,000 

Emigration of all other 

elements 4, 1 5 5 ,000 

IX. Product of total emigra- 
tion to U. S. from 1790 
to 1870 23,000.000 

Product of Irish emigra- 
tion (from 1790) 9,750,000 

Product of Anglo-Saxon 

emigration (from 1790) 2,000,000 

Product of all other emi- 
gration (from 1790). . .11,250,000 
X. Total population of U. S. 

in 1870 38 500,000 

XI. Joint product, in 1870, of 
Irish colonial element 
and subsequent Irish 
emigration (including 
that from Canada) .... 14.325,000 

Joint product, in 1870, of 
Anglo-Saxon colonial 



GROWTH IX THE CITIES. 



62 1 



Roman Catholic Losses in the United States— Continued. 



Years. , E>timated Losses. 



1876. 



1884. 



l8,OO0,OOO 



' The losses 
have been 
enormous." 



Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. 

element and subsequent 
Anglo-Saxon emigra- 
tion 4,522,000 

Joint product, in 1870, of 
all other colonial ele- 
ments and all subse- 
quent emigration (in- 
cluding colored popu- 
lation) 19,653,000 

Total joint product 38,500,000 

XII. Total Celtic el'm'nt (Irish, 
Scotch, French, Span- 
ish, Italian) in U. S. in 
1 870 24,000,000 

Total Irish element in 

U. S. in 1870 14,325,000 

Total Anglo-Saxon ele- 
ment in U. S. in 1870. 4,522,000 

Total of all other ele- 
ments (not Celtic or 
Anglo-Saxon) in U. S. 

in 1870 9,978,000 

" Almost the entire Celtic element (24,000,000) might 
be safely regarded as the descendants of men who were 
Catholics on settling in America." 

The Catholic Mirror, of Baltimore, while claiming 
that there are 8,000,000 Catholics in this country, asserts 
that there should be 20,000,000, and admits that the 
losses have been enormous. The Mirror adds the fol- 
lowing frank confession : " It is our opinion that a vast 
deal of unmeaning stuff has been talked about the prog- 
ress of the Catholic Church both in England and 
America. It is true there are 2,000.000 in England and 
8,000,000 in America. Nine tenths of those in the former 
country and three fourths in the latter are of Irish blood. 
There have been a few hundred people of what are there 
called the ' higher classes ' converted to the faith in En- 
gland ; whether, from a politic stand-point, they have 
been an acquisition we greatly doubt ; but it is certain 
that the masses have not been touched. In America, also, 
there have been a few conversions, but they do not 
amount to a drop in the bucket in comparison with the 
immense losses the Church has sustained." 



Notwithstanding these losses Romanism has gained, both 
actually and relatively. This question will be treated in another 
place. 

In the Large Cities 

the evidences of the growth of the Roman Catholic Church are the 
most striking. The rapid multiplication of the city populations, of 
itself, presents a problem demanding the close attention of the 
40 



622 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Christian public ; the fact that this increment is largely foreign and 
heterogeneous enhances the importance and the difficulty of the 
problem ; but the additional fact that the foreign elements that 
have settled down so largely in the cities are Roman Catholics pre- 
sents the case in a still more serious and urgent light. The multi- 
plication of large and imposing church structures and other ecclesi- 
astical buildings has greatly impressed the public and excited alarm 
in some quarters. No more definite data exist to help to a distinct 
view of this growth of Romanism in the cities than the statistics of 
the churches and the clergy. These are given in their Year Book, 
but we are still left without any information in regard to the extent 
of the church accommodations or the size or number of their 
audiences. These must be left to the judgment of every reader. 
The following table will help to show the growth : 



Roman Catholic Churches and Priests in Fifty Principal Cities. 



Cities. 



New York 

Philadelphia 

Brooklyn 

Chicago 

Boston 

St. Louis 

Baltimore 

Cincinnati 

San Francisco. . . 
New Orleans. . . . 

Cleveland 

Pittsburg , 

Buffalo 

Washington, D. C 

Newark , 

Louisville 

Jersey City 

Detroit 

Milwaukee 

Providence 

Albany 

Rochester 

Allegheny City. . , 

Indianapolis 

Richmond 

New Haven 

Lowell 

Worcester 

Troy 



Churches.* 



30 
26! 

20 

13 

15 

17 

13 

15 

7 

20 

6 

5 

l t 

6 
7 
2 

5 

7 
6 

7 
7 
3 
2 
2 
3 
3 
2 

3 



59 
66 
114 
4i 
57 
39 
38 
25 
31 
33 
33 
3i 
15 
21 



28 28 
14 14 



24 25 
24 26 
17 17 



15 


16 


6 


15 


15 


8 


8 


9 


3 


8 


9 


1 


5 


5 


2 


8 


9 


1 


7 


7 


3 


8 


11 


1 


9 


10 


5 



PRIESTS.f 



46. 

27; 

6 ! 
10 

23 
22 
20 
22 
2 

27 
5 

8 

13 
6 

4 
11 

9 

5 
4 



119 

9 1 

62! 

57 
58 
70 

30 

26! 

60; 

181 
24 
2 9 | 
17 
11 
30 

9 
21 

22 

14 

20 

14 
9 1 

4 
7 

8 J 
it) 



216 


301 


124 


1481 


97 


132 1 


IOI 


206 


99 


120 


77 


97 


5i 


85 


64 


731 


43 


57! 


65 


66 


26 


35: 


50 


68 


35 


49 


24 


33i 


25 


33| 


35 


39 


21 


3i 


29 


•45 


26 


38 


26 


39| 


24 


33] 


V 


30; 


M 


r 7 


H 


18 


7 


11 1 



19 
26 

22 
20 



350 

i So 
163 
271 

143 
112 
112 

67 
74 
67 
43 
74 
66 

44 

36 
45 
32 
45 
45 
41 
38 
30 
21 

19 
11 

22 

28 
26 
20 



" :: ' Chapels not included, 
t We think that in a few cases some of the 
where the names of clergy are not given. 



priests may be duplicated, but there are more cases 



CHURCHES, CLERGY, AND POPULATION. 
Roman Catholic Churches and Priests— Continued. 



623 



Cities. 



Kansas City, Mo. 

Cambridge , 

Syracuse 

Columbus 

Paterson 

Toledo 

Charleston 

Fall River 

Minneapolis 

Scran ton 

Nashville 

Reading 

Wilmington, Del. 

Hartford 

Camden 

St. Paul 

Lawrence, Mass. 

Dayton 

Lynn 

Atlanta 

Denver 



Total 







Church ks. 




c 














-1- 


in 




r^ 


co 








oo 


UJ 


00 


CO 


CO 


co 


— 


I 


3 


1-1 


H 


M 


5 


15 


17 


2 


2 


3 


4 


4 


6 


3 


4 


4 


7 


9 


10 


I 


2 


3 


6 


8 


9 


I 


2 


4 


S 


8 


8 


I 


2 


6 


8 


11 


11 


3 


3 


5 


6 


5 


5 


i 


1 


2 


b 


10 


12 


•• 


1 


2 


6 


13 


15 




2 


5 


5 


8 


10 


i 


4 


2 


3 


5 


5 


i 


1 


2 


2 


3 

8 


-1 
8 


i 


2 


4 


5 




2 


2 


4 

3 


7 
3 


7 
5 




I 


2 


i 


3 
2 


5 
3 


7 
5 


21 


21 


i 


5 


5 


2 


4 


4 
i 


4 
2 


6 


6 




3 

2 


3 
2 




1 




2 






1 


3 


9 


S 


I70 


312 


4<)5 


676 


959 


1,068 



Priests. 



336 565 1,03 



10; 

13 

14 

8 

10 
10 

12 

I2| 
IOl 

6 

5 
8 

9 
4 

'5 

1 1 
8 
4 
3 



23 
15 
M 
16 

14 

14 

8 

22 
22 

2 " 

6 
13 

i 

17 

10 

6 

4 

15 



25 
16 

17 
16 

14 
16 
10 
28 
27 
27 
9 
6 

14 
16 

7 
36 
20 
11 
8 
3 
17 



1,562 2,196', 2,578 



The foregoing table contains fifty large cities of the United 

States, the total population of which was: 

1850 2,417,699 j 1870 5,686,897 

3.937.489 1 1880 

1890 11,190,417 



i860 



7,794.503 



Increase Compared with the Population. 

Priests. 



Churches. 

1850. .One church for 14,221 inhabitants 
i860. . " " " 12,620 

1870.. " " " 11,486 

1880.. " " " 11,530 

1890. . " " " 11,705 



1850. .One priest for 7,195 inhabitants. 

i860. . " " " 6,969 " 

1870.. " " " 5,516 

1880.. " " " 4,991 

1890.. " " " 5,112 



The Apostolic Delegate. 

In October, 1892, Monsignor Francisco Satolli arrived in this 
country, commissioned by the Pope, Leo XIII, as the Apostolic 
Delegate to the United States, with powers described in the follow- 



We command all whom it concerns to recognize in you, as Apostolic Dele- 
gate, the supreme power of the delegating Pontiff; we command that they give you 
aid, concurrence, and obedience in all things; that they receive with reverence 
your salutary admonitions and orders. 



624 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER III. 



DIVERGENT CURRENTS 



Sec. i. The Jews. 

" 2. The Shakers. 

" 3. The Progressive Friends. 

" 4. The New Jerusalem Church. 

" 5. Universalism. 



Sec. 



Unitarianism, 
Free Religion. 
Multiform Skepticism. 
The Latest Socialism. 
Mormonism. 



Section 1.— Trie Jews. 

IN 1825 Judge Mordecai Noah started a Jewish colony at Niag- 
ara Falls, but it did not succeed. Jewish Sunday-schools were 
introduced in Philadelphia in 1838 by Isaac Leeser. A Reform 
congregation was organized in Baltimore, Md., in 1842, and at 
New York city the Temple Emanuel in 1845. A Rabbinical Con- 
ference was held in Philadelphia in 1869. A Union of American 
Hebrew Congregations was established in 1873, and two years later 
a Hebrew college was founded in Cincinnati, O. The first Ameri- 
can Russo-Jewish agricultural colony in America was settled at 
Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, La. In 1882 a large emigration 
of persecuted Russian Jews came to the United States. A Jewish 
authority says : * 

There are now in America one third of a million (in round numbers) of persons 
born of Jewish parents, including a small number of Judaized Christians, about 
as many as there are Christianized Jews. Most of them live in large cities. A 
minority of them is scattered all over the country. Their numerical relation to the 
general population is one to 150. Wherever they live together in sufficient num- 
bers they have established congregations, benevolent societies, lodges, young men's 
associations and clubs. The number of the so-called infidels or indifferents, per- 
sons who take no interest in Jewish organizations, is very small, except among 
those who live in towns where no Jewish society exists, and a number of eccentric 
persons in larger places who, in consequence of the prevailing anti-Christian sen- 
timent, especially among foreigners, are anti-religious, hence also anti-Jewish, 
some few even to the point of atheism. The number of those "outsiders" is in 
proportion much smaller among Jews than among Christian-born persons who 



* The American Jews' Annual, Cincinnati, 1884. 



JEWS, SHAKERS, PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS. 



628 



abandon the Church. On the whole, the American Jew is as proud of his religion 
as he is of his country, and is as loyal to the cause as he is a law-abiding citizen. 

The number of Jewish congregations in this country is over two hundred and 
fifty, halt of their number, and among these the largest congregations of the 
United States, form the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, established in 
1873. Every congregation supports a house of worship, a Sabbath-school for the 
young, a burial-ground, and some benevolent institution. Generally the house of 
worship is called " The Temple ; " only in some cases it is yet called " The Syna- 
gogue," or alsoZ>/V Schul, and almost every temple is connected with school-rooms 
where the young are instructed twice or more times a week in religion, Jewish 
history and the Hebrew language. Some of those temples, as in New York, 
Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, St, Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, and San 
Francisco, are gorgeous and magnificent monumental structures. In general almost 
all temples and synagogues built since i860 are prominent and costly structures, 
in proportion to the size and wealth of the cities and towns in which they stand. 
On the evening and morning of every Sabbath and biblical holiday the temples 
are open for divine service and religious instruction, open and free to all, Jew and 
Gentile. In some temples there are prayer-meetings every Sabbath afternoon 
and evening, twice every day, or at least Monday and Thursday mornings. 



Section £.— Communistic Societies. 

The following societies observe the communal life, some on a 
secular, and others on a religious basis; the latter are in italics.* 



1. Shakers. 

2. Aiitana. 



3. Harmony. 

4. Separatists. 



5. New Icaria. 
6. Altruists. 



7. Adonai Shomo. 

8. Church Triumphant. 



Summary of all Communistic 


Societies (U. S 


Census, 


1890). 




States. 


k 

.a -= i 
= u 

-. « r — 
1- 5 — ~ 


hat! 

= u 

•- .-: 


.2 

3 


Commu- 
nicants. 


States. 


k 

'2 . 

bfl B 

6-§ 


a 8 
u 


bfl.t! 

.5 H 


.2 

> 


is 

e a 
u 

U 5 




2 

8 22 

2 2 
2 2 
5 4 
i| 


400 

2,800 

700 

1. 000 

1,000 


5,000 

36,000 

15,000 

1,900 

5,000 

11,800 


'5 
100 

160 
1,621 
37i 
100 
164 
25 


New Hampshire.. 

New York 

Ohio 


2 
2 

4 

1 
5 


2 
2 

4 

1 
5 


700 
1,100 
1,250 

500 

600 


$1,500 
12,000 
8,600 

IO,000 
4,500 




Connecticut 


575 
403 
15 
250 
352 






Kentucky 


Pennsylvania 

South Dakota 

Total 


Massachusetts 

Missouri 


37 


45 


10,050 


$III,300 


4,4Ci 



Shakers.— According to the United States Census in 1870, they numbered about 9,000, living in 18 
communities ; in 1890, 1.728 members, living in 15 communities. 

* See Religious Forces of the United States, by H. K. Carroll, LL.D., American Church History 
Series. New York City. 



Section 3.— Progressive Friends. 

This body, formerly called Hicksite Quakers, because the fol- 
lowers of Elias Hicks, in a schism effected by him in the body 
of Friends in 1827, have been distinguished from the "Orthodox 
Friends" by holding Arian and Socinian doctrines. Soon after 
1850 they attempted to organize into yearly meetings under the 
name of Progressive Friends — a name first adopted at a convention 
held in Selma, O., in September, 1852. Prior to this time the Gen- 



626 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 



esee, Ohio, and Indiana yearly meetings of the Hicksite Friends 
had been distracted by the agitation of the slavery question, and 
considerable minorities had seceded and organized at Green Plain, 
O., and Waterloo, N. Y., under the designation of Congregational 
Friends. Subsequently there were other organizations, somewhat 
varying in character ; but in late years the several names, Pro- 
gressive Friends, Friends of Human Progress, and Orthodox 
Friends, have been more familiarly known. The Orthodox Friends 
comprised in 1890, 794 organizations and 80,655 members; the 
" Wilberites," 52 organizations and 4,329 members; the " Primi- 
tive," 9 organizations and 232 members; and the u Hicksites," 
201 organizations and 21,992 members. Total, 1,056 organizations 
and 107,208 members. 



Section 4.— The Church of the Hew Jerusalem. 

The United States Census for 1890 gives the following: 



States. 



Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

Dist. of Columbia. 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Maine 

Maryland. 



Massachusetts 22 









V 




u 









T3 


" 


w 


,N 


jr. 










hi) 








O 


u 


1 


I 


12 


3 


2 


1 


3 




2 


1 


14 


10 


4 


4 


6 


3 


3 


1 


1 




4 


3 


9 


4 


22 


18 



180 

1,895 
950 

495 
75 

1,125 
1,215 

5,C25 



X. 






u 


ui 
















u 








a 












e 




5 a. 


£ 




« 2 







>^ 







$55 


3 


1 


41,500 


347 


j 


2,500 


41 

28 


j 


12,000 


50 
93 
30 


1 


9,000 


48 


< 


163,700 


641 




16,500 


104 




6,200 


138 




5,000 


62 
61 




33,000 


289 




44,600 


244 




368,500 


1,684 





States. 



Michigan 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

New Hampshi 
New Jersey. . . 

New York 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania . 
Rhode Island. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Total 











U! 




C 


T3 




^ 




(H 




• ) 


cil 


5 




-C 





O 


5 


4 



■9. w 



975 
250 
800 

800 

C ,35Q 

1,625 
100 

1,600 

610 

75 

200 



$34, 600 
29,000 
24,600 



24,500 

192,900 

103,500 

300 

230,500 

39,000 

500 

4,000 

500 



20,810 $1,386,455 7,095 



163 

80 

309 

42 

323 

560 

657 

45 

774 

130 

64 

40 

2 

43 



Section 5— Universalism. 

In the declining years of Rev. Hosea Ballou, 1st, modifications 
became apparent in some of the leading doctrines of the Univer- 
salist denomination, occasioning him much anxiety. The question 
of the moral connection between the present and the future life was 
constantly obtruded upon him by his brethren in correspondence, in 
sermons, and in the periodicals of the denomination, in opposition 



I \\I VERSALISM. 627 

to Mr. Ballou's favorite dogma of the immediate holiness and hap- 
piness of all at death. This was the great question in dispute 
among the Universalists from 1845 to 1855. Mr. Ballou endeavored to 
stem the tide setting in, but in vain. Great respect was entertained 
for him, and the brethren were kind and conciliatory, though fast 
breaking away from his guidance. The point in question, as held 
by him, was the most distinctive point of difference between the 
Universalists and the Unitarians, and he deprecated the surrender 
of his post mortem view as showing, as he declared, ''An inclination 
in some of the professed preachers of Universalism to adopt some 
of the peculiar opinions of our Unitarian fraternity." 

The present type of Universalist belief in reference to the future 
condition of the wicked has been a matter of some uncertainty in 
many minds outside of that denomination. Attempted statements 
have often shown a want of patient, clear discrimination on both 
sides, and this denomination has doubtless been sometimes misrepre- 
sented, and arguments directed against them have, therefore, often 
fallen powerless, being misdirected. Probably no Universalist minis- 
ters now hold or preach Mr. Ballou's "death and glory" doctrine, and 
few of their intelligent laymen cherish it. Most Universalists hold 
to a state of discipline after death for the wicked, some of whom 
dislike to be called Restorationists, and all are careful not to use the 
term punishment in speaking of the post mortem condition. There 
are those, however, the more progressive wing of the body, who 
hold that the soul after death retains its moral identity, with germs 
of virtue and piety ; that some will enter upon the future life more 
advantageously than others, because of a better character in this 
life ; but that all will progress upward forever. 

In the Liberal Christian (Unitarian) April 4, 1 871 , the editor says : 

The essential difference between Unitarian and Universalist opinions on the 
subject of universal salvation in our day is mainly only one of perspective. The 
Universalists make universal salvation the foreground, the first and most emphatic 
doctrine in their scheme; the Unitarians generally receiving it, keep it in the 
background or give it only a relative and secondary place in their minds and their 
preaching. Both denominations are getting very near together in their ideas of 
future retribution on its punitive side, as a disciplinary and reformatory process — 
a state in which the soul continues under unchangeable and spiritual laws to work 
out its salvation through suffering. We know no barriers between the two bodies 
except those of dissimilar historic origin and organization. 

Within the last thirty-five years there have been manifest efforts 
to organize this denomination more fully, to promote a practical 
religious life among the people, to make them more devout, and to 



628 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



introduce various forms of social worship, such as prayer and con- 
ference meetings. Religious activities, formerly unknown among 
them, have been inaugurated in their leading churches, chiefly in 
the larger communities, and frequent desires are expressed to 
make their religious theories practicable forces in the denomination 
and in the world. 

Universalist Ministers in the United States.* 



States. 


1835. 


T840. 


1851. 


i860. 


1870. 

40 
15 

34 
107 

3 
17 


1880. 


1894. 




29 

32 

25 

67 

2 

14 


69 

33 

40 

109 

8 

10 


60 

24 

40 

142 

4 
16 


46 

27 

41 

126 

5 
15 


49 

23 

4i 

133 

8 
18 


44 

23 

28 

149 

b 


New Hampshire 


Vermont 

Massachusetts 


Rhode Island 


Connecticut 


15 






169 
139 


269 
243 


286 
356 


260 
425 


216 
409 


272 

457 


265 
393 


Out of New England 




308 


512 


642 


685 


625 


729 


658 





Note. — This denomination has 4 colleges, with 603 students, and 2 theological seminaries, with 68 stu- 
dents. They also have a publishing house in Boston, whose sales amount to about $50,000 annually. 

Universalist Parishes in the United States. 



States. 


1835- 

IOI 

72 
80 
90 
5 
45 


1840. 


1851. 


i860. 


1870. 


1880. 


1894. 




100 

81 

92 

131 

7 
27 


130 

70 

150 

108 

10 

33 


139 

78 
82 
168 
12 
27 


89 
29 
60 
105 
5 
16 


9i 

35 

64 

115 

8 
18 


93 
34 






CS 


Massachusetts 


124 
10 




16 






Total in New England 

Out of New England 


393 
260 


438 
415 


501 

568 


506 

758 


304 
613 


331 
625 


350 
662 


Total in the United States f 


653 


853 


1,069 


1,264 


917 


956 


1,012 



The Year Book for 1887 gives (Canada deducted): families, 38,117 ; church edifices, 
780; churches, 687 ; valuation, $7,370,027; members, 34,987; ministers in fellowship, 
673; Sunday-schools, 628; lay preachers, 20; Sunday-school members, 53,226; assets of 
publishing house, Boston, Mass., $65,000. 



Section 6.— Unitarianism. 

After 1845 ^e rationalistic tendencies engendered in this denom- 
ination ripened under the fostering influence of materialistic and 
transcendental philosophy. Neither the transcendentalism of Mr. 



* Each Year Book gives the statistics of the previous year. 
+ Year Book, 1887. 



UNITARIANISM. 629 

Ralph Waldo Emerson nor the bold radicalism of Theodore Parker, 
however, awakened much open sympathy, while in fact the leaders 
of the denomination felt embarrassed by the extreme departure of 
the latter, because he was generally recognized by the public as a 
Unitarian. They were unwilling to accept him as a representative. 
The American Unitarian Association, therefore, in 1853, attempted 
to relieve themselves of the embarrassment they felt on this account 
by making an elaborate statement of belief, not for the purpose of 
binding others, but to vindicate themselves. The document was of 
great perspicuity and was both a negative and a positive* state- 
ment. 

A very considerable departure from original Unitarianism was 
perceived in the followers of Emerson and Parker. The club of 
Boston transcendentalists, the Brook Farm Community at West 
Roxbury, and the supporters of the Dial and the Harbinger, em- 
bracing many able, brilliant and cultured writers, all the offspring of 
Unitarianism, passed over to the extremes of unbelief, and in the 
body itself marked symptoms of radical departures appeared. This 
might have been expected, for a perceptible drift of rationalistic 
ideas characterized the denomination from its inception. Unitarian- 
ism in England sprung up, simultaneously with deism, out of the 
rising spirit of free inquiry, partaking largely of that spirit. The 
s:ime influence appeared in Mayhew and his associates in the middle 
of the last century, and still later Freeman, Hollis, Sewall, Norton, 
Emerson and Parker floated rapidly down on the swelling current. 

This drift has continued to our time, until the humanitarian or 
rationalistic wing is now supposed to represent the major part of 
the denomination. Professor John Fiske recently said : f " Forty 
years ago Theodore Parker was virtually driven out of the Unitarian 
Church for saying the same sort of things which may be heard 
to-day from half the Unitarian pulpits in New England." 

In the days of Buckminster, and the earlier days of Charming, 
this tendency was not so perceptible. But the period was a peculiar 
one. The outbreak had not then occurred, and all were cautious. 
Skirmishing and reconnoitering constituted the order of action. 
Buckminster lived in the transitional period of the movement, 
when it was passing out from the scholastic into the classical type. 
Charming in style and affluent in learning, the mouthpiece of the 
refined and cultured classes of Boston aristocracy, he was recognized 
as a Liberal Christian, but was nevertheless called "the conservative 

* The author had fully intended to insert it in these pages, but the crowded condition of the 
work excludes it. t North American Review. March, 1882. P. 260. 



630 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

liberal churchman of the old regime, and as little prone to radicalism 
as any bishop in the Parliament of England."* Neither Buckmin- 
ster nor Channing had any sympathy with the radicalism of the 
eighteenth century, and they were decidedly opposed to the French 
Revolutionary school — to the materialism and infidelity of both 
English and French radicals, who have recently been extolled as 
" saints " by Mr. 0. B. Frothingham. And yet while these men had 
similar conservative tendencies Channing was a bold champion of 
reform and progress. Buckminster was more aristocratic — "the pet 
of Boston aristocracy" — with more of the elements of an iconoclast ; 
Channing was more Democratic, and though he could hardly be 
called a revolutionist, yet he was a man of ideas, and an innovator. 
A prominent Unitarian, writing in the Christian Examiner, in 1865, 
said of Channing: "Within his Arian theology and conservative 
affinities, he bore the seeds of all the new ideas which have given 
such life, and, at times, threatened such mischief, to the Unitarian 
body." He was " the father of Unitarian Rationalism in Amer- 
ica" — the leader of the ideal school that passed over into transcen- 
dentalism. 

At the time of Mr. Theodore Parker's death, only six years after 
the publication of the famous statement of Unitarian principles, in 
1853, marked divergencies were apparent in the denomination, occa- 
sioning deep concern in some minds and serious forecastings in 
others. This was probably the occasion of the remarkable sermon 
of Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., of New York, on the "Broad Church," 
which attracted general attention. It seems to have been the design 
of the sermon to prepare the way for preserving the unity of the 
denomination, and also for enlarging and building up a broad cath- 
olic church out of the scattered fragments of Liberal Christians in 
various parts of the country. This was one of the most noticeable 
features of Unitarian policy in the last days of Dr. Bellows — to lay 
the foundations of their denomination so broad that men of all 
shades of sentiment, from the highest Arians and the most reverent 
supernaturalists to those who deny the Divine personality and the 
peculiar claims of Christianity, might dwell harmoniously together. 
The Universalists, the Christians and the Progressive Friends were 
invited to the union. Detached congregations meeting occasion- 
ally as lyceums, some rejecting the Scriptures as the rule of faith 
and practice, in whose articles of association in one or two instances 
even the name of God f did not appear, were added to their list of 

* Christian Examiner* 1865. P. 34. 

t Rev. A. D. Mayo, D.D., in the Liberal Christian, in 1870. 



THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE. 631 

societies, and others, who, not accepting Christianity as commonly 
understood, preferred not to assume the name, were invited to their 
liberal fellowship. They hoped to find a cement strong enough to 
unite and hold together these diverse elements, but the effort 
sorely tried the chemistry of the ecclesiastical experimenters. 

The organization of the National Conference was effected in 
1865. Its object was to "combine scattered religious bodies, to 
infuse into them a common life, and to devise and set in operation 
means for greater growth and efficiency." Whether they could 
succeed in organizing such a body was a serious question with many 
Unitarians, representing as they did those extreme Congregational 
ideas of individuality and independency, which had produced very 
strong disinclination to associated efforts and a keen suspicion of all 
ecclesiastical ties. At the close of the Conference the leaders felt 
that they had been quite successful, although the task had called 
into requisition the most skillful management. The way for the 
adoption of the Preamble and Constitution was prepared by first 
mutually entering into the following agreement : 

That all resolutions passed in the Convention should be binding upon the indi- 
vidual members only to the extent in which they commended themselves to their 
individual consciences. * 

As the session of the Conference in 1870 approached, a great 
amount of feeling was manifested in the denomination, leading to 
sharp controversies. The immediate cause was the organization of 
the "Free Religious Association" in Boston, in 1867, by prominent 
Unitarian ministers, in which the most radical tendencies came to a 
head — a protest against the action of the Conference at Syracuse, 
in 1866. It was asserted by Rev. E. H. Sears f that the National 
Conference had received into its fellowship many who held with 
Theodore Parker and the Tubingen critics that the New Testament 
is not an infallible rule of faith and practice ; that the Fourth Gospel 
is a forgery of the second century; that the whole framework of 
narrative in the New Testament called miracle is false and mythical ; 
that such a being as Jesus Christ, as he is presented in the New 
Testament, never existed on this earth ; and, moreover, that there 
were professedly Unitarian pulpits which teach that God is not a 
conscious personality; \ that he has never revealed himself, and that 

* Christian Examiner. 1866. P. 294. f Religious Monthly Magazine. 1870. Vol. I, p 318. 

\ Their Cambridge Divinity School was also sending out young men as ministers who were 
skeptics of the most extreme type. Rev. Dr. James W. Thompson mentions that an eminent 
clergyman, speaking of a young graduate of the Divinity School, said : "He don't believe in 
much of any thing — in Christianity, in personal immortality, or in a personal God — but he is a 



632 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the belief in a Divine Revelation had been more harmful than bene- 
ficial to humanity. 

Rev. O. B. Frothingham in a public discourse* said: "God is 
only an abstract force or goodness, and has never revealed himself, 
but remains a shadow or silence." Rev. Samuel Longfellow f said : 
"What Jesus was and what he did we never can know." "He was 
only a mythologic demi-god," "a hideous idol." Rev. J. L. Hatch J 
said : "Jesus of Nazareth, as given in the New Testament, is offen- 
sive to me in the extreme." Rev. Thomas Vickers, § at the dedi- 
cation of the new First Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, read extracts 
from the Koran, the Analects of Confucius, the Vedas, the Old and 
New Testaments and from Lowell's ' Cathedra." Similar quotations 
might be produced from the writings of Revs. W. J. Potter, David 
A. Wasson, John Weiss, and many others whose names long ap- 
peared in the Unitarian Year Book as ministers of the denomina- 
tion. In the "List" were four hundred names, of whom Rev. E. H. 
Sears said, from one fourth to one third are supposed to accept the 
results of the Tubingen critics, i 

Such extraordinary utterances from so many Unitarian clergy 
awakened an unusual interest, as the National Conference in 1870 
approached, on account of the purpose of a large number to commit 
the denomination to a fuller declaration of "allegiance to the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ," and of others to resist such action. 

The desired amendment was carried by a vote of 266 yeas to 
33 nays, nearly two hundred delegates present not voting. This 
action afforded satisfaction to the conservative wing, because they 
felt that it committed the Conference distinctly to Christianity, and 
allowed the largest liberty consistent with this Christian limitation. 
The Radicals, however, felt quite easy about it, claiming that the 
resolution could be construed to mean the Transcendental concep- 
tion of Christ as well as the Historic Christ. 

The dissensions in the Unitarian denomination arise from 

The Different Schools of Thought 

embraced within its folds and their constantly increasing divergence. 
In their more general features, these schools have been classified 
under two heads — the transcendental and the historical. 

pure-minded young man of good talents, and I think that somewhere in the West he may do 
good.'' Mr. Thompson then remarks : " It is to be hoped that he may do good wherever he goes; 
but, in the name of truth, let not such a teacher be registered in your Year Book as a Unitarian 
minister.'' — Religious Monthly Magazine, February, T870. 

* Hoiticultural Hall Lecture, Boston, January, 1870. \ Radical. Vol. II, p. 524. 

X ibid. Vol. Ill, p. 524. % Liberal Christian. November, 1870. 



DR. BELLOWS' S EXPLANATION. 633 

The transcendental school of Unitarians is a protest against 
what they regard as ''the narrowness of the orthodox theory of 
revelation," which claims that God once spoke to men, but for ages 
has ceased to speak them. They affirm as the basis of their theory 
the perpetual immanence of God, his constant indwelling in men ; 
hence a constant inspiration from the Infinite Spirit, and the veracity 
and authority of the individual intuitions of the human mind, as the 
interpreters of the Divine mind. 

The historical school believe in revelation. But on the one hand, 
against orthodoxy, they contend that inspiration and revelation are 
not entirely facts of the past, leaving a form of exact words vouched 
for by miracles, etc., wholly documentary and scholastic in charac- 
ter; but that THE Word has not surrendered his prerogative of 
revelation since the sacred books were penned, and hence they hold 
to a positive revelation in Scripture and the divine manifestation in 
all history. On the other hand, against the transcendental school, 
they contend that it is inconsistent to look to individual intuitions 
for absolute truth, and at the same time to slight the revelations of 
God in the more aggregated forms in which they present themselves 
in history ; that if God is with us now he has been with the fathers 
of all previous generations ; that if we would know him truly we 
must study his entire revelations to the race, and look through all 
the chosen ages for especial gifts of illumination and grace, as well 
as to the gifted minds of our own age. 

The doctrinal position of this body undoubtedly appears very 
strange to many Christian people, and it is, therefore, due that Dr. 
Bellows's frank explanation and ingenious defense as given in the 
Liberal Christian- should be here presented. He said: 

There is a certain valued and valuable portion of the Unitarian communion, 
"the extreme right," ministers and laymen thoroughly Unitarian in their theology, 
who have lost interest and faith in the denomination, from dissatisfaction with its 
general and necessary policy; a policy which they complain of as disrespectful to 
Christianity, as injurious to our Christian reputation, an ecclesiastical mistake, a 
denominational weakness. This policy originated with those who have been anx- 
ious to reduce the Christian faith to its lowest terms, and it is a source of grief 
to many Christian men that the Unitarian denomination is more devoted to liberty 
than to Christian faith. 

For doubtless this is what the Christian world is saying of us : "The Unita- 
rians haven't faith enough in the Gospel of Christ to make a positive and historical 
profession of faith in it a condition of fellowship. They allow any body that calls 
himself a Christian to use their name and enjoy their prestige, no matter whether 
he be a disbeliever in the Christian miracles and records or even in the historical 



July 21, i8- 



634 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

existence of such a person as Jesus Christ. Nay, he may be a Pantheist or an 
Atheist, and if he calls himself a Christian, and is not immoral in life, he may join 
the Unitarian Conference and claim as good an ecclesiastical standing as the most 
conservative believer." This is all true, and the orthodox world does not see it any 
more clearly than we do. Nor can it see half as plainly as we feel all the weakness, 
all the prejudice, all the pain the position costs and involves. 

And yet, claiming to be among the most conservative of the Unitarians, if that 
word means any thing, we hold and are prepared to defend this extreme ground. 
For we feel that there must be some portion of the Christian Church content to 
occupy the most exposed and storm-driven outposts, furthest north toward the 
snows, furthest east toward the ocean ; an Eddystone light-house, over which 
dreadful waves are always breaking; a last haven, where stores and comfort and 
refuge are offered to voyagers in search of the Pole. Creeds and articles of religion 
have so often cramped and galled noble minds and tender consciences that, without 
denying their convenience and advantages, there must be some Christian body that 
will bear the odium and disintegration and lose all the immediate profit of a definite 
statement and profession of faith, in order to show and maintain the independence 
which Christian faith can bear, and to vindicate the rights and claims of the private 
conscience and the individual intellect. Accordingly, whenever the attempt has 
been made to put any yoke upon congregational or private liberty of opinion in 
the Unitarian body it has always failed. 

Latest Utterances. 

In the purpose of doing the fullest justice to this denomination, 
we also add, as one of its latest statements, the following, from the 
pen of Rev. M. J. Savage, of Boston, in the Christian Register, 
October 23, 1885 : 

Unitarianism has points of agreement with Orthodoxy, with Science, with the 
Ethical Culture Movement, with Agnosticism, with Materialism, with Spiritualism, 
with Free Religion, with the Religion of Humanity. And yet it is neither of these 
alone ; and we believe it is more and better, or else we are not Unitarians by any 
right of intelligent conviction and earnest purpose. . . . We are theistic, and we 
are humanitarian ; we are scientific, and we are ethical ; we are religious ; we 
believe in church and in worship. But what we are after now is a definition. 

1. We believe in freedom of thought. This freedom is based on faith, and that 
faith is grounded in the past experience of man. We believe that human history 
justifies both the faith and the freedom. . . . 

2. We believe in a progressive revelation. We hold that all truth is of God, as 
all light is of the sun. And as the day begins with a twilight, and broadens and 
lifts gradually and naturally toward noon, so do we believe in the advance of spiritual 
knowledge. The prophet, the seer, the inspired man, is only the lofty mountain 
peak that first catches and reflects the light, while the mists and shadows still 
creep over and obscure the valleys. The inspiration thus is as natural as the lack 
of it. . . . We hold the man of Nazareth in supreme reverence, because we believe 
him to have been the supremest soul that has walked among men. We hold the 
Bible above all other books, because we believe it to be the loftiest peak in the 
world's religious literature. . . . 

3. We believe that all truth is one. This springs of necessity out of our belief 



FREE RELIGION. 



635 



in one God and Father of all, who is above and in and through all. For this 
reason we are not particular to draw the lines very carefully between secular truth 
and sacred. . . . 

4. We believe in a good destiny for all men. This follows necessarily from the 
type of theism that we hold. That power and wisdom and goodness are the heart 
of things— this is our faith. And, if this is so, then no evil can ultimately be the 
destiny of any single soul. . . . 

This, then, is Unitarianism : a church, religious, worshipful, sharing more or 
less the characteristics of all other organizations that try to help on the world, but 
marked off from the churches by its belief in free thought, the progressive nature 
of revelation, the belief that all truth that touches the life of man is equally sacred, 
and a trust in the divine destiny of all souls. . . . 

In 1886 a considerable stir was occasioned because the Western 
Unitarian Conference declined to adopt resolutions declaring itself 
either a Christian or a theistic body, and several ministers and 
churches withdrew because of this action. The National Confer- 
ence, in 1894, declined to eliminate Christianity from its constitu- 
tion, as had been recommended by the Executive Committee. 





Unitarian 


Societies. 










States and Sections. 


1830. 


1S40. 


I85O. 


i860. 


1870. 


1S80. 


1S94. 


Maine 


12 

11 

3 

1-17 


15 
19 

TCO 


15 
13 

5 

165 

( 1 


M 

15 

3 

163 

2 

2 


20 

18 

6 

176 

4 
2 


19 

23 

5 

176 

4 
2 


21 




31 




9 

190 
6 


M a-^achusetts 


Rhode Island 


2 ) 




2 [ I0 ■ 














Total New England 


177 

2 
12 


194 

17 

i 


206 

17 
S 18 

} 5 


199 

26 

26 

3 


226 

62 

37 

3 


229 

76 

27 

3 


259 

13S 

2S 




Middle " 


Southern " 


2 \ J 9 


20 










16 36 


40 
246 


55 
254 


102 

328 


106 


1 86 








Total in United States. . . . 


iqi 210 


335 


445 









The Unitarians have two Theological Schools, at Meadville, Pa., and Cambridge, 
Mass. In 1893 ten students graduated from both institutions. 

The receipts of the American Unitarian Association from all sources, from 1825 to 
1885, amount to $2,548,097 69, of which sum $101,818 91 was appropriated to its single 
foreign mission in India — an average of $3,393 96 yearly since it was founded in 1855. 

The average annual sales of books, tracts, etc., during the ten years, 1870 to 1880, 
was $S,6g7 29. 



Section 7.—" Free Religion." 

During this period modern skepticism received important acces- 
sions from professedly religious sources. The departure from prim- 



636 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

itive New England theology, which produced Unitarianism, con- 
tained within itself the elements of another departure of no mean 
proportions. If the former was a semi-subsidence of faith the latter 
was an apostasy into the most radical unbelief. The Transcendental 
Club, the Dial, the Brook Farm Community and the Harbinger were 
the first fruits ; but others rapidly appeared, for the germ of ration- 
alism had been sown in the body, and a bold spirit, in whom the 
fatal seed had fully ripened, was in the field, sowing it broadcast in 
thousands of hearts. 

Theodore Parker. 

In 1848 Theodore Parker's name appeared for the last time in 
the published list of the Unitarian clergy. He claimed that he had 
broken away from all ecclesiasticism, as he had also from the "Lord- 
ship of Jesus," and from supernatural religion. In November, 1852, 
he took his large congregation into Music Hall, where multitudes 
of personal admirers and strangers hung upon his words. He was an 
ardent advocate of temperance, antislavery, and other reforms, which 
considerably enlarged the scope of his influence and made his rad- 
icalism in religion still more dangerous. The Committee of the 
American Unitarian Association, alarmed at his growing influence, 
embarrassed by finding him regarded as a Unitarian, and unwilling 
to be held responsible for his utterances, warned the public against 
him. They protested against " his excessive radicalism and irrever- 
ence," " treating the Holy Oracles and the endeared forms of our 
holy religion with contempt." Although now squarely outside of 
that denomination, he continued to exert a powerful influence over 
large numbers, especially of the younger minds who remained within 
it, contending for what he sometimes called " Free Unitarianism," 
which proved to be the first stage of the " Free Religious" move- 
ment of a few years later. By " Free Unitarianism," Parker meant 
neither Arianism nor Socinianism, but Unitarianism delivered from 
all the elements of the old theology, such as a supernatural revela- 
tion and the " Lordship of Christ," both of which implied limitations 
of faith. 

In Mr. Parker the rationalistic and transcendental tendencies 
of his times were singularly combined. His logical faculty being 
only feebly developed, he afforded abundant evidences of logical 
inconsistency, and there was an almost entire absence of strict 
logical processes in his arguments. His reasoning was a species of 
dogmatizing. His ideality was large, and he was eminently an intui- 
tionalist, although not purely so, as was Mr. Emerson. His doctrine 



MR. PARKER'S UTTERANCES. 637 

of intuitions was the corner-stone of his system. Believing in the 
original dignity and purity of human nature, and in the veracity of 
its intuitions, he regarded the intuitive power as absolute, and hence 
he proclaimed an absolute religion, having its sources in the human 
soul. He accepted Christ only as a man ; the highest representative 
of absolute religion, because possessing the power of intuition in a 
higher decree than any other man ever did. Yet even " He was not 
exempt from errors." Historical Christianity Mr. Parker rejected 
as a growth out of the corruptions of the ages, with " dogmas' 
repulsive to the moral intuitions." He contended that the Bible 
was to be read and criticised on the natural ground of all other his- 
tories, being, like them, colored with the misconceptions of the times 
in which it was recorded. Even the teachings of Jesus, he con- 
tended, were mixed with the imperfect local elements of his age 
and race, and that by the power of intuition every human soul could 
clearly recognize all that is absolutely good and true in the instruc- 
tions of Jesus, the prophets and apostles, they being inspired only 
like other men. Miracles he did not consider an a priori impossibility, 
because God is a being of unlimited power; but the accounts of mira- 
cles are open to criticism, and the evidence of miracles in all history, 
sacred or profane, ancient, mediaeval, or those of modern Spiritualism, 
is very defective ; and even if they could be substantiated, no essen- 
tial connection could be demonstrated between them and spiritual 
truths, for such truths come by intuition and appeal to intuition. 

During his last years Mr. Parker devoted himself to what he 
intended should be the great work of his life — an account of the 
development of religion through all nations. He died May 10, i860, 
and left the work in a fragmentary condition. Many very radical 
utterances from Mr. Parker might be quoted. Speaking of Christ 
as a teacher, he said : 

I do not know that he did not teach some errors along with it. I care not if he 
did.* .... He (Jesus) is the greatest person of the ages ; the proudest achievement 
of the human race. He taught the absolute religion, love to God and man. That 
God has yet greater men in store I doubt not.t .... If Jesus were ever mis- 
taken, as the evangelists make it appear, then it is a part of Christianity to avoid 
his mistakes as well as to accept his truths. \ 

As early as 1852, when his congregation left the Melodeon for 
the Music Hall, he said : 

I take not the Bible for my master, nor yet the Church, nor even Jesus of Naz- 
areth, for my master. . . . He (Jesus) is my best historic ideal of human great- 

* Speeches, Addresses and Occasional Sermons. By Theodore Parker. Boston, Horace B. 
Fuller, 1871. P. 16 \ Ibid,, p. 21. %Ibid., p. 28. 

41 



638 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ness ; not without errors, nor without the stain of his times, and I presume, of 
course, not without sins ; for men without sins exist in the dreams of girls, not in 
real fact. You never saw such a one, nor I, and I presume we never shall. 

While Messrs. Parker, Emerson, and their associates, were exert- 
ing so great an influence for radical ideas, the major part of the 
Unitarian party for a short time became more conservative, express- 
ing itself decidedly in favor of supernaturalism, evincing a more 
denominational character and publishing the formal statement of 
faith, thus seeking to vindicate itself against all suspicions of com- 
plicity with them. It was in allusion to this action that Mr. Parker, 
not long before his death, declared that the Unitarian body had 
"become a sect, hide-bound, bridled with its creed, harnessed to an 
old, lumbering, crazy chariot, urged with sharp goads by near- 
sighted drivers along the dusty and broken pavement of tradition, 
noisy and shouting, but going nowhere." * 

This language shows how completely Mr. Parker was separated 
from his former Unitarian friends before he died. Immediately after 
Mr. Parker's death the public mind was occupied with the exciting 
scenes and great responsibilities of the civil war, and rationalistic 
ideas made little perceptible progress. Mr. Emerson was still upon 
the platform as a lecturer, but his topics were chiefly of a national 
or a practical character. Before the war closed, however, in 1864, 
Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, of New York city, delivered a dis- 
course before the Alumni of Cambridge Divinity School on the 
"Religion of Nature," which attracted much attention on account 
of its radical positions. A great personal admirer of Mr. Parker, 
this discourse marked him as Parker's successor in the apostleship 
of doubt — a distinction which his later career justified. 

A Break. 

The preamble adopted at the National Conference of Unitarian 
Churches in 1865, elsewhere referred to, expressing the least possible 
statement of Christian faith, was resolutely opposed by a large 
minority. At the next meeting of the Conference, at Syracuse, 
Rev. F. E. Abbott introduced a resolution to repeal the preamble, 
which was voted down. The adoption of the phrase "Lord Jesus 
Christ" aroused a sharp debate; but the conservatives were victo- 
rious. The defeated party comprised some of the younger ministers 
of recognized ability and culture. At the close of the Conference 
the disaffected ones were simultaneously prompted to think of 



* Experience as a Minister. By Theodore Parker. Boston, i860. P. 108. 



THE FREE RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATION. 639 

organizing some kind of a "club" or association, in which their 
extreme opinions could be represented. The result was the organ- 
ization of the Free Religious Association. Its first meeting was 
held in Boston, May 28 and 29, 1867, in response to a call issued 
by Revs. O. B. Frothingham, VVm. J. Potter and Rowland Conner, 
the two former of Unitarian and the latter of Universalist ante- 
cedents. A considerable number of religious radicals came together, 
claiming that the " time had come for a new religious departure." 

The first president was Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, of New 
York city. 

The objects of the Association as set forth in the first article of 
the Constitution are, "to promote the interests of pure religion, to 
encourage the scientific study of theology, and to increase fellow- 
ship in the spirit." 

In the first meeting Mr. F. E. Abbott said: 

We profess no especial discipleship to Jesus. We are disciples only of the 
Spirit and the Truth wherever they are found. We acknowledge no authority, 
whether in thought or action, but the intrinsic authority of truth, righteousness 
and love. To this we bow most reverently. We utterly discard that principle of 
authority upon which all organized "Christian" churches are built, and take our 
stand on the ground of spiritual freedom — free religion. * 

Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson was also present, and said: 

We are all very sensible, it is forced on us every day, of the feeling that the 
churches are outgrown ; that the creeds are outgrown ; that a technical theology 
no longer suits us.t 

Shortly after the organization of this Association the "Radical 
Club" came into existence in Boston. Two periodical organs were 
published, The Radical, in Boston, and The Index, first in Toledo, O., 
but later in Boston. The Index has disappeared and The Radical 
is "twice dead." The Free Religious Association continues to exist, 
and held its twentieth anniversary in May, 1887, at which Mr. 
Abram W. Stevens, of Cambridge, argued that its policy was better 
than "the myths of Christianity." Rev. Minot J. Savage said: 

Toward a man like Theodore Parker, for instance, the sentiment has changed 
—to-day his portrait is one of the most honored in the Unitarian Building. Al- 
though he left us we have marched on, and to-day are around him, and are 
ready to accept all his beliefs, and if he were here to-day some of us would like 
him to take a few steps in advance. Here are some extracts from a layman's letter 
which will indicate some of the changes quite well. "I do not like to hear of 
'Channing' Unitarianism. I used to dislike to read of Theodore Parker saying that 
he could approach God without the mediation of Christ. To-day I read Parker's 



* Report of ihe First Meeting of the Free Religious Association. P. 37. f Ibid. Pp. 52, 53. 



640 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

prayers to my Sunday-school class, and I recently read one of his sermons, and it 
was greatly admired by the audience. I think I am a representative Unitarian." 
Now let me show you some of the changes. We are gradually drifting away from 
the old idea that the Bible has any particular significance or authority. We have 
no reliance on any historic person like Christ. 



Section 8.— Multiform Skepticism. 

Riddle (Bampton Lecture, 1852,) gives the following phases of 
infidelity in our times: 

I, Rationalism ; 2, Spiritualism ; 3, Naturalism ; 4, Deism ; 5, Pantheism ; 6, 
Atheism. 

Pearson in his Prize Essay* on Infidelity, its Aspects, Causes and 
Agencies, classifies the forms of modern infidelity as follows: 

1, Atheism, or the denial of the Divine existence; 2, Pantheism, or the denial 
of the Divine personality ; 3, Naturalism, or the denial of the Divine government ; 
4, Spiritualism, or the denial of the Divine redemption; 5, Indifferentism, or the 
denial of man's responsibility ; and, 6, Formalism, or the denial of the power of 
godliness. 

Professor Christlieb {Evangelical Alliance Essay, 1873,) says: 

The chief systematic tendencies of modern infidelity may be comprised under 
these three heads: Unchristian philosophy, destructive historical criticism, and 
antimiraculous natural science. 

It will be evident to all readers that it will be impossible within 
the limits of this volume to unfold at length the skeptical tendencies 
of our times. Brief sketches of a few American phases must suffice. 

Spiritism. 

The Spiritistic transition in the unchristianized elements of our 
population, so noticeable after 1850 that it properly claims a place 
in this last period, had its slight beginnings as early as 1830. That 
is the date, given by the author of the Autobiography of a Shaker \ 
as the year of his conversion by "the agency of spirits," as he 
claims, from an Owenite Materialist and Socialist to a Spiritualist of 
the Shaker order. This writer affirms that from 1837 to 1844, while 
no spiritualistic phenomenon appeared in the outer world, they 
abounded in all the Shaker communities, with dozens of mediums, 
and that they foretold the coming manifestations about to attract 
so much attention. The seership of Andrew Jackson Davis dates 
in 1844, and the famous "rappings" at Rochester, N. Y., in 1849. 

* London, i860. + Atlantic Monthly, April, 1869. 



SPIRITISM. 641 

Robert Owen in his last days, and later his son, Robert Dale Owen, 
became influential representatives of that faith. Many of the orig- 
inal communists, phrenologists, mesmerists, and other radical doubt- 
ers, found their way into the camp of the Spiritists, where they 
still plotted against Christianity with the professed aid of invisi- 
ble allies. 

The town of Arcadia, Wayne County, N. Y., as early as 1847 
became noted for strange spiritualistic phenomena — Rochester, in 
1849; anc ' 1 in l ^5° "the Fox girls" appeared in New York city. 
Immediately following this event the alleged spiritual manifestations 
spread, and became the topic of extensive discussions in all circles 
of society. Large audiences gathered on Sundays and other days 
to hear and see the strange things. Converts were made in large 
numbers. The Spiritual Register for 1859 estimated the number of 
actual Spiritualists in America at 1,500,000. The United States 
Census has given much smaller figures : 

1S60. 1370. 1890. 

Organizations 95 334 

Edifices 17 22 30 

Sittings 6,275 6,970 20,450 

Value of Property $7.5 ( *> $100,150 $573-59© 

Members 45,030 

Many Spiritualists, however, have- never been associated under 
any organization, and they have little data for any estimates as to 
their numbers. The Banner of Light, established in 1857, has been 
their leading journal. 

Besides the Fox girls, D. D. Howe, the Davenport Brothers, 
Koons of Ohio, Florence Cook and the Holmeses were prominent 
mediums. Many persons eminent in science, philosophy, literature 
and statesmanship have become avowed converts to Spiritism, or 
have admitted the phenomena so far as to think there may be a 
new force not hitherto recognized by science ; others have boldly 
asserted that all the manifestations are attributable to physical 
agencies ; and others still have explained them on the ground of im- 
posture or coincidence. The cabinet tricks have been reproduced by 
ordinary performers, and professional prestidigitators have skillfully 
imitated the marvels of so-called Spiritism, without the slightest 
pretense of aid from spirits. Numerous gross spiritualistic frauds 
have been exposed. During the last ten or fifteen years this delu- 
sion has rapidly declined, and it now commands little attention or 
respect in intelligent circles ; but multitudes have been religiously, 
socially and intellectually wrecked by its influence. 



642 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Prof. Huxley has said : 

Spiritualism, even if all that is told of it be true, is a matter with which science 
has no possible concern. The only good of a demonstration of the truth of Spirit- 
ualism would be to furnish an additional argument against suicide. " Better live a 
crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a medium hired at a 
guinea a seance." 

Doubts from Misapprehensions of Science. 

The legitimate and laudable study of the sciences, particularly 
natural science, disclosing many errors in previously-accepted ideas 
undermining theories supposed to be taught by Christianity, has 
led to the reconstruction of some important phases and even de- 
partments of knowledge, and unsettled some minds in the truth 
of revealed religion. Superficially, perhaps, or, at least, undis- 
criminatingly, predicating their faith upon the assumption that cer- 
tain theories pertaining to the material universe are biblical, and 
that it is the province of the Bible to teach authoritatively on such 
points, when they have found that the progress of natural science 
has disclosed the inconsistency and absurdity of those theories, their 
confidence in the Bible has been impaired. Very many in the first 
revulsion following such discoveries rejected Christianity, while others 
struggled on with an enfeebled faith. But men are learning to 
understand better what are the functions of revealed religion as 
related to natural science ; that the first chapters of Genesis give us 
only the grand outlines of the first ages or stages of creation, leaving 
the scientific details untouched, and that the correspondencies in 
these leading features of the creative processes with the clearly- 
ascertained facts of nature are so great and convincing as to over- 
shadow all the supposed discrepancies in regard to the details. 
"These outlines," says Professor Guyot, "were sufficient for the moral 
purposes of the book ; the scientific details are for us to investigate." 
"There is so much that the most recent readings of science," says 
Professor Dana, " have for the first time explained, that the idea of 
man as the author becomes utterly incomprehensible. By proving the 
record true, science pronounces it divine ; for who could have cor- 
rectly narrated the secrets of eternity but God himself?" Such testi- 
monies as to the assured results of the teachings of science, by men 
whose names are enrolled with almost every noted scientific associa- 
tion in the world have inspired the flagging confidence in the "old 
records," and it has now become evident that doubts of this class 
have seen their most vigorous days. 



PHASES OF SKEPTICISM. 643 

German Rationalism. 

The foreign source often referred to, which has contributed to 
the spread of skepticism during the last thirty-five years, has been 
European Rationalism, received through European literature 
eagerly devoured by American scholars, and the large accessions of 
German population since 1848. The failure of the German revolu- 
tions (1 848-1852) led to a large emigration to this country. Dur- 
ing the three years following 185 1 it averaged 163,000 Germans 
yearly, against 68,000 yearly during the five previous years. From 
1 85 1 to 1870 Germany sent 1,689,236 emigrants to our shores, 
while France sent only 114,107. Since 1870 the German emigra- 
tion has been as large relatively as in the previous twenty years. 
These German emigrants, settling largely by themselves, have 
strenuously maintained German customs and ideas, setting at defiance 
our Sabbaths, sustaining beer-gardens, infidel clubs and periodicals, 
many of them inculcating radical communistic theories and in 
various other ways antagonizing evangelical Christianity. 

Odd Phases. 

American skepticism is disguised under such new names, in later 
years, that no one term can designate its multiform phases. The 
terms "infidel," "deist," and "atheist" are now almost obsolete, 
and " Radical," " Liberal," " Free Religionist," " Ingersolism" " Eth- 
ical Culture," etc., have taken their place, in deference to the Chris- 
tian sentiment now more dominant than ever before. And yet the 
opposition to Christianity is not hidden, though many rostrums, 
leagues, clubs, associations, societies, etc., once attracting much at- 
tention, actively warring against the Church and revealed religion, 
have ceased to be conspicuous, or have wholly passed away. Infi- 
delity does not now flaunt itself. Paine Memorial Hall, Boston, is 
devoted to other uses. Some years ago a writer familiar with infi- 
delity said : 

Some of the foremost, noisiest skeptics during the last twenty-five years have 
been Spiritists, like Wright, Denton, Davis, Finney, and scores of others. When 
Joseph Barker closed his last infidel lectures in America, some fifteen years ago, 
lie advised his friends to affiliate with Spiritists, as their best allies against the Bible 
and the Church. His advice was largely accepted. Skeptical advocates, like Sea- 
ver, of the Boston Investigator, finding no halls or audiences of their own, 
gladly accepted Spiritist platforms. Many Spiritists at first protested against 
being saddled by these infidel speakers. When Finney first lectured for Boston 
Spiritists his blasphemy nearly emptied the hall before he closed ; but now Denton * 



Since deceased. 



642 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Prof. Huxley has said: 

Spiritualism, even if all that is told of it be true, is a matter with which science 
has no possible concern. The only good of a demonstration of the truth of Spirit- 
ualism would be to furnish an additional argument against suicide. " Better live a 
crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a medium hired at a 
guinea a seance." 

Doubts from Misapprehensions of Science. 

The legitimate and laudable study of the sciences, particularly 
natural science, disclosing many errors in previously-accepted ideas 
undermining theories supposed to be taught by Christianity, has 
led to the reconstruction of some important phases and even de- 
partments of knowledge, and unsettled some minds in the truth 
of revealed religion. Superficially, perhaps, or, at least, undis- 
criminatingly, predicating their faith upon the assumption that cer- 
tain theories pertaining to the material universe are biblical, and 
that it is the province of the Bible to teach authoritatively on such 
points, when they have found that the progress of natural science 
has disclosed the inconsistency and absurdity of those theories, their 
confidence in the Bible has been impaired. Very many in the first 
revulsion following such discoveries rejected Christianity, while others 
struggled on with an enfeebled faith. But men are learning to 
understand better what are the functions of revealed religion as 
related to natural science ; that the first chapters of Genesis give us 
only the grand outlines of the first ages or stages of creation, leaving 
the scientific details untouched, and that the correspondencies in 
these leading features of the creative processes with the clearly- 
ascertained facts of nature are so great and convincing as to over- 
shadow all the supposed discrepancies in regard to the details. 
"These outlines," says Professor Guyot, "were sufficient for the moral 
purposes of the book ; the scientific details are for us to investigate." 
"There is so much that the most recent readings of science," says 
Professor Dana, " have for the first time explained, that the idea of 
man as the author becomes utterly incomprehensible. By proving the 
record true, science pronounces it divine ; for who could have cor- 
rectly narrated the secrets of eternity but God himself?" Such testi- 
monies as to the assured results of the teachings of science, by men 
whose names are enrolled with almost every noted scientific associa- 
tion in the world have inspired the flagging confidence in the "old 
records," and it has now become evident that doubts of this class 
have seen their most vigorous days. 



PHASES OF SKEPTICISM. 643 

German Rationalism. 

The foreign source often referred to, which has contributed to 
the spread of skepticism during the last thirty-five years, has been 
European Rationalism, received through European literature 
eagerly devoured by American scholars, and the large accessions of 
German population since 1848. The failure of the German revolu- 
tions ( 1 848-1 852) led to a large emigration to this country. Dur- 
ing the three years following 185 1 it averaged 163,000 Germans 
yearly, against 68,000 yearly during the five previous years. From 
{851 to 1870 Germany sent 1,689,236 emigrants to our shores, 
while France sent only 114,107. Since 1870 the German emigra- 
tion has been as large relatively as in the previous twenty years. 
These German emigrants, settling largely by themselves, have 
strenuously maintained German customs and ideas, setting at defiance 
our Sabbaths, sustaining beer-gardens, infidel clubs and periodicals, 
many of them inculcating radical communistic theories and in 
various other ways antagonizing evangelical Christianity. 

Odd Phases. 

American skepticism is disguised under such new names, in later 
years, that no one term can designate its multiform phases. The 
terms "infidel," "deist," and "atheist" are now almost obsolete, 
and " Radical," " Liberal," " Free Religionist," " Ingersolism" " Eth- 
ical Culture," etc., have taken their place, in deference to the Chris- 
tian sentiment now more dominant than ever before. And yet the 
opposition to Christianity is not hidden, though many rostrums, 
leagues, clubs, associations, societies, etc., once attracting much at- 
tention, actively warring against the Church and revealed religion, 
have ceased to be conspicuous, or have wholly passed away. Infi- 
delity does not now flaunt itself. Paine Memorial Hall, Boston, is 
devoted to other uses. Some years ago a writer familiar with infi- 
delity said : 

Some of the foremost, noisiest skeptics during the last twenty-five years have 
been Spiritists, like Wright, Denton, Davis, Finney, and scores of others. When 
Joseph Barker closed his last infidel lectures in America, some fifteen years ago, 
he advised his friends to affiliate with Spiritists, as their best allies against the Bible 
and the Church. His advice was largely accepted. Skeptical advocates, like Sea- 
ver, of the Boston Investigator, finding no halls or audiences of their own, 
gladly accepted Spiritist platforms. Many Spiritists at first protested against 
being saddled by these infidel speakers. When Finney first lectured for Boston 
Spiritists his blasphemy nearly emptied the hall before he closed ; but now Denton * 

*" Since deceased. 



644 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

and others of like skeptical mania can pour out their ribaldry against the Bible and 
the Church by the hour, and elicit roars of laughter and rounds of loud applause. 

About twenty-five years ago Nichols, Andrews, Warren, Brisbane, Clapp and 
others, forming a socialist coterie in New York, engrafted Spiritism with the philos- 
ophy of "individual sovereignty," in opposition to all objective authority in society, 
government, and religion. " Free-love " was one of the first outcroppings of this 
philosophy. Again Spiritists protested, but it was against the inevitable destiny 
of their cause. The free-love element at last rode into power, and in 1870 Mrs. 
Woodhull took the chair of all that was left of the American Spiritist Convention. 
A speaker in that convention denounced all legislators, laws, law-abiding men and 
institutions, and cried, " Down with them ! We mean rebellion." . . . 

Several speakers proposed to substitute " affinity " for marriage. Two noted 
lecturers boasted of being illegitimate children and cursed matrimony. Various 
Spiritist conventions have passed resolutions utterly ignoring all Christian stand- 
ards of social, civil, moral, and religious authority. Added to numerous other 
proofs of the teachings and practical results of Spiritism are the appalling facts — 
thousands of homes wrecked, thousands of husbands and wives sundered, thou- 
sands of children made worse than homeless orphans, thousands of souls shat- 
tered in faith and hope, thousands driven into the rayless night of atheism, and 
thousands fallen into the lower deeps of demoralization. 

While there are some Spiritists who claim a belief in harmony with the Bible, 
some claiming high moral ground, some well cultured, well educated, and other- 
wise well balanced, some scientists and philosophers of no little repute, some 
honest, unsophisticated, and uninitiated, on the other hand, a large majority of 
Spiritist leaders, writers, lecturers and mediums are in the dangerous direction 
already indicated. The heads of nearly all the free-love cliques are noted Spirit- 
ists, and talk as though the great mission of the dead were to come back and open 
a Pandemonium of new-fangled harlots and libertines. Rev. William Fishbough. 
formerly scribe of Andrew Jackson Davis, says, Spiritism "attacks all that is vital 
in religion, the barrier to vice and social disorder, and threatens all the chief bonds 
of society." The eminent Mrs. Richmond says, Spiritists "deny Christianity and 
all other supports of law and order. We have as advocates the offscourings of 
society. It has been the cloak of all debasing acts, a vehicle for all debasing the- 
ories. We are made to incite or justify every crime in the decalogue, and have 
become the confederates in every scheme of imposture." 

While the so-called Liberals and other classes of skeptics do not indorse all 
the theories and coarse, crude expressions of Spiritists, they have some of the same 
leading aims and ends in view.f 



Section 9.~ Trie Latest Socialism. 

At the present time there are two socialistic communities in Iowa 
—the Icarian, at Corning, in Adams County, and the Inspirationists, 
at Amana. The former had its origin in France, settled in a body in 
Nauvoo, 111., but moved to Iowa in 1854. The founder was Etienne 
Cabet. Like many other communistic bodies, it had no religious 

t The Anti-Skeptic, Boston, January, 1878, p. t, etc. 



SOCIALISTIC ANARCHISM. 645 

forms, was essentially atheistic, and Sunday was a day of amuse- 
ment. Their property, a farm of 3,000 acres, was owned in com- 
mon, and for a while they dwelt together harmoniously, until 
the more progressive elements arrayed themselves against the con- 
servatives, and they separated into the " Icarians" and the " New 
Icarians." " Highly ethereal ideas" were cherished, but a millen- 
nial era looked for did not come. Weary under long disappoint- 
ments, one after another withdrew, and the remainder are seeking a 
purchaser for their property, that they may wind up the concern and 
go to California. In a short time this experiment will be known 
only in history. 

The other body, the Inspirationists, possess 25,000 acres of land 
and have a population of 1,500, divided into seven villages, and 
employed in farming and manufacturing. Each family has its 
house, and all cook and eat together in "centrals;" but the men and 
women eat apart. At the head of the organization is a woman who 
is supposed by the members to speak by direct "inspiration of 
God." They came from Germany to the State of New York in 
1 84 1, and moved to Iowa in 1856. The Society owes its origin to 
an ignorant servant-maid who for many years was the " inspired 
oracle " at Amana. Not the Bible, but direct commands from God, 
are the basis of action. The Sioux City Journal says: 

Amusements generally are forbidden; even photographs and pictures are not 
allowed. Their rules of daily life are very strict and severe, enjoining abstinence, 
penitence, and deep devotion. This Society is successful financially, to say the 
least. The members are good citizens, pay their taxes, avoid litigation, and if 
they find happiness in complying with their rigid rules of government, who can 
say them nay ? 

Socialistic Anarchism. 

Under this designation we have the most radical divergence 
from faith in our times. It has its root in the baldest atheism. 

The great mass of our emigrant population are " wage work- 
ers," without capital, and mostly destitute of education and culture ; 
densely ignorant. As to self-government, they have had no oppor- 
tunity to acquire that difficult art. Foreign Roman Catholics on 
our shores rapidly unlearn the churchly lesson of obedience, and 
the element of wholesome reverence and fear rapidly declining 
among Protestants is, we apprehend, not being conserved by a 
growth of conscience. Many of these new comers are refugees 
from countries where both the Church and the State are term-sym- 
bols of oppression; where a hatred of Christianity is generated in 
the depths of the soul, and a radical jealousy of civil control inclines 



646 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

to revolution and anarchy. The New World hastily invests these 
classes, fired with revulsion against all constituted authority, with 
the privileges and prerogatives of citizenship. Without police sur- 
veillance they are allowed to hold meetings, to discuss and denounce 
abuses, authorities and institutions. They may organize, plot and 
threaten the overthrow of the most vital interests, and no one inter- 
feres until a fatal blow is struck. They may poison the atmosphere 
of thought with the most revolutionizing theories, may debauch 
public sentiment, may enfeeble the foundations of government, and 
all with impunity. 

Said Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D.* : 

One half of our workers are wage workers ; one third of our population, in- 
cluding the vast majority of our wage workers, are either of foreign birth or chil- 
dren of foreign-born parents. They are restless and are growing more so. There 
is no power in any Church to which they owe allegiance adequate to prevent an 
outbreak. There is no power in the State, no police, no military capable of quell- 
ing it. Large numbers of them acknowledge no fealty to any religion which 
teaches them the duty or endows them with the power of self-restraint. The 
churches too often address, not their conscience, but their imagination. The 
schools address not their conscience, but their intellect. Men who have been 
taught that moral order is despotism and modern property is theft, find themselves 
in a country where the only support of order is an enlightened conscience, and the 
only protection of property is an enlightened self-interest, and neither their con- 
science nor their self-interest is enlightened. Believing that property is theft, they 
believe that spoliation is redress ; believing that the world's wealth is their inherit- 
ance, of which they have been too long unjustly deprived, they are ready with no 
gentle voice to demand of society, " Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me ; " 
and we maybe sure that if it were given to them it would soon be spent in riotous 
living, not followed by repentance and a request for employment as hired servants. 

These very threatening elements in our population, so anxiously 
engrossing public attention, present a serious problem in our 
national life, the solution of which only the future historian can 
record. 



Section 10.— Mormonism, 

whose origin was sketched in the previous period, has become an 
ecclesiastical despotism of immense strength. 

Attention has recently been called to the strange theological 
phases of Mormonism heretofore not much considered. Rev. A. 
E. Winship,f who extensively and closely studied Mormonism dur- 
ing a long period spent in Utah, says : 

* Century, November, 1885. 

t Late Secretary of the New West Education Commission, now editor of the Journal of 
Education^ Boston, Mass. 



THEOLOGY OF MORMONISM. 647 

They teach that God is a man ; that he has numerous wives by whom he has peo- 
pled space with an infinite number of spirits that have existed cycles of ages, prac- 
tically from all eternity. These have all knowledge in the abstract, but none in the 
concrete, knowing what might be rather than what is. It is a state of perpetual unrest. 
They can only be transformed into human souls, with the eternal possibility of a soul, 
through birth. Christ was a favorite son by a favorite wife, but birth into human 
life was the only way he could come into the enjoyment of the real life. These 
spirits are all the sons of God, but can only realize and enjoy their sonship through 
birth. They are every-where present. They are about every one of us pleading to 
be born. "I was once a spirit pleading to be born," I heard an elder say at a 
funeral. " If our ears were spiritually open, we could hear them pleading piteously 
to be born. The highest privilege and possibility of humanity is to liberate these 
spirits." Women are taught this from the cradle. I heard it preached to a church 
full of people, the majority of whom were young. The inevitable tendency is the 
early marriage of the girls. It seems too damnable to be true, but true it is, that 
they use this philosophy to reconcile the wife to the much-married state of her 
husband, that he may not be limited in the possibilities of releasing the sons of 
God from the imprisonment of spirithood. This theory, in its fruitage, is the 
reigning vice of the entire sys'em. It magnifies animalism by means of the most 
sacred instincts of woman's nature. Heaven itself is viewed as the place for the 
limitless gratification of the passions, without the limitations of the flesh. . . . 
" Gentiles," said Orson Pratt, " who have lived virtuous, upright, truthful lives, 
obedient to all the light they have received, will be admitted to heaven, but they can 
only be bachelor angels serving the saints." 

Eradicate polygamy and leave Mormonism, and you have the system with 
the disease "struck in." The condition would be much like that of the child with 
scarlet fever, suffering from some experience that drove the flush from the skin into 
the blood. The only remedy will be one that purifies the life blood of the people, 
until they scale off polygamy as a dead and unwelcome attachment. . . . Law 
cannot directly purify the system of the " blood poison ; " they must have different 
mental diet, must breathe a changed moral atmosphere, must have new inspir- 
ations, before we can hope for the ultimate restoration of the life of Utah to 
honesty, loyalty and purity. 

The total Mormon population is dominated by numerous offi- 
cials, or more than one for every five persons, with all the threads of 
authority gathered into the hands of its president. It is more than a 
Church ; it is a State, and is controlled by its head in all temporal," 
social, political and religious matters, by a power claiming an infallibil- 
ity unequaled by the Pope of Rome. The political pretensions of 
Mormonism are more and more eclipsing the religious. Visions of 
an earthly empire now dazzle the eyes of its leaders, and they are 
endeavoring to set up a kingdom * which shall extend throughout 
the valleys of Utah, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona 
and Nevada. Bishop Lunt has freely uttered the designs of Mor- 
monism in the following lines : 



* Address before the Home Missionary Society, in June, \\ 



648 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Like a grain of mustard-seed was the truth planted in Zion ; and it is destined 
to spread through all the world. Our Church has been organized only tifty years, 
and yet behold its wealth and power. This is our year of jubilee. We look for- 
ward with perfect confidence to the day when we will hold the reins of the United 
States Government. That is our present temporal aim ; after that we expect to 
control the continent. . . . We do not care for these territorial officials sent out to 
govern us. They are nobodies here. We do not recognize them, neither do we 
fear any practical interference by Congress. We intend to have Utah recognized 
as a State. To-day we hold the balance of political power in Idaho, we rule Utah 
absolutely, and in a very short time we will hold the balance of power in Arizona 
and Wyoming. A few months ago President Snow, of St. George, set out with a 
band of priests for an extensive tour through Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, 
Montana, Idaho and Arizona, to proselyte. We also expect to send missionaries 
to some parts of Nevada, and we design to plant colonies in Washington Ter- 
ritory. 

In the past six months we have sent more than 3,000 of our people down through 
the Sevier Valley to settle in Arizona, and the movement sail progresses. All this 
will build up for us a political power which will in time compel the homage of the 
demagogues of the country. Our vote is solid, and will remain so. It will be 
thrown where the most good will be accomplished for the Church. Then, in some 
great political crisis, the two present political parties will bid for our support. Utah 
will then* be admitted as a polygamous State, and the other Territories we have 
peacefully subjugated will be admitted also. We will then hold the balance of 
power and will dictate to the country. In time our principles, which are of sacred 
origin, will spread throughout the United States. We possess the ability to turn 
the political scale in any particular community we desire. Our people are obedient. 
When they are called by the Church they promptly obey. They sell their houses, 
lands and stock, and remove to any part of the country the Church may direct 
them to. You can imagine the results which wisdom may bring about with the 
assistance of a Church organization like ours. 

Hon. Schuyler Colfax, in an article in the Advance* said : 

With Utah overwhelmingly dominated by the Mormon Theocracy of their 
established Church, and wielding also, as they already claim, the balance of power 
in the adjoining Territories, this Turkish barbarism may control the half-dozen new 
States of our interior, and, by the power of their senators and representatives in 
both branches of Congress, may even dictate to the nation itself. 

Mormonism is a great colonizer. By a thoroughly-worked col- 
onization system, drafting and distributing its people under her 
sovereign behest, she has already gained an area of 350,000 square 
miles in the Rocky Mountain region, which is being gradually occu- 
pied. To facilitate this work in 1849, a " Perpetual Emigration 
Fund " was founded to aid in bringing converts from Europe. These 
have not been few. In the first ten years after the fund was instituted 
the Mormon immigrants numbered about 7,500; from 1859 to 1 
20,000; from 1879 to 1884, the number exceeded 12,000. 



August 24, 1882. 



EDUCATION IN UTAH. 



649 



The Mormon problem severely taxes our statesmen and reform- 
ers. Political, educational, and religious solutions have all been 
deeply pondered. Laws for the suppression of polygamy, the se- 
questration of its wealth, the disablement of the hierarchy, have been 
proposed ; but no clearing light yet dawns upon the vexed question. 

Local school education supervised by priest-trained Mormons, and 
governmental education controlled by agents politically appointed, 
will, we fear, both be ineffectual. The school movement should be 
free to all, inculcating the best science; loyal to the Bible, but with- 
out fanaticism ; spiritual, but not superstitious ; permeated with the 
true spirit of reform, but not revolutionary; with ethics dominating 
theology. The New West Education Commission, organized in 
Chicago, in 1879, 1S wisely directing such a work. 

The Mormons are now divided into two bodies: 1. The Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 2. The Reorganized Church 
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The statistics for 1890 are 
as follows : 



I. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 



Alabama 

Arizona 

Colorado 

(Georgia 

Idaho 

Indiana 

Kansas 

Kentucky . . . 
.Maryland . . . 
Mississippi . . 

Nevada 

New Mexico. 







* 








U . 








_ >, 


2 


-> - 


tB 


t 


u 
.a 




'7. 


= a 


E 

V 






166 


16 


4.815 


S-'f .: o 


6,500 


3 


1,38 > 


7,200 


1 ,640 

175 


48 


11,682 


45o6o 


14,816 

14 
34 

*99 

58 
123 
417 


2 


300 


1.430 


4531 



States. 



New York J 

North Carolina 
Pennsylvania. . . 
South Carolina.! 

Tennessee I 

Utah 1 

Virginia 

West Virginia. . 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 



1.1 



Total. 



i.55o 
92,102 



U 

u 

v v 

3 O. 

— O 



11,700 
$825,506 



5» 
108 

44 

203 

134 

[7,640 

137 

81 

3 2 
1,322 



II. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 



Alabama J 12 

Arkansas 1 

California 28 

Colorado 5 

Connecticut .... 

Florida 9 

Idaho 7 

Illinois 52 

Indiana j 13 

Indian Ter 2 

Iowa 50 

Kansas i 25 

Kentucky I 1 

Maine I 14 

Maryland 

Massachusetts..! 8 

Michigan 33 

Minnesota | 4 

Missouri I 42 

Mississippi j 2 

Montana 2 

Nebraska I 20 



1,700 

2O0 



3.5OO 
90O 

6.785 
800! 

200 

475 


2,050' 

1.75° 



S35<- 



14.400 
2.000 



19.202 
1,800 



1, 060 1 



.300 
,500 
.800 



11,503 
4,325 



58,650 



1,500 

7.500 



426 

60 

Ci396 



257 

156 

1,909 

366 

46 

5,303 

1,072 

50 



457 
1,540 

224 
3,189 

74 

122 

1,058 



Nevada 

New Jersey.. . . 
New Mexico.. . 

New York 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania. . 
Rhode Island.. 
South Dakota. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Utah.. 

Virginia 

Washington . . . 
West Virginia. 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 



Total.......] 431 

Total Mormons, 
both kinds.. . .i 856 



4 






$.... 


2 








18 


6 


3,050 


43,000 


J 


•• 






IO 




3°o 


1,000 


3 


j 


150 


800 


4 








i 3 


3 


275 


325 


12 


6 


I ,° 2 5 


1,900 


, M 


1 


150 


3,700 


10 


*; 


300 


1,400 


t 
43i 


3 


320 


1,200 


122 


30.790 


$226,285 


856 


388 


122.892 


$1,051,791 



3 

IC2 
678 

95 
373 



64 
437 
561 

34 

34 
325 
309 

14 



: 66,125 



650 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Delenda est Christianitas 

Is the first and the last motto of all radical doubters. 

Glancing back for a moment over these successive waves of opposition to the 
kingdom of Christ in America, one is struck first of all by the fact that none of 
them were of American origin. The successive types of unbelief and misbelief 
which have arisen and prevailed in Europe have in every case determined the suc- 
cessive types of unbelief and misbelief in America. In most cases the first 
effectual introduction of a new type has been due to Europeans coming to our 
shores. Thus, our first popular infidelity was directly due to European soldiery, 
and to such emigrants as Thomas Paine. The great New England defection 
was, to a certain extent, pioneered by British Socinians, and decidedly aided by the 
coming of Joseph Priestly and John Murray. The communistic crusade was 
preached by Owen in person, and seconded by scores of such foreign-born adju- 
tants as G. H. and F. W. Evans, Fanny Wright and A. J. Macdonald. The 
phrenological revival of naturalism was introduced by a pupil of Gall and dissem- 
inated by the labors of Prussian Spurzheim and Scotch Combe. Mother Ann Lee, 
whom England gave us, was the early forerunner of American "Spiritualism," 
while the ghost of Scandinavian Swedenborg appearing to Andrew Jackson Davis 
in a grave-yard near Poughkeepsie, in 1844, so affected the deliria of that "seer " 
and the whole system of his followers that the historian of American Socialisms 
declares " Spriritualism is Swedenborgianism Americanized." Finally the tran- 
sition of the " Free Religionists " from a professedly scriptural Unitarianism to an 
open repudiation of all positive revelation was an effect of German speculation 
and criticism, mediated partly by such men as Follen, more effectively by Amer- 
ican students and tourists abroad, most potently of all by the writings of Germans 
and of admirers of German literature. Thus all these threatening surges of Anti- 
christian thought and effort have come to us from European seas ; not one arose 
in our hemisphere. Like other peoples, we have erred in the sphere of religion ; 
but our admitted errors, as in the case of the wild excrescences of Mormonism. 
Millerism, and Shakerism, are all in the direction of superstition rather than in 
that of unbelief. America has given the Old World valuable theological specula- 
tions, admirable defenses of the faith, precious revival influences, memorable 
exhibitions of international charity; but she has never cursed humanity with a new 
form of infidelity. 

Confining our view to the present, it is a striking and a cheering fact that no 
form of infidelity among us can boast of a single champion of cosmopolitan or 
even of national reputation. We have no Strauss, no Renan, not even a Carl 
Vogt. We never have had. The nearest approach to it we ever had was the 
forceful Unitarian preacher who ministered to the "Twenty-eighth Congregational 
Society," in Boston, from 1845 to 1859. Even he had not the requisite learning or 
genius to enable him to propound a solitary new difficulty to the Christian schol- 
arship of his age. We have infidel litterateurs of respectable attainments and 
all-too-wide influence, but in all the ranks of American unbelievers the Christian 
apologist of learning and ability can nowhere find a foeman worthy of his steel.* 



* Rev. W. F. Warren, D.D., LL.D., in Evangelical Alliance Volume. Harper Brothers. 
1874. Pp. 251-2. 



EECKLESS DECLARA TIONS. 



651 



CHAPTER IV. 



CONVERGENT CURRENTS 



Sec. i. From Atheism to Theism. 
" 2. From Science vs. the Bible, to Sci- 
ence with the Bible. 
" 3. From Christ Discarded to Christ 
Honored. 
4. From Negative to Biblical Ethics. 



Sec. 5. From the Poverty of Skepticism to 
the Wealth of Christianity. 

" 6. From Defiant Discourtesy to Patron- 
izing Respect. 

" 7. From Scholastic to Vital Truth. 

" 8. Vibratory Movements. 



THE great advance in scientific and philosophic thought in this 
century found men every-where speculatively unprepared, and 
unable at once to rightly estimate the import and tendencies of 
the new discoveries. Some vaguely queried as to what would be 
the fate of the old faiths and ideals in which men had long lived, 
while others hailed the new developments as harbingers of a revolu- 
tion which would rid the world of its old notions. One sanguine 
doubter loudly boasted that ''before long science would conduct 
God to the frontier and bow him out with thanks for his provisional 
services." Down almost to our times bold and reckless decla- 
rations of the decay of Christian theology have been current in 
popular literature. It has been freely asserted that the evangelical 
theology " has lost its hold upon the intellect of the age," that 
" thinking men are at their wits' end to know what is truth; " that 
" Protestantism is a generator of skepticism ; " * that " a collapse of 
religious belief, of the most complete and tremendous kind, is 
apparently now at hand ; " \ that " traditionary creeds are losing 
their hold;" that "an intellectual revolution is sweeping over the 
world, breaking down established opinions and dissolving founda-. 
tions on which historical faiths have been built;" that "science, 
history and philosophy have created universal uncertainty," % and 
that "the latter half of the nineteenth century will be known to 
future historians, as especially the era of the decomposition of 
orthodoxies." § 



*Rev. F. C. Ewer, D.D. 
X James Anthony Froude. 



t Professor Goldwin Smith, LL.D. 
§ Professor John Fiske. 



6S2 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

This style of talk has been popular in free-thinking circles, and 
many people have easily accepted the utterances as from wise, 
far-seeing men, without troubling themselves to inquire closely into 
the state of the case. To the monstrous conceptions of " advanced 
science," so called — " thought without a thinker, religion without a 
God, automata with duties, impersonal immortality," etc. — they 
have yielded, at least, a quasi acceptance. With some, faith has 
given place to credulity — faith in miracles to faith in magic. The 
drift toward agnosticism and materialism has been a palpable 
phenomenon of the times. 

But " the new wine of science has seriously strained the old 
mental bottles." There are clear indications that skepticism has 
reached the point at which it is sadly oppressed with weariness and 
self-distrust, and is furnishing results of ultimate analysis which, 
wittingly or unwittingly, are valuable contributions to the vindica- 
tion of Christian truth, and may yet help to a renaissance of faith 
in souls in which it has lapsed. Critical procedures have been 
instituted which have recognized and guarded the fullest rights of 
scientific investigation and the moral and religious nature, and have 
cleared away the confusion and misunderstanding into which both 
had fallen. In this work Lotze* has had no superior. " The gust 
has now largely blown over, at least among thinkers. We have not 
had a cosmological manifesto from the British Association for 
eleven years. Criticism has shown that the perennial questions of 
life remain what they always have been, and that the old solutions 
are still the best that can be offered." f 

Many are the examples of indiscreet and unscientific haste in 
adopting objections to Christianity. Apparent difficulties have 
been eagerly seized, accepted, and proclaimed as real faults. 
Enrolled in the arsenal of unbelief, without even waiting for the 
christening; and, echoed with loud-mouthed voices, they have gone 
forth upon their destructive work never to be recalled. Infidelity 
never corrects her blunders, for it would have little else to do. Men 
have discovered that a little time unfolds clues which solve the diffi- 
culties sometimes appearing in the province of faith. Faith has 
learned to hold her ground until profounder research dissipates the 
mists in which shallow knowledge sometimes enshrouds the truth. As 
an example : At one time German Rationalists claimed that St. Luke 
erred concerning Lysanias ; but an inscription has since been dis- 
covered near Baalbec proving that there were two persons of that 

* His Microcosmus is the master-piece in this field. 

t Professor B. P. Bowne, LL.D., in Independent, Nov 5, 1S85. 



INFLUENCE OF RADICAL PHILOSOPHY. 653 

name, father and son. Daniel's supposed contradictions of profane 
history in regard to Belshazzar are reconciled by a document 
exhumed in our day from the soil of Mesopotamia by an En- 
glish gentleman. So also have the obscurities in regard to 
"Sargon, King of Assyria," and the "taxing" of Cyrenius (Luke 
2. 2.) been solved by late discoveries. 



Section /.—From Atheism to Theism. 

Fifteen or twenty years ago the tendency of scientific thought 
was strongly toward materialism. That there has since been a 
change is a common confession, even in the ranks of eminent 
thinkers. Professor John Fiske says : * 

In my apprehension it is a very serious mistake, though a very common one, to 
.suppose that the tendency of modern philosophic thought is toward materialism. 
On the contrary, it seems to me that the course of modern philosophy is distinctly 
in the opposite direction, and that materialism is hopelessly behind the age, so 
that it argues a much more superficial mind, and a much more imperfect education, 
to agree with Biichner to-day than to have agreed with La Me'ttrie a hundred 
years ago. The moment the first trace of conscious intelligence is introduced we 
have a set of phenomena which materialism can in no wise account for. The latest 
and ripest philosophic speculation, therefore, as Professor Huxley once remarked 
to me, leaves the gulf between mind and matter quite as wide and impassable as 
it appeared in the time of Descartes. Materialism is thus more than ever dis- 
credited by the dominant philosophy of our time, and it will no doubt continue to 
be more and more discredited with each future advance in philosophic speculation, 
though he thinks there will always be a certain amount of materialism current in 
the world. There will always be a class of excellent people in the world with a 
fair capacity for understanding scientific generalizations, but without a head for 
philosophy; and this class will produce the Buchners and La Mettries of the 
future as it has produced them in the past and present. The philosophy of the 
future will not be materialistic. . . . While the doctrine of evolution has 
enormously increased our knowledge of the phenomenal universe, it really leaves 
all ultimate questions as much open for discussion as they ever were. 

It is a noticeable fact that amid all the divergencies of modern 
thought from the old religious and theological centers, causing deep 
concern in some minds, there have been very marked reverse ten- 
dencies, largely from out the camp of free thought, confirming and 
establishing the old truths. Some forms of radical philosophy have 
exerted an important and relatively ennobling influence upon 
rationalistic theology, and upon the currents of modern thought. 
It is a significant fact, cited by Kuntz, that while Kant's philosophy 

"North American Review, March, 1882, pp. 262, 264, 266. 
4'2 



654 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

stood altogether outside of Christianity, and upon the same ground 
with theological rationalism, yet " by digging deep into this ground 
it brought out a much superior one, of whose existence vulgar 
rationalism had no idea," " saved philosophy from superficial self- 
sufficiency and quackery," " led it out upon an arena of unparalleled 
mental conflict," and thus unintentionally "became a school-master 
leading to Christ in manifold ways." The ideas of God, freedom 
and immortality Kant acknowledged as " postulates of the practical 
reason," and the basis of "all religion whose contents are above 
the moral law." 

Nor is Kant the only philosopher whose writings have served 
the cause of faith. The best forms of modern philosophy have 
modified radical doubt, and caused the lines of true speculation to 
converge toward the lines of Christian truth. It is remarkable how 
much less of real atheism and Pantheism exists than formerly. 
More than in other days, they appear in speculative forms, tenta- 
tively put forth in connection with efforts to explore the Infinite. 
Even Hartman leans strongly toward theism, though not avowing 
it, for he speaks of " One Absolute Subject," " One Identical Sub- 
ject." Skeptical philosophy often unwittingly recognizes the exist- 
ence of the Supreme Deity, though imperfectly, and far from meas- 
uring up to the Christian standard. The god of scientific theism 
— a force, personal or impersonal, behind natural phenomena — is 
indeed not such a being as the Christian theist worships; but such 
a recognition of Deity is far in advance of the blank atheism and the 
atheistic theory of chance current a century ago. 

" I am no atheist," protested Comte warmly to a visitor two 
years before his death ; " my attitude is that of belief; if not, I 
should have no right to treat of these matters. If you will have a 
theory of existence, an intelligent Will is the best you can have." * 
Kant said, " The great whole would sink into an abyss of nothing, 
if we did not admit something originally and independently exter- 
nal to this infinite contingent, and as the cause of its origin." 
Herbert Spencer, professedly discarding the usually accepted idea 
of God, sometimes falls back upon anthropomorphic conceptions 
of Deity, and speaks f of the " Incomprehensible Existence," the 
" Unknown Cause," the " Inconceivable Greatness." Herbert 
Spencer invests the Unknowable with all the metaphysical attri- 
butes of God, though he comes short of the Christian idea of a 
distinct personal Deity. But his Unknowable "is one, not many ; 
the real, as opposed to the apparent : a power and a fundamental 

* Christian Examiner, July, 1857. t First Principles, p. 96. 



FROM ATHEISM TO THEISM. 655 

cause; persistent and unchangeable; omnipresent in space and 
eternal in time." How rich his affirmations ! Professor Tyndall 
says,* " The idea of a Creative Power is as necessary to the pro- 
duction of a single original form as to that of a multitude." Pro- 
fessor John Fiske has said, f 44 Provided we bear in mind the 
symbolic character of our word, we may say, 'God is Spirit.' ' 
And Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson, after long exploring the dreamy 
solitude of Pantheism, came to be, in the estimation of his intimate 
friend, Mr. Alcott, a "Christian theist." Heinholtz has boldly 
declared that the progress of science, as a whole, must be judged 
44 bv the measure in which the recognition and knowledge of a 
causative connection embracing all phenomena has advanced." 

That great generator in modern science, nowhere questioned, 
the persistence of force, leads directly up to the Divine, for all power, 
in the last analysis, is will. Gove shows the issue of the conserva- 
tion of energy. He says : " In all phenomena, the more closely 
they are investigated, the more we are convinced that, humanly 
speaking, neither matter nor force can be created or annihilated, 
and that an essential cause is unattainable. Causation is the will, 
creation the act, of God." 

The essayist Whipple quoted Professor Agassiz as saying : 

.My experience in prolonged scientific investigation convinces me that a belief 
in God, a God who is behind and within the chaos of unguessed facts, beyond the 
present vanishing point of human knowledge, adds a wonderful stimulus to the 
man who attempts to penetrate the region of the unknown. For myself, I may say 
that I never now make the preparation for penetrating into some small province 
of nature hitherto undiscovered without breathing a prayer to the Being who hides 
his secrets from me only to lure me on to the unfolding of them. 

The charm of a supposed new discovery has beguiled many 
minds. They have seemed to see facts in the light of preconceived 
notions. The true philosophical method has often been ignored ; 
extended generalizations made without a sufficient basis of facts ; 
and new theories wildly and rashly advanced. Utiwise disputes 
between science and theology have been introduced. Scientific 
men have sometimes proclaimed new theories, invented to dispose 
of the supernatural ; and theologians have attempted to disprove 
the new theory on grounds of Scripture exposition, forgetting that 
scientific hypotheses must be disproved on the ground of science 
alone, and that when the new theory has attained the rank of a 
scientific verity, and not till then, is it necessary to compare it with 



* Belfast Address. t Cosmic Philosophy. Vol. II, p. 449. 



656 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the teachings of Revelation. These mistakes have been widely 
made in the discussion of the theory of evolution. 

In the form in which the theory of evolution was first promul- 
gated, involving the spontaneous generation of being, and utterly 
eliminating the idea of an infinite Creator, it excited alarm, and the 
atmosphere was full of fierce controversy. This radical phase strug- 
gled hard for scientific recognition, but it seems to have failed in 
this form. Dr. Montgomery, one of its expounders in the Science 
Monthly, said : 

The disciples of science are every-where at work to raise to the dignity of a 
consistent theory what is promiscuously held on the strength of much good evi- 
dence, though, also, in reliance upon the eventual verification of much vague fore- 
shadowing. Though it is incumbent upon us evolutionists to prove our opinion, 
yet it must be admitted that at present we are far from having established a con- 
nected chain of evidence in support of it. 

Mr. Tyndall in his celebrated address before the British Asso- 
ciation said : 

Either let us open our doors fully to the conception of creative acts, or, aban- 
doning them, let us radically change our notions of matter. 

Again he says : * 

There is not a shadow of evidence of spontaneous generation. There is, on 
the contrary, overwhelming evidence against it. ... I am led inexorably to the 
conclusion that in the lowest, as in the highest organized creatures, the method of 
nature is that life shall be the issue of antecedent life. 

Mr. Darwin, at least in his maturer thought, distinctly recog- 
nized the Creator, and traced back the series of developments to 
this original source of life. He said : f 

Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals 
and plants have descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a 
deceitful guide. T should infer from analogy that probably all the organic beings 
which have lived on this earth have each descended from some one primordial 
form into which life was first breathed. 

It is not the theory of Mr. Darwin, but that of Herbert Spencer 
or Haeckel — not evolution, but transformism or "monism" — which 
arrays itself against theism. It is this "monism," a "single principle 
of things," a materialistic force, governed by laws inhering in itself, 
out of which the universe of radical unbelief is evolved — " the 
homogeneous begetting the heterogeneous, which is concentrated, 
and co-ordinated, and differentiated, and segregated, and hereditated, 



* Lecture on the " Origin of Life" before the Royal Institute of London, 
f " Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection." 



EVOLUTION COXSIDERED. 65/ 

and environed, until at last we get the universe as it is, which we 
are invited to believe is solely and purely a materialistic universe." 
When pressed by the inquiry, ''Whence this monism endowed with 
such possibilities?" Haeckel points to "spontaneous generation," 
as "crystals form in the mother-liquor," which he confesses is "an 
assumption required by the demand of the human understanding 
for causation,"* and leaving still open the palpable inquiries, 
Whence "the mother-liquor?" and who made it capable of spontane- 
ously generating such monera — and thence such a universe as this? 
Multitudes of the best philosophic minds, after treating with candor 
and careful scrutiny these hypotheses, join with Cowper : 

Defend me, therefore, common sense, say I, 
From reveries so airy — from the toil 
Of dropping buckets into empty wells, 
And growing old in drawing nothing up ! 

One of the very latest scientific testimonies of the highest rank 
is that of Professor Hartmann, of the University of Berlin, in his 
Anthropoid Apes, f He shows that the differences between these 
apes and man are greater than their resemblances. He says : 

Man cannot have descended from any of the fossil species which have hitherto 
come to the notice of scientific inquirers, nor yet from any species of apes now 
extant. A supposed progenitor of our race is necessarily completely hypothetical, 
and all attempts hitherto made to construct even a doubtful representation of its 
characteristics are based upon the trifling play of fancy. Even if the assumed 
ancestral type should really be discovered in some geological stratum, yet research 
will have to overcome immense difficulties if it is to explain the development of 
the understanding and speech, and the growth of independent local intelligence. 

Evolution has evidently reached its limit in attempting to ac- 
count for the origin of man, and believers in Genesis are resting in 
the assurance that his creation was exceptional, as a " son of God." 

This question has received much attention of late years, and 
Mr. Darwin's name has been the most prominent of all, as its pro- 
pounder and special advocate. What many have called Darwinism 
is, strictly speaking, an attempt to ascertain the rationale, the law of 
evolution. It presupposes evolution; but it is an endeavor to show^ 
how evolution works by "natural selection," etc. It has been truly 
said : 

Evolution is older than Darwin : the French naturalist, La Marck, taught it 
long ago; Diderot taught it; not a few Christian scientists have long taught it. 

* Evohitio7i of Van. By Haeckel. Vol. II. p. 31. 

t Kegan. Paul & Co. Jntej-naiional Scientific Series. London, 1885. 



653 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 

Before Darwin was heard of, our own able biblical scholar, Professor Tayler Lewis, 
taught it, by biblical exegesis, as implied in the Mosaic Cosmology. He was a 
Darwinist before Darwin. Mivart, an earnest Roman Catholic, shows that the 
great early Christian "fathers," Augustine, etc.. taught evolution as God's pro- 
gramme of the natural world. Wallace, who really preceded Darwin in what is 
called Darwinism, contends for Christian "orthodoxy " respecting the creation, 
especially of man, and shows that Darwinism must be supplemented by doctrines 
which sustain the old ideas of intelligent causality. Christian teachers have, in 
fine, erred in taking upon themselves too much the onus of the debate on these 
subjects. * 



Section 2.— Prom Science ys. the Bible to Science 

with the Bible. 

History shows the mutabilities of science. Many scientific books 
and charts of fifteen and twenty years ago are of little value to-day. 
In the British Museum, and in the Academy of Science, in Paris, 
the natural history specimens have been unwittingly arranged ac- 
cording to the order given in the first chapter of Genesis. Eminent 
scientists like Cuvier, Sir John Herschell, Dr. Whewell, Guyot, 
Dana, etc., etc., accept the word of God as a safe guide as to the 
order of creation. Hon. William E. Gladstone says the order in 
Genesis " may be taken as a demonstrated conclusion and an estab- 
lished fact." 

A recent writer in the London Christian shows the great con- 
trast in sentiment in the British Scientific Association, at its meet- 
ing last year in Birmingham, as compared with its meeting in that 
city in 1865. At that time radical skepticism prevailed. Radical 
evolution ideas were rampant, and God and revelation were sup- 
posed to be eliminated from the world. At the late meeting, how- 
ever, Sir Wm. Dawson, the President, was a Christian, and in his 
address he strongly vindicated the Bible. The leading members of 
the Section on Geology were of pronounced religious views. In the 
Section on Anthropology, where especially skepticism predominated 
in 1865, the President, Sir George Campbell, declared that the Bible 
teaching as to the origin of man was the only firm ground. William 
Carruthers, who presided in the Section on Biology, was an ardent 
Christian. On Sunday a large number of members met for devo- 
tional exercises, and Sir Wm. Dawson urged scientific men to apply 
the same intelligence and earnestness to the study of the Scriptures 
that they do to that of Nature. The last twenty years shows a 
strong drift from skepticism toward the acceptance of revelation. 

*Rev. Abel Stevens, D.D., LL.D. 



THE SCRIPTURES VINDICATED. 650 

The Bible, so severely assailed and sharply scrutinized by nat- 
ural scientists during the last forty years, is emerging from the 
stern ordeal with brightening evidences of vindication. Tested 
from a new quarter, by developments new, often immature, and 
frequently self-destructive, a little time has been required to mature 
the questions and bring them to a proper understanding. But there 
has been no difficulty in adjusting well ascertained results to the 
great cycle of truth of which God is the center, and all is in har- 
mony with him. We are learning that modern thought does not 
destroy any thing essential in the old faiths,* but invests them with 
a more beauteous light. The period of violent attacks upon the 
Bible by natural science, and violent defense, has gone by. The 
period of ingenious compromises and concessions between religion 
and science has also passed. We have now reached the time when 
the question is hardly asked whether religion and science can be 
harmonized, but rather how both can be used in the rational inter- 
pretation of the universe. The main body of scientists at the pres- 
ent day are firm believers in Christianity, and the latest results of 
natural science have no warmer advocates than are to be found 
among Christian believers. 

The varied and protracted inquiries into the nature of biblical 
inspiration show a deepening conviction of some peculiar Divine 
clement, and consequently a peculiar value attached to the Sacred 
Scriptures; and the elaborate comparison of the Bible with other 
<>reat religious books is a substantial concession of its hi<7h charac- 
tor, and has demonstrated its matchless superiority. Professor 
Bowen, of Harvard College, quotes Hartmann as saying, " The 
germs of all revealed religion are to be found in the heated fancies of 
the mystics, these fancies being due to inspiration from the Uncon- 
scious," and then adds, " The evidence adduced goes far enough to 
confirm a text of Scripture, which he unconsciously labors to estab- 
lish, that, 'The prophecy came not in old time by the will of 
man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 

Ghost.'" f 

Some of the specific doctrines of revelation have received ample 
confirmation from the best and strongest developments of modern 
thought. Kant's "sharp criticism of pure reason, his deep knowl- 
edge of human weakness and depravity, revealed in his doctrine of 
the radical evil, and his categorical imperative of the moral law, were 

* See Old Faiths in a New Light. By Rev. Newman Smyth, D. D. Charles Scribner & 
Sons. 1879 

+ Philosophical Lectures P. 456. 



660 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

all adapted to produce in profound minds a despair of themselves, 
and a want which Christianity alone could fully satisfy." * 
Rev. H. VV. Beecher said : f 

From a new quarter, namely, science itself, in the theory that is now held, and 
is likely to be more widely held, of the origin of man, the doctrine of universal sin- 
fulness is assumed and believed, not as a dogma, but as a conceded universal fact. 
. . . Unexpectedly from right out of the camp of science comes a belief in the doc- 
trine which underlies the whole truth of religion — the doctrine of the universal lost 
condition of man. 

The modern doctrine of the solidarity of the race also confirms 
this Bible truth. 

In his Data of Ethics Herbert Spencer gives to the world the 
results of his investigation into the foundations of morality. These 
inquiries he conducted independently of the New Testament, with 
reference to the facts and laws of human nature. By his own pecu- 
liar processes of reasoning, he develops a practical rule of morality 
which is simply a restatement of the Christian law. How far he 
may have been unable to divest himself of New Testament ideas, and 
was unconsciously led by them in his investigations, can, of course, 
never be determined ; but this distinguished living sociologist unde- 
signedly bears his testimony to the rationale of moral principles 
inculcated by Jesus Christ. Nor can he resist the acknowledgment 
that the conclusion he has reached is "a rationalized version of the 
ethical principles of the current creed" — in short, a verification of 
Christ's teachings. 

The latest developments of physical and psychological science 
and the later interpretations of Scripture have augmented the vol- 
ume of testimony in favor of the doctrine of personal immortality. 
The greatest names in modern philosophy, Bacon, Descartes, Leib- 
nitz, Locke, Kant, Hamilton, and even Hartmann, are subscribed 
in its support. 

Could there be a clearer though undesigned recognition of the 
doctrine of personal accountability to God tha-n the rapid and 
widely extended multiplication of oaths and obligations, and their 
substitution in modern society in the place of former physical 
methods of binding men ? Kant's famous line, " The starry heavens 
above me, the moral law within me," and his "categorical impera- 
tive of the moral law," have placed this doctrine on an unshaken 
foundation with thinking men. Modern skepticism, talking of duty, 
responsibility, " the sacred obligation of truth," and the duty of 



* Kurtz. f Sermon on "Christianity Changing Yet Unchanged." P. 3$. 



EXALTATION OF CHRIST 661 



respecting the beliefs of others, has also unwittingly conceded this 
great principle. Sometimes, perhaps, these phases contain only 
half truths, but when did classical antiquity or the skepticism of 
the previous century allow as much? 



S6ction,3.— From Christ Discarded to Christ Honored. 

The skepticism prevalent from fifty to one hundred and fifty 
years ago was noted for its scornful rejection of Christ. It freely 
poured out aspersions and anathemas upon the Redeemer. " Crush 
the wretch," the favorite motto of Voltaire, with which he led the 
assaults against Christianity, was the watchword all along the vast 
lines of the infidel hosts. But how changed now the style of allu- 
sion to Christ among the most radical skeptics! And even where 
the higher claims of Christ are not accepted, how much of lofty 
encomium is bestowed upon him, and how studied the effort to exalt 
him to the highest possible degree, often indulging in language which, 
perhaps sometimes unwittingly, acknowledges his Supreme Deity! 

The philosophers have attentively studied Christ and uttered 
remarkable acknowledgments. Rousseau said, " If Socrates lived 
and died like a philosopher, Jesus lived and died like a God;" 
Richter, " He is one who with his pierced hands rased empires from 
their foundations and turned the stream of history from its old 
channels;" Kant, "One of those names before which the heavens 
bow;" Fichte, " His followers are nations and generations;" Schil- 
ling, " He is the turning-point of the world's history;" Hegel, "The 
person in whose self-consciousness the unity of the Divine and 
human first appear;" Strauss, " He is the highest model of religion 
within the reach of our thought;" Renan, "A matchless man, so 
grand that though all must be judged from a purely scientific point 
of view, I would not gainsay those who, struck with the exceptional 
character of his work, call him God ; " again, " Even to-day ration- 
alism does not look at him closely, except on its knees ; " Chan- 
ning, " Jesus is not a fiction. He is still the Son of God, and the 
Saviour of the world;" Parker, "There is God in the heart of this 
youth. The philosophers, the poets, the prophets, the rabbis — 
he rises above them all," and De Wette, "Only this I know; in no 
other is there salvation except in the name of Jesus Christ and him 
crucified, and for the human race there is nothing higher than the 
God-man realized in him and the kingdom of God planted in him." 

Schilling, after years of ranging between the idealistic and real- 



662 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

istic systems, near the close of his life, while in conversation with a 
friend, said he had hoped to be able to give to the world a treatise 
upon the harmony between Revelation and philosophy. His friend 
asked what would be the key-note of the harmony. Taking down 
a copy of the Greek Testament he read Rom. 1 1. 36, " For of him 
(Christ), and through him, and to him, are all things'; to whom be 
glory forever. Amen." "This," said Schilling, " is the foundation 
and last word of philosophy — the key-note of the harmony between 
philosophy and revelation." 

Among some non-trinitarians there has been a perceptible 
advance toward the recognition of the Deity of Christ. While 
some have descended to purely humanitarian grounds, others have 
risen to higher conceptions, and it is now generally agreed that the 
Arian view is a thing of the past. Its former advocates have 
advanced to the Sabellian or the Logos theories, and some to the 
orthodox doctrine. That estimable Unitarian clergyman, Rev. E. 
H. Sears,* said : 

Essential Divinity in Christ is not a person separated from the Father, an- 
other person, but consubstantial with the Father, and revealing the whole God- 
head in one glorious person. 

Rev. Samuel P. Putnam, D.D., a Unitarian clergyman of the 
highest character, said : 

Not much is accomplished when it is proved that Jesus is not God. When we 
do this, he ceases to be a central fact, a leader, a Saviour. Only God in his infini- 
tude can be these ; only he can satisfy our innermost needs. No finite being, 
however perfect and glorious, can do it. f 

Rev. James W. Thompson, D.D., of the same class, said:;); 

Glorying in the regal majesty and dominion of his Lord, does some raptured 
saint, with his ear near to God, hear a voice from the excellent glory addressing 
the Son : " Thy throne, O God! is for ever and ever ; a scepter of righteousness 
is the scepter of thy kingdom ; thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity ; 
therefore God, even thy God, hath attointed thee with the oil of gladness above 
thy fellows"? Even so. Amen. Laudate Dominum. We rejoice ; we exult ; 
we give thanks; we chant our response with the Church, and say, "God of God, 
light of light, very God of very God/' not homoiousian with the Arians, but 
homoousian with the Athanasians, and none shall receive a heavier meaning from 
those divinely loaded words than we. 

Rev, J. C. Kimball, § another able minister and writer of the 
same denomination, said : 



*These gentlemen, it should be said, nevertheless decidedly dissent from trinitarianism. Their 
utterances are introduced in no controversial spirit, but as indicating a drift of thought in a cer- 
tain class of minds. t Religious Monthly Magazine. February, 1874, pp. 134-136. 

X Christian Examiner , March, 1856, p. 185. § Christian Examiner, January, 1867. 



ETHICS OF CHRISTIANITY. 663 

All past experience shows that to attack the Trinity, or what is now becoming 
the chief point in the doctrine, the Deity of Christ, on its logical side, is utterly in 
vain. It is clung to in the face of the clearest demonstrations of its untruth. It 
somehow feeds the soul, gives it the fullness of the divine nature, and what avails 
it to prove by argument that food is dust and ashes, when millions of beings are 
using it every day, and rinding it gives them grandest health and strength ? 



Section 4.— From Hegative to Biblical Ethics. 

The ethics of Christianity were never before so widely accepted 
in the current literature, the common belief, and the actual life of 
the race. They are sifted into all departments of knowledge. New 
Testament morals are universally conceded and dominant, not 
because of civil or ecclesiastical authority, as in some former times, 
but from rational convictions of their essential rightfulness. And 
the ethical theory that man has a religious nature, with religious 
needs, a conscious dependence upon the Divine Being, and a neces- 
sity for worship ; in short, that in the constitution of man there is 
a foundation for religion, is now confessed by the greatest thinkers, 
as the result of careful, scientific analysis. David Strauss, after 
years of wild, destructive criticism, in his last book declared that in 
the fields both of positive and of natural theology there exist valid 
grounds for the deepest and purest piety, which, " under its twofold 
aspect of utter dependence and utter reliance, constitutes the inmost 
core of all the manifestations of religion." While we may question 
whether such an answer can be given from his stand -point, we never- 
theless rejoice to see so sturdy a critic acknowledge a sure ground 
of personal piety and spiritual consolation. It was the ground of 
Schleiermacher in his great and successful contest with the mate- 
rialists and pantheists, and on which we hope many may yet be led 
into "all truth." 

Thomas Carlyle, notwithstanding his avowed Pantheism, denial 
of miracle, authoritative revelation, etc., often opened his heart 
widely and uttered his profounder convictions in harmony with 
great truths of Divine revelation. On one occasion, in a company 
of scientific gentlemen who were airing the most radical views of 
evolution, they challenged him to give his opinion of the origin of 
man, under the supposition that he sympathized with them, and 
was not trammeled by religious scruples. Gathering himself up and 
speaking in atone that silenced laughter, Mr. Carlyle replied, " Gen- 
tlemen, you may make man a little higher than the tadpoles. I hold 
with the prophet David, 'Thou madest him a little lower than the 



664 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

angels' ' He stoutly asserted the Divine government of the world, 
and appealed to it constantly as the surest reality in the universe ; 
he emphatically insisted upon the moral law and the eternal dis- 
tinction between right and wrong, and gloried in himself as " a 
preacher of the kingdom of Divine righteousness." 

George Eliot never wholly rid herself of the vital truths of her 
early religious training. In her earlier revulsion, which was very 
radical, she was conscious of the hollowness and insufficiency of 
infidelity, and said, " It is the quackery of infidelity to suppose that 
it has a nostrum for all mankind, and to say to all and singular, 
' Swallow my opinions and you shall be whole.' ' A little further 
on in life, while in the heyday of her unbelief, she wrote to Miss 
Hennel that she should like to work out a paper "on the superiority 
of the consolations of philosophy to those of so-called religion." 
Still later she distrusted this substitute, and shrank from all attempts 
to unsettle the religious beliefs of men. In a letter to Madame 
Bodichou, in 1862, she said : 

Pray don't ever ask me again not to rob a man of his religious belief, as if you 
thought my mind tended to such robbery. I have too profound a conviction of 
the efficacy that lies in all sincere faith to have any negative propagandism in me. 
In fact, I have very little sympathy with Free-thinkers as a class, and have lost all 
interest in mere antagonism to religious doctrines. 

In the last part of her life The Imitation of Christ was one of 
her favorite books, read and re-read, and the Bible was apart of her 
daily reading. 



Section 5.— Prom the PoYerty of Skepticism to the 
Wealth of Christianity. 

These distinct recognitions of the fundamental ethical ideas of 
Christianity are establishing it more and more firmly, and no skep- 
ticism, no change of institutions, no revolution, nothing developed 
by philosophy, from Descartes to Spencer and Hartmann, can change 
the eternal fact inherent in man's nature of utter dependence upon 
God for spiritual repose and consolation. Thus is Christianity being 
continually vindicated on some new basis, according to the changing 
phases of knowledge, and more impregnably established in candid 
minds. 

Some of the more courageous skeptics have attempted to push 
their theories to ultimate practical results, in order to show that 
their systems are capable of meeting the deeper needs of humanity. 
But their efforts have only led to constrained or implied confessions. 



INSUFFICIENCY OF MATERIALISM. 665 

A writer in the Westminster Review for October, 1872, set for him- 
self the task of estimating the capacity of the current materialistic 
philosophy to console and elevate human life. Its incentives and 
comforts to cultivated minds were portrayed with feeble, vanishing 
touches ; the necessities of the common heart of humanity were 
overlooked, and the article closed with seemingly conscious dissatis- 
faction. On any purely materialistic basis, life loses its noblest aims 
and ideals, self-sacrifice its significance and impulse, and virtue 
becomes an empty, unreal thing. 

None more than materialists believe in kk the order of things," 
but they shrink from carrying their theories to practical results. 
Thus reduced, the theories of Schopenhauer and Hartmann would 
eclipse the universe. Their direct sociological bearings, so deterio- 
rating and destructive in practical life, have disclosed to many minds 
their true character. Dr. Strauss, as we have seen, lived to see the 
unsatisfactory character of his theories, as evident from his " Bin 
Bekenntniss " (A Confession), though his recantation was only par- 
tial. Thoreau, a beautiful writer and an ardent worshiper of Nature, 
in one of his peculiar moods, complained of the failure of his pan- 
theistic worship to satisfy the deepest needs of his consciousness, 
and expressed the sadness of his inner life in these plaintive lines : 

Amid such boundless wealth without, 

I only still am poor within ; 
The birds have sung their summer out, 

But still my spring does not begin. 

With characteristic frankness, Mr. O. B. Frothingham, one of 
the most cultured leaders in " Free Religious" doubt, said of the 
system he had championed : 

The new faith cannot compete with the old. in what are commonly called " benev- 
olent enterprises." It would not, probably, if it were as rich and capable as the 
old faith is. Not because the Radicals are stingy, as has been over and again 
asserted, but because they cannot accept the principle on which these exercises are 
conducted, and no other principle is yet in working order. No original work is yet 
possible. . . . The new methods of charity — reasonable, scientific, practical — have 
not yet been devised. . . . The new faith will exhibit its charity when it finds an 
object which makes to it a commanding appeal.* 

A little later Mr. Frothingham terminated his labors in New 
York city, " deliberately announcing his dissatisfaction with his own 
teachings, whether in himself or in others." f 

* A discourse on the " Living Faith." New York city, 1871. 
t New York Evening Post, 1879. 



666 CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES. 

Full of significance are also these lines of Matthew Arnold : 

The sea of faith 

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore 

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. 

But now I only hear 

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, 

Retreating to the breath 

Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear 

And naked shingles of the world. 

Ah, love, let us be true 

To one another ! for the world, which seems 

To lie before us like a land of dreams, 

So various, so beautiful, so new, 

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, 

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain ; 

And we are here, as on a darkling plain, 

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, 

Where ignorance armies close by night." 

Professor Youmans, eminent as a scientific evolutionist, recently 
said, that while there were $54,000,000 invested in churches in New 
York city, 

If there is a scientific society in New York that owns a roof or shelter we do 
not know of it. Religious people every-where are pouring out their money in 
behalf of all manner of religious enterprises, in quantities that are without prece- 
dent, and that, we take it, is very solid proof, in this money-grabbing age, of the 
reality of their faith and the intensity of their enthusiasm. The churches include 
within their ranks the large majority of the best classes of citizens ; and their 
teachings are accepted by thinkers who do not "advance " with evolutionists, but 
who have quite as much learning, quite as high intellectual capacity, and quite as 
much skill in determining the respective values of the new doctrines. The religion 
that the advanced thinkers turn over to the antiquary is the mainstay and bulwark 
of our civilization ; it is the one great force that stems the tide of demoralizing and 
disintegrating influences that threaten social order, and it is the sole guarantee 
that mankind has of progress, elevation and liberty in this world, to say nothing of 
the promise it makes of better and higher things in the impenetrable hereafter. 

Frederick Harrison, who has ranked as a distinguished disciple 
of Comte, has shown the inadequacy of the agnosticism of Herbert 
Spencer as a religion : 

" In the hour of pain, danger and death." says Mr. Harrison, " can any one 
think of the Unknowable, hope any thing of the Unknowable, or find any conso- 
lation therein ? . . . A mother wrung with agony for the loss of her child, or the 
wife crushed by the death of her children's father, or the helpless and the oppressed, 
the poor and the needy, men, women and children, in sorrow, doubt and want, long- 
ing for something to comfort them and to guide them — something to believe in, to 
hope for, to love and to worship — they come to our philosopher, and they say, 
' Your men of science have routed our priests and have silenced our old teachers. 



CHRISTIANITY COMPELS RESPECT. 667 

What religious faith do you give us in its place?' And the philosopher replies 
(his full heart bleeding for them), and he says, « Think of the Unknowable ! ' The 
same objection is open to Comte's religion of Humanity. It is no consolation in 
the hour of death to think of the Impersonal Humanity." 



Section (>.— From Defiant Discourtesy to a Patron- 
izing Respect. 

Another converging tendency is a manifest change in the dress, 
form and spirit of modern skepticism, showing the modifying influ- 
ence of Christianity. The defiant spirit of the Diderots and the 
Paines has almost wholly disappeared. What naturalist now spec- 
ulates like D'Holback? What historian discourses likeVolney? 
And what metaphysician dogmatizes like Helvetius? Infidelity has 
greatly accommodated itself to Christian phraseology : has accepted, 
in the form of half truths, fundamentals of the Christian system 
which a century ago were scouted, and has become more rational 
and religious in its manner. However deceptive its attitude in 
these accommodated forms, the fact itself is a substantial conces- 
sion in favor of Christianity and of the need of its faith. ll Infi- 
delity can now deny a personal God, and at the same time, as by a 
double consciousness, breathe out the devotional language of the 
Bible in ' spurious religiosity.' It adorns itself with religious sen- 
timents, and with ' words which belong by right to faith alone.' It 
talks of prayer, permeates literature with a self-conscious devout- 
ness, breathes heavenly aspirations, wails languidly over the evils 
of the world, talks wonderfully of the All-Father, and even sings 
David's psalms." * 

What a peculiar power is this in Christianity, that even " its 
deadly foes and traducers borrow its speech and trade upon its cap- 
ital. This borrowing and wearing in public view the insignia of 
the divine kingdom obscures somewhat the distinction between the 
body of faith and the body of unbelief, renders Christianity less 
conspicuous by reason of her very triumphs, and, forsooth, perils 
somewhat her hold upon undiscriminating minds." f But it is her 
glory that, as a living power, she has so wrought upon her great 
enemy as, by constraint, to change it so far into her own image. 
The solid central truths of Christianity have compelled these things. 
While these changes have been going on, the aggregate of skeptical 
gain has been nothing. Not a single great concession has been 
made by Christianity to unbelief; but " the life of Jesus is still 

* The Light : Is it Waning? Boston, 1879. f Ibid. 



668 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

majestic and divine — the insoluble enigma to the cold critic, but 
attractive and comprehensible to the humble believer." " It would 
take a good octavo to contain merely the titles of the works that 
the last forty years have produced in favor of the divine foundations 
of Christianity. The war has been carried into the enemy's camp, 
and the leading skeptical writers are more busied just now with 
defending their own ground than with advances upon the Church." * 
Nor have these converging tendencies been wholly from with- 
out the fold of Christianity. From within the fold of " orthodoxy " 
there have been movements which have been bringing Protestantism 
nearer the center and core of truth. 



Section 7.— From Scholastic to Vital Truth. 

It must be confessed that Christian truth has formerly been too 
much in bondage to arbitrary systems and dialectical forms, com- 
promising its purity, and investing it with qualities which do not 
belong to the truth " as it is in Jesus." A liberating and purging 
process has been greatly needed, delivering it from human construc- 
tions which have been only misconstructions, and presenting it in 
those purer and simpler forms in which it was originally presented 
by the Great Teacher and the apostles. This purification of theology, 
under the modifying influence of modern culture and the increasing 
spirituality in the churches, has sometimes been mistaken for disin- 
tegration and decay. But the changes have chiefly related to out- 
ward expression, not to central truths ; while some things once mag- 
nified are now minified, and others once in the background have 
been brought to the front. A rehabilitating and restating process 
has been going on, not only in theology, but in medicine, in states- 
manship, in political economy, in education, in general science, and 
as we have noticed, even in skepticism. While there has been such 
great progress in all departments of knowledge, in philology, in 
biblical interpretation, it would be positively discreditable to the 
churches not to make restatements of Christian doctrine. That 
they have done so is to their credit. 

And how greatly has theology been sweetened and made attrac- 
tive and helpful, by discarding the old repellent features of Cal- 
vinism. 

The phrases, " The American Theology," " The Theology of our 
Age and Country," occasionally appearing among us, imply some- 



* Rev. Bishop John F. Hurst, D.D. 



GROWTH OF VITAL RELIGION. 669 

thing peculiar in the religious thought of the United States. It 
cannot have escaped the notice of wide observers, that there is 
apparent in the current religious ideas of American Christians, what 
may be denominated a consensus of opinions upon the more practical 
and experimental views of Christianity, in striving contrast with the 
consensus of religious opinions one hundred and fifty years ago. 
Then it was Calvinistic, now it is of a decidedly Arminian type. 
It would not be possible in less than a volume to trace the processes 
by which this transition has been effected ; but so prominent a phase 
of religious thought must not be wholly omitted. About a dozen 
years ago an eminent theologian,* in accounting for this transition, 
said. " It was born in a powerful revival of religion toward the mid- 
dle of the last century. It may be dated from the profound and 
devout speculations of the pure and venerable Jonathan Edwards 
and his successors, who manfully grappled with the problems of 
Christian metaphysics." To this he added that, " more recent 
importations of vast stores of European learning, etc., have also 
contributed." 

This is all true so far as it goes. Edwards had a line of suc- 
cessors — Bellamy, Smalley, Backus, Hopkins, Burton, Emmons, etc., 
under whom Calvinism of the olden time was gradually modified in 
the old Puritan churches ; but the doctrinal revulsion from Calvinism 
was manifold. With some it was a revolt from Christianity to infi- 
delity; with others, from "orthodoxy," as evangelical theology was 
styled, to Unitarianism, Universalism, etc., already sketched in this 
volume, f and falsely called in the last century " Arminianism," but 
strictly Pelagianism ; and with others still the broadest and deepest 
revulsion led to Methodist Arminianism. 

There can be no true history of American theological thought 
without the recognition of the Arminian revolution which has largely- 
eliminated the Augustinian theology, and which is of permanent 
historical interest, because it has been attended with a general resus- 
citation of spiritual life and activity, and because it seems destined 
to give permanent character to American religious thought. As for 
the Edwardean metaphysics, they have been gradually outgrown and 
widely repudiated, and the Edwardean "awakening" was local and 
temporary. The latter had disastrously reacted before Arminian 
Methodism reached America and began its work, which has lasted 
and grown until the present time. Whitefield, though a Calvinist, 
was not a theologian, and labored only to revive the life of the 
churches. The Arminian Methodist preachers followed closely in 

* Dr. Philip Schaff, in an Inaugural Address. f See chapter on "Diverse Currents." 

43 



670 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

his tracks, revolutionizing the religious thought, and the condition 
of the country, from Maine to Georgia. 

The Calvinistic reaction commenced before the introduction of 
Methodism — a sporadic revolt, personal and local, from the " horribile 
decretum " — with tendencies to radically opposite and dangerous 
heresies, which were stigmatized as "Arminianism " — distorting and 
caricaturing the purely evangelical system of the great Dutch the- 
ologian — a mistake exposed at a later period by Rev. Professor Moses 
Stuart, D.D. Meanwhile the Arminian banner was successfully 
carried forward all over the land, in a series of moral and spiritual 
triumphs and transformations, effectually leavening American Prot- 
estantism. Calvin's Institutes are now seldom accepted as a the- 
ological standard. The religious sentiment of the country recog- 
nizes Calvinism as effete, notwithstanding the occasional ratification 
of the Westminster Catechism, while the Edwardean fatalism has 
been the refuge of infidelity — Buckle, Mill, and the Materialists 
fortifying themselves with it. 

An eminent Congregational authority* said : 

There has been a prolonged controversy, commencing- with Edwards in the 
middle of the last century, and ending a century later with the accepted distinction 
between the " Theology of the Intellect and the Theology of the Feelings." Edwards, 
in his Treatise on the Will, established the faith that there is a Divine government 
which plans and controls all events, securing in the realm of moral beings the 
certainty of results without natural necessity — a certainty not inconsistent with 
freedom. He, as a theologian, discriminated between general justice and retribu- 
tive justice, showing how the former may be sustained while the latter is waived. 
Samuel Hopkins, born about a score of years later, developed the idea of respon- 
sibility as pertaining to character, rather than to our nature, in the strict sense of the 
word. Then followed two men ot opposite extremes — Burton and Emmons — each 
having his disciples. 

Asa Burton, as leader in the advocacy of the "Taste Scheme," made his the- 
ology accord with the poetry of Watts : 

" So, on a tree divinely fair, 

Grew the forbidden food ; 
Our mother took the poison there, 

And tainted all her blood." 

Nathaniel Emmons, denying not only the moral character of passive states, but 
also the permanency of any individual choice, sought to limit responsibility to a 
succession of exercises. 

Then followed the Old School and the New School war, led by 
Dr. Taylor, of New Haven, and Dr. Tyler, of East Windsor. The 
latter Seminary is now in Hartford, Ct. 

* Rev. Christopher Cushing, D.D., Editor of the Congregational Quarterly, in the issue 
of October, 1876. 



LIBERTY RESULTING FROM CONTROVERSY. 671 

Dr. dishing also says: 

Our controversy with the Unitarians served to fix the limitations of our thought 
as to the Divine nature. We are now careful to state that we do not use the word 
"Person" in its relation to the Trinity in its ordinary sense, but rather in a tech- 
nical sense — not as synonymous with being, but rather to indicate a distinction 
which the Scriptures reveal but which they do not analytically explain. We avoid the 
use of language which would suggest a belief in three Gods, or expose us to the 
charge of believing that one is three and three are one. While rejecting the Sabel- 
lian idea of a modal Trinity, a Trinity of mere manifestation, inadequate to explain 
the representations of Scripture, we accept the triune nature of the Godhead as a 
revealed fact, without attempting to decide whether the Trinity pertains to the sub- 
stance or only to the attributes of the Infinite Being whom we worship as the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Careful lest we seem to know too much, we 
accept the scriptural teachings as a matter of faith. 

The foregoing controversies were all of the gravest character, 
involving the most eminent talents and engrossing attention to a 
remarkable degree through many decades. These great " doctrinal 
crises," says Dr. Cushing, " have been attended with incidental 
evils, but on the whole they have resulted in great good, giving 
definiteness and distinctness to our views." 

As the result of our controversies we have gained the largest liberty. With 
these philosophical differences the oneness of our faith remains. We believe in a 
Divine Governor, revealed as a Triune Being ; that he controls all events and that 
he sustains his law by infinite sanctions ; that man, while possessed of amiable 
natural virtues, is yet by nature entirely sinful, and as such is exposed to the pen- 
alty of the Divine law; that through the vicarious sufferings and death of Christ 
man has the offer of pardon, and that the Holy Spirit is sent into the world to renew 
and sanctify the soul ; that if man resists the Spirit and rejects the Saviour he 
seals his own doom, and if he yields and believes he makes his eternal salvation 
sure. Call these doctrines Calvinistic, Edwardean, Scriptural, or what you please, 
they are the doctrines of our denomination, and they are in some respects dis- 
tinctive. . . . 

From all the doctrinal contests through which we have passed we have come out 
with a liberalized faith, but with the faith of the fathers still, the faith once delivered 
to the saints. It is not the minimum of truth which is essential to salvation, but that 
glorious system of truths which, in its consistency and coherence, is as resplendent 
as the great white throne. 

From various causes restatements of doctrine have been numer- 
ous, all indicating progress in thought, but showing a tenacious 
adherence to the old vital centers of truth. The doctrine of atone- 
ment is still firmly held by the body of evangelical Protestantism 
as vicarious and substitutional, though no longer preached as a ran- 
som of war or a commercial equivalent ; and Christ is now seldom 
portrayed as a culprit " shrinking under the bolts of his Father's 



672 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

personal wrath," and "sinking to the misery of the damned." Lit- 
eral fire and brimstone as the final portion of lost souls is now gen- 
erally discarded, although held by restorationists and evangelicals 
alike until within the present century.* The doctrine of the Trinity 
no longer savors of Tritheism. The six creative periods are now- 
interpreted by only a few scholars as six literal days. The theory 
of literal verbal inspiration has few advocates, the best divines hav- 
ing adopted the dynamic view. Very considerable modifications in 
the principles and methods of biblical interpretation have taken 
place, opening more natural and satisfactory views of the Divine 
Word. These are a few of the more noticeable changes. 

With these modifications, however, the central thought in each 
doctrine is retained. Take the great working doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, strip off the husks, and state them in their simplest forms : 
there is a personal Deity ; God is the supreme Sovereign of the 
universe ; he is a Being of infinite perfections ; he is the ultimate 
source of life ; a mysterious Threeness, so distinct as to justify the 
use of three different names and personal pronouns, is united in the 
oneness of the Godhead ; the Bible is the divinely inspired book ; 
it is so inspired as to be the authoritative rule of faith and practice ; 
the soul is immaterial and immortal ; man is a moral being and 
accountable to God; he is so depraved and weak that he cannot 
save himself and must have a Divine Saviour ; he must be spirit- 
ually changed in order to rise into harmony with holiness; whatever 
education or culture may do, the Holy Spirit is the efficient agent 
in effecting this change ; supreme Deity was embodied in the person 
Christ Jesus ; the death and resurrection of Christ is the sole basis 
of pardon and ground of hope for sinners; the effects of faith in 
Christ are the love of God shed abroad in the heart and a new life ; 
Christ will personally come the second time ; he will raise the dead ; 
there will be a day of future general judgment and a state of fixed- 
ness of character, involving endless retribution and reward in 
the future world. These vital centers of the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity are held, with little dissent, by all the denominations of evan- 
gelical Protestantism. The exceptions are rare as compared with 
the whole number, and there is no prospect of much change in 
these essential elements. Christianity is losing nothing of its 
inherent original self — onlythat which human imperfection, subtlety 
and folly have attached to it, trammeling and falsifying it. These 
modifications and restatements have invested it with greater power. 

*See Discourses on the Prophecies. By Rev. Elhanan Winchester. 1800. Vol. II, pp. 
86, 13.. 132. 



THE SWEEP OF THE PENDULUM. 673 

Section 8 — Yi oratory Movements. 

In all these discussions we should not overlook what Professor 
Austin Phelps, D.D., has denominated the " vibratory progress in 
religious beliefs." He says: 

The world's advances in great ideas commonly imitate the movement of a pend- 
ulum. Conquest of a great principle is rarely made, and held fast in its healthy 
and balanced mean, till the human mind has swung forth and back between its cor- 
relative extremes. Often successive vibrations occur before the popular faith grav- 
itates to the exact truth and rests there. Indeed, exact truth, rounded with astro- 
nomical precision, without an excrescence or a bulge anywhere, is never realized in 
popular thought on a subject vital to the world's progress. Approximations to the 
perfect crystal globe are all that our mental laboratory achieves. This vibratory 
phenomenon has been amply illustrated in the history of religious beliefs. . . . 

In some things the extreme begets an extreme. Luther and his compeers swung 
loose from some truths. An iconoclastic faith is rarely an eclectic and well-balanced 
faith. The destructive force is not commonly the rebuilding force. In the vision 
of St. John the angels who were commissioned to devastate sea and land did that, 
and nothing else. They bore in their hands nothing but the golden vials of the 
wrath of God. Moral revolutions tend to the same insulation of service. The 
men who pull down are not the men who build up, and with the evil some good is 
left in ruins. 

After speaking of the remarkable religious and missionary activ- 
ities of the age, he mentions some adverse tendencies : 

Do not the signs of our times indicate that this busy, mercurial style of Chris- 
tian activity needs to be weighted with more consolidated thinking? Central doc- 
trines of our faith seem to be jostled out of place underneath. Though not sunk 
out of sight, they lie inert and loose. They can support none but a rickety super- 
structure. The structure we are building leans out of plumb, like the tower of 
Pisa. It is not their fault, but their misfortune, rather, that our laity, on whom we 
rely for leadership in Christian enterprise, no longer hold the independent convic- 
tions which their fathers had, the fruit of their own theological reading and reflec- 
tions. Said one of them at a juncture of affairs at which his official position called 
for an opinion of a doctrine in theology, "The clergy must take care of that; I 
go with the majority." Did he not represent the attitude of multitudes of intelligent 
and earnest laymen? Yet in the present drift of the age what other attitude can 
they hold ? 

We all need the constructive and tonic influences of solitude. So much solitude, 
so much character. We specially need a new infusion of theological thinking 
among the leaders of our laity. We need a class of laymen who will take time to 
think out for themselves the fundamentals of the faith they profess. Few they 
might be in numbers, but an unconscious aristocracy in power over popular thought. 
Without some such auxiliaries to the clergy to steady the popular faith, we may by 
and by find our churches quaking in secret at phantoms of doubt which they dare 
not speak of, and yet cannot get rid of. This is the peril of a " missionary age," 
which is that and nothing more. Worse relapses follow most splendid advances. 
Does not the pendulum now need the touch of an unseen Hand? 



674 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

But we need not quake or croak with pessimistic fears. The tower of Pisa 
leans a long while without toppling over. While the Church remains in her form- 
ative age, the look of her condition will be that of transitionary movement. Much 
of her vitality will go to rectifying abuses, repressing inordinate tastes and re-ad- 
justing mistaken or exaggerated belief. Opinion will traverse wide spaces from 
extreme to extreme. The movement will often resemble the ponderous swing o 
the pendulum of an astronomical clock of huge dimensions. Her character will 
seem to consist of tendencies rather than of fixed qualities and consolidated prin- 
ciples. These tendencies will be variable, now to one extreme, then to its antipodes. 
The popular taith may never appear to repose securely at the one spot at which lies 
the exact and balanced truth. 

Yet such a look of things should quicken the courage of thinking men. It is 
cheering to know that no extreme has the inheritance of longevity. Error does not 
belong to a long-lived species. It carries in its bosom a momentum toward decay. 
Its doom is to die in the process of the popular recoil to its opposite. Every transi- 
tion from end to end may bring popular thought under a more potent magnetism 
from absolute truth, Truth, pure and simple, is the resultant of intemperate 
advances and indignant rebounds. Only by such oscillatory progress does the pop- 
ular mind seem able to achieve final and complete mastery of great ideas. 

Resume. 

Instead of inferring, as some have done, that the aforementioned 
modifications indicate an alarming decay of faith, we conclude that 
faith has extended her empire in the realm of the highest thought. 
Some lights have flickered and others have gone out, but vastly 
more lamps have been lighted where they never burned before. 
While shedding the worn out garments of technical expression the 
Christian standards have advanced. Faith in humanity, in God, in 
Christ's supreme Deity, and in the doctrinal and ethical system of 
Christianity, is increasing. Rightly interpreted, the phenomena we 
have considered mean that Christian ideas have so grown and 
developed that the old forms and terminology are no longer ade- 
quate to express them. It is one of the most hopeful indications 
of the times that, under the progress of philological study and bib- 
lical interpretation, the " true light is more fully breaking out of 
God's word," and that the rays of truth, no longer refracted by 
prisms of human dialectics, are converging in beauteous, self-authen- 
ticating forms — the best vindication of eternal Wisdom. 



DIVISIONS IX THE PRESS YTERI AX CHURCH. 678 



CHAPTER V. 



LIFE IN THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES. 



Skc. i. Organic Relations. Sec. 3. Revivals. 

2. Lay Activity. " 4. Spirituality. 



Section i.— Organic Relations. 

DURING this period the schisms, so numerous in the previous 
period, were few, and a number of denominations effected 
substantial reunions under the growing spirit of true catholicity. 
These will soon be noticed. A few schisms first demand attention. 

In 1858 the New School Presbyterian Church experienced a 
defection of its Southern adherents. Owing to a dissatisfaction 
with the action of the Assembly on the slavery question, the pre- 
vious year, the complaining parties withdrew, and organized what 
was called the "United Synod," at Knoxville, Tenn., April 2, 1858. 
It consisted of 100 ministers and about 200 churches, widely scat- 
tered over the Southern States. This Synod preserved its organ- 
ization until August 24, 1864, when it was merged into the General 
Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church, organized in 1861. 

The last division in the American churches, occasioned by the 
question of slavery, was effected in the Old School Presbyterian 
Church. The character of this agitation has been already set forth, 
and the immediate causes of the separation were not unlike those 
already described in other schisms of this class. Neither the anti- 
slavery sentiment of the Northern members nor the pro-slavery 
sentiment of the Southern members could be satisfied with any 
utterances which could be adopted by the General Assembly. 
Mutual alienations were rapidly accomplishing their work, prepar- 
ing the way for an open rupture. In this condition the civil war 
came on. Dr. Gillett says: 

A very considerable portion of the strength of the Presbyterian Church was 
within the limits of those States which, in 1861, seceded from the Federal Union ; 
and upon the Assembly of that year the long deferred question of slavery 
pressed with the weight of an avalanche. The General Assembly could not evade 



676 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the issue. It might; indeed, decline to recognize loyalty to an established govern- 
ment as a Christian virtue, but if it did so, its course would be repudiated by the 
great mass of its Northern constituents. No longer blinded by zeal to maintain 
its Southern alliance — the prospects and advantages of the continuance of which 
were more than questionable — the Assembly vindicated its loyalty, and manifested 
its repugnance to a rebellion initiated in the interests of slavery, by appropriate 
resolutions, which were passed by a vote of 156 yeas to 66 nays. The result 
of this action was the secession of the Southern churches and presbyteries, 
almost in a body, and the formation of the Southern General Assem- 
bly. The membership of the residuary portion of the Church was thus greatly 
reduced, and in 1863, according to the report of that year, the Church numbered 
only 127 presbyteries and 227,57$ members. * 

This was a decrease, by schism, of 44 presbyteries and 65,352 
members since i860. 

The Reformed Episcopal Church had its origin in New York 
city, December 2, 1873, in the withdrawal of Rev. George D. Cum- 
mins, D.D., assistant bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
Kentucky, from that denomination. Mr. Cummins was elected the 
first bishop of the new organization. This denomination, under the 
leadership of broad catholic clergymen, has met with a very friendly 
recognition by all denominations of Christians, but its growth has 
been slow. In 1858-9 a small secession took place from the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in Western New York, from which The 
Free MetJwdist Church was organized. The Colored Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church was formed by the amicable separation of 
colored members from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 
1872 the Colored MetJwdist Episcopal Church was formed by the 
peaceful separation of the colored members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South. The movement was planned in a perfectly 
friendly way by the white portion of the Church, believing that the 
colored people would be happier, and work more effectively, if organ- 
ized by themselves. The Union American Methodist Episcopal 
Church (Colored) has very recently come into existence, but it has 
been impossible to collect much information in regard to it. The 
Bible Christians in two forms — Bryan ites and non-Bryan ites, but 
Methodists in theology — have come into existence here since 1 850, 
an importation from England, where they originated. There are a 
few bodies called Independent Methodists and Congregational Meth- 
odists, sporadic in origin, Arminian in doctrine, but Congregational 
in polity, with only slight organic relations, existing chiefly in Balti- 
more and the South. They have come into being since 1850. 

The Cliristian Union Churches were organized in 1864, by Rev. 

* History 0/ the Presbyterian Church. By Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. Vol. II, p. 569. 



TENDENCY TO UNITY. 611 

J. F. Given, D.D., editor of the Christian Witness, published at Cen- 
terburg, Ohio.. Its local churches are independent in government, 
but it has a General Council which meets every four years. It recog- 
nizes no creed or discipline but the Bible, and practices all modes of 
baptism. It now claims about 125,000 members. It exists chiefly 
in the West. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have been brought 
here by emigration chiefly since 1850, and have organized churches 
in Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere, some of them affiliating 
with Presbyterian and others with Congregational bodies. The Ger- 
man Evangelical Synod of North America (Prussian Union), formed 
chiefly of German -speaking people, has appeared in this country within 
the last twenty years, numbering now 65,000 members. The Friends 
of the Temple (Hoffmann's followers) are a small body recently or- 
ganized among Germans. The Greek Catholics are found in Alaska. 
The Christians have recently been classified among the evangelical 
denominations. In 1854 the American Christian Convention passed 
resolutions on slavery offensive to its Southern members, who 
withdrew and organized the Southern Christian Convention, Rev. 
W. B. Wellons, D.D., President. 

Since the civil war the Northern and Southern Baptist Conven- 
tions have remained separate, the Southern Convention declining 
at first the fraternal overtures of the Northern Convention ; but of 
late years the relations have become more friendly. The Southern 
Convention censured the American Baptist Home Missionary 
Society for arranging, without consultation with the Southern 
Baptist Boards, to appoint ministers and missionaries to preach and 
raise churches within the bounds of the Southern Associations, and 
the Virginia Associations advised their churches to decline any fel- 
lowship or co-operation with such laborers. A large number of 
colored Baptist churches in the South separated from the Southern 
Associations and organized independent associations. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, separated in 1844 on account of slavery, have 
remained apart since the close of the war, with at first slight recog- 
nition of each other, but with more friendly relations, and even quite 
active efforts for reunion, in later years. The Methodist Episcopal 
Church promptly entered the South, as the field was opened during 
and since the war, effecting organizations every-where. At the same 
time the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has grown very rapidly 
since 1865. Warm fraternal relations now exist between the two 
great Baptist and the two great Methodist bodies, North and South, 
and a deep substantial union of hearts is progressing. 



678 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Unification. 

During the latter part of this period a new and very striking 
tendency has been manifested in many of the religious bodies. The 
spirit of schism which prevailed in the previous period has almost 
wholly departed, and Christian believers are rapidly becoming of 
one heart and mind. 

The first movement of this kind took place between the Associate 
Reformed and the Associate Presbyterian churches. After being 
separated for more than three quarters of a century, in May, 1858, 
they united upon a common basis, under the name of the United 
Presbyterian Church of North America. A small number on each 
side protested against the union. In i860 the new body numbered 
4 synods, 43 presbyteries, 447 ministers, 674 congregations, and not 
far from 60,000 communicants. 

The Associate Reformed Synod of the South still maintains a 
separate existence. In 1875 a plan of co-operation with the United 
Presbyterian Church of North America was adopted, but no steps 
were taken toward union. It has Erskine College, and a theologi- 
cal school at Due West, S. C. 

The Associate Synod of North America consists of a body of 
Presbyterians who refused to enter into union with the Associate 
Reformed Synod, in 1858, in the formation of the United Presby- 
terian Church of North America. They exist chiefly in Iowa and 
Indiana. 

In 1867 a union was effected between several of the smaller 
Methodist bodies, resulting in the organization of The Methodist 
Church. 

About the same time, the subject of the reunion of the two lead- 
ing Presbyterian bodies, the Old School and the New School, 
began to be agitated, ending in a most happy reorganization 
of the two in one large and prosperous denomination, after thirty 
years of separation. The question of reunion, after pending several 
years, was favorably decided in 1869 by the almost unanimous action 
of the two bodies, and in 1870 the united Church numbered 259 
presbyteries, 4,238 ministers, 4,526 churches and 446,561 * commu- 
nicants. The impressive occasion of the reunion was thus described : 

It was a sublime scene when the final ceremony of the occasion occurred, at 
Pittsburg, on November 12. The two Assemblies met at their respective places 
in the morning for devotional exercises, and at last formally dissolved — thus 

* This denomination has received a new impulse of growth since the happy reunion, having 
in 1887, 28 synods, 5,654 ministers, 6,436 churches and 696,767 communicants. 



GROWTH OF FRATERNAL FEELING. 



679 



ending, it is to be hoped forever, their separate and antagonistic careers. After this 
act, each Assembly fell into marching order, and moved in procession to the street 
fronting the First Presbyterian Church, where the Old and New School Commis- 
sioners greeted one another and locked arms amid the grateful shouts of an 
immense throng of people, the clapping of hands and waving of handkerchiefs. 
The procession then marched to the Third Presbyterian Church, where a grand 
union meeting was held. Telegrams flew over the wires to all parts of the 
country, and to the Presbyterians across the Atlantic. At the meeting the Holy 
Scriptures were read, prayers were offered, hymns of joy sung, and addresses de- 
livered by leading men — the two moderators of the late respective Assemblies, Drs. 
Jacobus and Fowler, clasping each other's hands in the name of the reunited 
churches. Not only chief clergymen, but chief laymen, like Judge Strong, Senator 
Drake and Hon. William E. Dodge, shared in the addresses. 

The relative growth of the two bodies during the period of 
separation will be seen by the following table : 





OLD SCHOOL. 


NEW SCHOOL. 




IS39 


1869* 


1839 


1869 




96 

1,823 

1,243 
12.8,043 


143 

2,740 

2,381 

258,903 


85 

I.2S6 

1,181 

100,850 


"3 

1,631 

1,848 

172,560 




Ministers 


Communicants 



Other movements toward reunion have been started between the 
reunited Presbyterians in the North, the Southern Presbyterian 
Church, the Reformed churches and several smaller Presbyterian 
churches. The different branches of Methodism are gravitating 
slowly, but surely- , toward each other, and the great Centennial Con- 
ference at Baltimore, in December, 1884, comprising representatives 
of the entire Methodist family of churches on the American conti- 
nent, clearly foreshadowed a future possibility. The Free Will 
Baptists, the Christians, the Congregationalists, etc., exhibit strong 
tendencies to unite. Among all of these bodies the spirit of fra- 
ternity is improving, and the prospect of organic unity brightens. 

Not only has there been great progress toward organic unity, 
but the moral unity of the denominations is becoming clearer and 
stronger every year. We have noticed, during the first fifty years of 
this century, twenty-two schisms in the churches of the United 
States, a few r occasioned by departures from evangelical theology, and 

* Besides the secession of the Southern Presbyterian Church in 1861. 



680 CHRIS TIAN1 TY IX THE UNITED STATES. 

a much larger number caused by disagreements on questions of eccle- 
siastical polity and policy. But since 1850 a new tendency has 
developed, only a few schisms occurring, all quite small, and 
caused by questions of policy. One of the most marked indi- 
cations of the times is the coming together of religious bodies 
in Christian fellowship upon a common platform of organization, or 
of labor, or both, incalculably increasing the moral unity of Chris- 
tianity. Christians are learning that they are one in the substance 
of their faith and in the spirit of their endeavors : that all else is of 
minor consequence ; and that Christian unit}* is not so much outward 
uniformity, or the utterance of the same scholastic statement of 
faith, or combination in one visible body and under one name, as 
oneness in spirit. 

This growing unit}" is one of the exponent facts of the age, an 
expression of a deepening charity and growing catholicity, more and 
more apparent through Protestant Christendom in each decade of 
the century, effecting a moral, if not an ecclesiastical, unification 
of Protestantism — a real " communion of saints." The world is 
learning that the true unit}* of Christianity is based upon spiritual 
character, not upon dogmas, ordinances or ecclesiastical forms. 
America began historically with many colonizing religious sects, 
having their origin in Europe ; and all through the first half of this 
century, under the unrestrained operation of the exercise of the 
right of private judgment, the disintegrating tendency wrought 
many divisions, over a score of new churches being brought into 
existence: but since 1850 we have reached the period of riper and 
maturer effects — the development of the spirit of unity. This aug- 
ments the power of the Church, for the spirit of unity and concord in- 
vites the world to the recognition of Christ. It was this that led Dr. 
I. A. Dorner, of Berlin, when in this country in 1873. to say that 
here, ,l Without laws, without the aid of worldly power (union with 
the State*, Christianity has won for itself a power over souls. The 
proof is the respectful tone in which the American press speaks of 
religious matters." 



Section £.— Lay Activity. 

Primitive Christianity infused a spirit of intense activity into the 
laity of the Church. After ten days of continuous joint services 
of the apostles and the laity, the morning of the memorable Pente- 
cost found the whole body together, in an expectant attitude, and 
the three thousand converts of that day were steadfast in doctrine. 



LAY ACTIVITY. 6S1 

fellowship and service. A layman was the chosen agent in opening 
the eyes of St. Paul, and pious women were commended by him as 
'"helpers in Christ Jesus." 

In the course of time, the spirit of ecclesiasticism dominated the 
Church, denying that the laity may come directly to God, concentrat- 
ing all spiritual functions in an imperious hierarchy, and supplanting 
spiritual life with imposing forms and elaborate ceremonials. After 
long, dark centuries, the Reformation broke the power of exclusive 
ecclesiasticism, and proclaimed anew the apostolic doctrine, every 
man his own priest. The deliverance was not at once complete. 
Even in Protestant bodies, the laity remained in partial bondage to 
ecclesiastical limitations. Immature at first, Protestantism has been 
a growth, under embarrassments from within and from without, but 
in each succeeding century the rigid bonds of ecclesiasticism have 
loosened, and the laity have come into a fuller exercise of their 
spiritual privileges. 

The Friends and the Moravians, thrusting out their members 
into active religious labor, contributed new impulses to this move- 
ment ; but the Wesleyan reformation, calling out all converts in 
testimony for Christ, and bringing into the field a large number of 
lay preachers and exhorters, greatly augmented and strengthened it. 
The new life imparted to the American churches since the great 
revival of 1800 has brought Christian men and women into still 
greater prominence in moral and religious enterprises. One hun- 
dred years ago, and, in some sections and churches, until some 
time after the opening of this century, prayer-meetings were 
rarely held, and there was little or no exercise of the gifts of the 
laity in religious meetings. Rev. Dr. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., in 
his semi-centennial sermon, said, " Meetings for prayer among the 
brethren of the church had been unknown during the life of its mem- 
bers." The little band of twenty-eight redoubtable champions of 
" orthodoxy," who left the Old South Church, Boston, to form the 
Park Street Church, in 1808, met several times for consultation, 
before one of them had courage to open his mouth in vocal prayer 
in the midst of his brethren.* Rev. John Fiske, of New Braintree, 
Mass., in his semi-centennial discourse, said he had been eleven 
years pastor of that church, before he heard the first word of prayer 
from any of his members, and that this was not an uncommon fact. 
Since that time what a change ! The prayer-meeting is now 
almost universal, and holds a very conspicuous place in religious 
services. * 

* Park Street Church Mem jrial Volume. 



6S2 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

City Missions, 
in a previous chapter, were noticed as one of the agencies which 
came into being in this country in the first half of this century. 
In the great revival of 1 830-1832, under the leadership of Mr. Har- 
lan Page, in New York city, a new interest was awakened in per- 
sonal efforts for the salvation of men, out of which came into opera- 
tion paid and unpaid agencies, " Tract Missionaries," etc., in the large 
cities. Since 1850 City Missions have received a stronger impulse. 
Few cities are now without these agencies. The five missionaries 
of the Boston City Missionary Society, prior to 1850, have been 
multiplied fivefold. 

Summary of Labors and Results for Fifty Years. 

Missionaries, years of service 908 

Visits made by missionaries 1,936,436 

Different families visited 457-°37 

Visits to the sick 206,440 

Papers and tracts distributed 9,257,784 

Bibles given to the destitute 12,217 

Testaments given to children and others 19.940 

Persons induced to attend public worship on Sunday. . . . 16,598 

Children gathered into Sunday-schools 36063 

Children gathered into public-schools 5-333 

Chapel and neighborhood meetings held 84,256 

Persons hopefully converted 3-347 

Persons furnished, employment 16,209 

Families afforded pecuniary aid 270,193 

Garments given to the poor 291,074 

Receipts of the Society for the missions $628,363 08 

Receipts for relief of the poor, Thanksgiving, Christmas 

offerings, and Fresh Air Fund $412,654 76 

In New York city in 1850 a well-devised system of street preach- 
ing was arranged, and carried on for some time. Then followed the 
Young Men's Christian Association, thrusting out young men in 
Christian labors. From 1857 onward, noon-day prayer-meetings 
became common for business men. During the war these agencies 
multiplied. In 1866 the New York City Mission Society entered 
upon a new era of evangelization. City mission documents and 
papers were circulated, followed by a general advance along the lines 
of religious activity. Within six years over $300,000 were raised for 
the general work, and $100,000 more were put into mission chapels. 
There now exist 118 Protestant missions where Sabbath-schools, 
preaching, and other religious and moral services are regularly car- 
ried on. About fifty missions are permanently established in 



THE VOLUME ENTERPRISE. 683 

commodious buildings. More than a million and a half of dollars have 
been invested in mission chapels. The city missionaries regularly 
employed in New York city are said to exceed 250, whose annual 
visits have been reported at 800,000. Besides these -there are hun- 
dreds of unpaid tract visitors, poor visitors, etc. 

Results of Fifty-eight Years. 

Years of missionary labor „ 1,44° 

Missionary visits 2,718,302 

Tracts in English and other languages distributed 53,676,740 

Bibles and Testaments supplied to the destitute.. .' 96,014 

Books loaned and given 233,222 

Children gathered into Sabbath-schools 122,577 

Children gathered into day schools 24,679 

Persons gathered into Bible classes I7>9 2 4 

Persons induced to attend church 283,704 

Temperance pledges obtained 60,286 

Religious meetings held 140.668 

Persons restored to church fellowship 3,295 

Converts united with evangelical churches 146,892 

The total amount expended in fifty-eight years $1,421,088 75 

In addition to the above sum. expended in the regular missionary operations of 
the Society, more than $200,000 has been raised for building chapels and churches. 

A high authority states that the city missionaries of New York 
city hold more than one thousand prayer-meetings every week 
among the neglected classes. These two leading city mission socie- 
ties are given as typical examples of the work going on in all our 
cities, where Christianity is grappling with the great evils of the 
world in their densest strongholds, as in no previous century. 

Colportage. 

The labors of this agency have been expended among non- 
worshipers in the older communities and in the sparsely settled dis- 
tricts of the South and West. It originated with the American 
Tract Society, as a union measure, with no denominational limita- 
tions, and founded no churches. But it has since been employed 
by some denominations, for the circulation of their literature in 
connection with religious labor. The salaries have offered no 
worldly inducements, and the labors performed have involved such 
sacrifices and trials as only deeply consecrated hearts can endure. 
Colportage has opened a great field of lay activity, in which many 
not of the first order of talent or the best educational culture, but 
earnestly desiring to do good, have accomplished grand results. 



684 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

This system of labor commenced in May, 1841. For a few years 
previous, what was known as the " Volume Enterprise," an opera- 
tion somewhat similar in character, had been carried on, but it did 
not reach the destitute classes, and tract distribution had been 
chiefly confined to the large towns and cities. The new movement 
was a combination of both of these, and the men who were first 
employed had been providentially* prepared for the new work in 
the " Volume Enterprise." 

In 1850 the eleven colporteurs of the American Tract Society, 
in 1841, had increased to 508. The first German employed in this 
line of work was Legee Ritty, a converted Roman Catholic. Super- 
intending agencies were established in leading commercial centers, 
and the colporteurs went from house to house, selling books wherever 
practicable, supplying gratuitously the poor, holding religious con- 
versation and offering prayer, conducting religious meetings, form- 
ing Sunday-schools, promoting temperance, and reporting their 
work systematically. A large portion of these colporteurs were 
pious students fitting for the Gospel ministry. The American 
Tract Society gives the following summary f of colportage for fifty- 
two years : 

Time employed, months 71 ,463 

Number of volumes sold 12,595,771 

Number of volumes granted 3, 1 76,2 1 5 

Number of public meetings addressed, etc 476,558 

Number of families destitute of all religious books except 

the Bible 1,190,254 

Number of Protestant families destitute of the Bible 706,365 

Number of families of Roman Catholics visited 1,772,616 

Number of Protestant families habitually neglecting evan- 
gelical preaching 2,034,025 

Number of families conversed with on personal religion 

or prayed with 8,874,894 

Number of family visits 14,163,167 

* When colportage was introduced there were those who looked upon it with fear and suspicion, 
sending out, as it did, unordained laymen into the work of laboring for souls. At the " Delibera- 
tive Meeting," held in the Broadway Tabernacle in 1842, when the question of adopting the 
system of colportage was under discussion, a preacher who was present took the negative, on 
the ground that it would be introducing a new, untried, and irresponsible class of laborers, who, 
with a zeal not according to knowledge, might work great mischief among the people and injure 
the cause of Christ. An honored pastor of New York city was passing out of the house when 
the suggestion was made. Waiting till the close of the speech, he returned to the pulpit, opened 
the Bible, read the reply of Moses to the demand of the impetuous and envious Joshua, that he 
should forbid the unlicensed Eldad and Medad from prophesying in the camp : "Would God 
that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them ; " 
and without a word of comment closed the book. That apt reply silenced opposing arguments 
and gave the sanction of the Holy Scripture to this effort to bring all the followers of Christ into 
active efforts in his service. t See Repo t f or 1893. 



YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS. 683 

The Presbyterian Board of Publication has employed colporteurs 
whose aggregate services in a single year have been equal to 1,329 
years. During seventeen years 1,553,958 families were visited, of 
whom 587,548 were conversed and prayed with. In thirty-one years 
1,206,962 volumes and 92,650.709 pages of tracts were given away. 
The Baptist Publication Board has performed a similar work by its 
colporteurs. This system illustrates not only the consecration of 
lay-talent to Christian work, but also the employment of the press 
as a means of correcting the evils of a corrupt literature. These 
tracts and volumes, in all modern languages, have been the first 
means of Christian contact with the throngs of emigrants coming to 
our shores. 

Young Men's Christian Associations. 

These institutions had their origin in a desire to promote the 
spiritual and temporal good of young men ; to rescue them from the 
foils of evil, to shield them from temptation, to furnish them 
Christian society and recreation, to impart intellectual stimulus, 
and to associate them together for religious fellowship and evangel- 
istic effort. The beginning of these organizations was quiet and 
unostentatious — a growth from certain temporary and provisional 
arrangements in behalf o f young men in London. In the heart of 
that city, in the counting-house of George Hitchcock & Co., drapers, 
was a young man, George Williams, who came into their employ 
from the tender and loving influences of a Christian home in the 
country, and felt the need of moral and religious aids to keep him 
in the midst of temptations incident to his new situation. By the 
consent of his employers a half hour each day was allowed for any 
of the clerks to meet in one of the counting-rooms for mutual im- 
provement. After a little while Mr. Hitchcock himself attended 
their meetings, and the influence for good was so manifest that 
other establishments were invited to co-operate with them. The 
promotion of personal piety was the distinct object of these meet- 
ings. 

On the 6th of June, 1844, young men from several business 
houses came together at No J2 St. Paul's Church-yard, and re- 
solved to organize themselves into a " Society for Improving the 
Spiritual Condition of Young Men Engaged in the Drapery and 
other trades." Mr. Williams was the prime mover, and subse- 
quently came to be head of the firm in whose rooms the Association 
originated. To the religious character of this Association its 

founders soon added the idea of intellectual improvement, and for 
44 



686 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

that purpose established libraries and instituted debates. They also 
inaugurated the Exeter Hall Lectures to Young Men, since famous 
throughout the world. The Society also instituted Sunday Bible 
classes, and employed its members in general Sunday-school and 
Ragged School work. It adopted a regular system of tract dis- 
tribution, and in 1851, the year of the first universal Exhibition, its 
members distributed no less than 352,000 tracts among visitors to 
the World's Fair, and held 1,550 public and social religious services 
in the metropolis. 

On the 9th of December, 1 851, the first Young Men's Christian 
Association was organized in Montreal, Canada, and on the 29th of 
the same month the first in the United States was founded in Bos- 
ton. Neither of these two cities knew any thing of the action of 
the other until both had secured complete organizations. The cir- 
cumstances connected with the movement in Boston were as follows. 
A young man by the name of George M. Vanderlip (since a director 
in the Young Men's Christian Association in New York city) sailed 
from Boston, 1851, for an extended tour on the Continent of Europe 
as a correspondent of the Watchman and Reflector. In a visit to 
the Young Men's Christian Association in London he was impressed 
with the value of such an institution for America, and wrote an ex- 
tended account of it. Captain T. V. Sullivan, a ship-master, and a 
member of the Harvard Street Baptist Church, in Boston, while in 
that port the same year also visited the Association and became 
interested in its work. On his return home he talked freely of this 
new institution. The testimonies of these two gentlemen awakened 
such an interest in the subject that a meeting was called in the Old 
South Chapel, which resulted in the organization of the Boston Asso- 
ciation. Hon. Francis O. Watts was the first president. He has 
been followed by Hon. Charles Theodore Russell, Hon. Joseph 
Story, Hon. Edward S. Tobey, Hon. Jacob Sleeper, Russell Sturgis, 
and others. 

Similar associations rapidly followed in New York city, Buffalo, 
Washington, D. C; Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, etc. The 
first International Convention was held in Buffalo, N. Y., June 7, 1854, 
thirty-five delegates attending, and a voluntary confederacy was 
formed, with a central committee and annual conventions. During 
the civil war these associations were weakened by the loss of the 
Southern members, and the destruction of some branches in the 
North by enlistment. After the close of the war they grew rapidly, 
and the annual conventions became occasions of great interest. 
Revivals of religion often followed their sessions. Young Men's 



DIAGrJRAIVI VIII. 



ILLUSTRATING BY FINANCIAL RECEIPTS THE GROWTH 
OF YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
1851 



TOTAL RECEIPTS.* 

:S5i-i859 $908,000 

1860-1869 7,384,218 f 

1S70-1S80 6,773,082 

1881-1894 13,591,81s 

Aggregate $28,657,118 

Net property (above debts) in buildings, 

real estate, furnishings, etc., 

$15,211,039. 



1860 



1870 



1880 



1894 




For current expenses, buildings, etc. 



+ Including money raised for the Christian Commission. 



DIAGRAM IX. 

ILLUSTRATING THE TOTAL GROWTH OP THE YOUNG MEN'S 

CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS, AND THE GROWTH IN 

LEADING COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. 



NUMBER OF ASSOCIATIONS. 



792, 



295. 



293. 



UNITED 
STATES. 



1,315. 



BRITISH' 
ISLES. 



843. 



GERMANY 



1 005 



1894< 




REMAINDER 
OF EUROPE 




Whole Number in 1894, 5,109. 



1880 s 



TOTAL GROWTH 



2,113. 



COUNTRIES NOT SPECIFIED ABOVE. 



Canada 

Mexico 

West Indies and ) 

Bermuda \ 

South America 



15 



t8 94 . 

8i 
i 

9 
6 



Asia 

Madagascar 

Africa 

Australia . . . 
Oceanica . . . 



18Q4. 

I6 7 

2 

22 

19 



'or fuller statistii see Problem of Religious Progress, 7894 (Hunt & Eaton, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York) p. 4^2, etc. 



THE CHRIST! AX COMMISSION 



6S7 



Christian Associations have been organized on all the continents. 
They numbered in all the world, in 1867, 966 associations; in 1872, 
1,344; in 1894, 5,TOg/* 

The membership of the associations in this country is generally 
larger than in Great Britain, and very much larger than on the Con- 
tinent of Europe, having here taken a stronger hold upon the 
popular heart. This may be accounted for in part from the differ- 
ence in the social relations of employers and employes in the two 
hemispheres. In the Old World the employe is directly under the 
control of the employer, being boarded by him, especially appren- 
tices and minors, while the American employer lets his employe 
loose at six P. M. to seek such influences as he pleases. Eighty-two 
associations in the United States and Canada have buildings 
valued at $3,532,855. Six hundred and eight associations reported 
their current expenses last year, $687, 587. There are 191 associ- 
ations in colleges and academies. As many as three thousand 
situations have been found for young men in one year by a single 
association and from 2,000 to 3,500 hopeful conversions have been 
reported in one year by the National Executive Committee. The 
Boston Young Men's Christian Association distributed eleven tons 
pf Dublin Tracts in one year. 

The Christian Commission. 

The following summary has been given: 

The great rebellion, though it threatened the very existence of the confederacy 
of associations (Young Men's), was really the occasion of marvelously developing 
its energy and usefulness. The convention had been appointed for St. Louis, in 
the spring of 1861, but the outbreak of the war prevented its meeting. The com- 



* Europe. 

Great Britain and Ireland 843 

Austria 11 

France 102 

Germany 1 ,005 

Belgium 34 

Holland \ 744 

Spain 12 

1 taly and Greece 51 

Switzerland 354 

Denmark 130 

Russia 12 

Sweden and Norway 176 

Hungary 3 

European Turkey and Bulgaria 2 

Total 3,479 

Asia. 

India and Ceylon 91 

Japan and China 38 



Asiatic Turkey 24 

Syria and Persia 14 

Total 167 

Africa. 



Madagascar 

Continent of Africa. 

Total 



Oceanica. 
Australia and Tasmania. . . 

New Zealand 

Sandwich Islands 



24 



Total 27 



South America and Mexico 7 

West Indies 9 

United States and British America. 1,346 



Aggregate 5,109 



688 CHRIST! A XI TV IN THE CXI TED STATES. 

mittee therefore called a convention in New York, in the month of November, to 
see if the agencies of the Association could not in some way come to the aid of the 
country in that fearful struggle. The result was the formation of the Christian 
Commission. All the world knows the history of its labors, which gleam like 
golden broidery on the ensanguined robe of war, like the silver lining on the 
somber clouds of fate, irradiating the gleam of battle by glimpses of the heavenly 
light of love and charity. The agents of this Commission carried at once the bread 
that perishes and the Bread of Life, and healed the wounds both of the body and the 
soul. They nursed the sick back to life, and by their hallowed ministrations quick- 
ened in the soul aspirations for that higher life that is undying. The Christian artil- 
lery of the battle field — the coffee-wagon and supply trains of the Commission — suc- 
cored many a wounded warrior whose bruised body the deadly enginery of war had 
well-nigh crushed to death. These plumeless heroes of Christian chivalry ex- 
hibited a valor as dauntless often as his who led the victorious charge or covered 
the disastrous retreat. By their gentle ministrations to the stricken and the dying, 
amid the carnage of the battle field and in the hospitals, they have laid the nation 
under obligations of gratitude which should never be forgotten. From November' 
1861, to May, 1 866, this Commission disbursed, both for the benefit of the patriot 
soldiers of the Union and for the rebel wounded that fell into our hands, the sum 
of $6,291,107. We employed 4,859 agents. * working without recompense, an ag- 
gregate of 185,652 days. These agents held 136,650 religious services and wrote 
92,321 letters for the soldiers. They gave away 1,466.748 Bibles (in whole or in 
part) 1,370,953 hymn-books, 8,603,434 books or pamphlets. 18,189,863 newspapers 
and magazines, and 30,368,998 pages of religious tracts. They also greatly 
assisted in the opreations of the Sanitary Commission, which expended in the same 
time $4,924,048, making an aggregate, by the two, of Si 1.215,155, poured out as a 
free-will offering by a grateful country for the moral and physical welfare of its 
brave defenders. The world had never before seen such an example of colossal 
liberality." t 

Woman's Work. 

During the present period woman's talent has been more largely- 
employed in the churches. In the Protestant Episcopal Church X 
thirteen orders of sisterhoods have been instituted, the oldest in 
1865, having under their care hospitals, boarding and day schools, 
infirmaries, houses for the aged, shelter for reputable girls and for 
babies, dispensaries, work-rooms for ecclesiastical embroidery, orphan 
asylums, parochial and city missionary work, visitation of prisons, 
etc. Among the Lutherans are orders of deaconesses. Much 
similar work, though not elaborately organized, is performed by other 
denominations. A few years ago, a [Methodist Ladies' and Pastors' 
Union, with head-quarters in Philadelphia, and auxiliaries in several 
States, was organized, but it has since been merged into the Woman's 
Home [Missionary Society of the [Methodist Episcopal Church. 

* A very considerable number of whom were laymen. 

t Methodist Quarterly Review^ Oct., 1869. Pp. 592-3. % Chinch Almanac, 1SS6. Pp. 29, 30. 



WORK OF CHRISTIAN WOMEN. 689 

Home and Foreign Missionary societies now exist in almost all the 
denominations, and women constitute more than half of the foreign 
missionaries of the American churches. Fifty years ago the female 
voice was heard in religious assembles only among the Friends and 
the Methodists. From its origin Methodism bade woman speak oi 
Christ, and in a few instances Methodist women have appeared as 
preachers of the Gospel. The question of woman in the pulpit and 
the pastorate has awakened much discussion and inquiry, but nature 
seems to settle the matter, few women inclining to put themselves 
in these relations. 

The Young Women s Christian Associations are another depart- 
ment of labor for the Christian women of the nation. 

The Society of Christian Endeavor, the Epworth League, the 
St. Andrew's Brotherhood, and the Baptist Young People's Union, 
composed of young men and women, are among the last lay agen- 
cies organized. They have met with high favor, and are num- 
bered by several millions of members, in almost all lands and 
mission stations. The members are enlisted in religious labor and 
social work. 



Lay Preaching. 

This subject has recently assumed considerable prominence in 
some of the churches. The Methodist denomination, almost from 
the first, has favored it. The first formal and effective organization 
of lay preaching, as a recognized branch of Christian effort, was 
developed under John Wesley in an early period of the great relig- 
ious movement which he inaugurated. In Methodism it comprised 
two classes, exhorters and local preachers, both regularly licensed 
by specific ecclesiastical authorities, the one only to hold meetings 
for exhortation and prayer, the other to preach the Gospel. These 
classes became very useful in England, bringing into exercise new 
gifts which developed into the regular ministry, and also as the 
agencies through which religious work was extended and introduced 
into new localities. It was by local preachers from England (Philip 
Embury, Robert Strawbridge, and Captain Webb) that Methodism 
was introduced into America. In all parts of the world where this 
denomination has extended its activities, organized lay preaching 
has been a leading feature of its evangelizing movements. Meth- 
odism in the whole world has almost 80,000 local preachers. 

Other religious bodies have favored something of this kind as a 
necessity to meet the religious demands of the times. Lay evan- 



690 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

gelists, under the names of Bible readers, prayer leaders, colporteurs, 
etc., have been employed in very considerable numbers. In some 
churches, in which formal official sanction has not been given to lay 
preaching, earnest Christian laymen, sometimes of high rank and 
culture, actuated by convictions of duty, have gone forth holding 
religious services and modestly proclaiming the Word of Life 
wherever congregations could be gathered. This subject occupied 
the attention of a large company of lay workers, who assembled in 
a convention in New York city, Mr. George H. Stuart, of Philadel- 
phia, presiding. Series of " lay sermons " have been delivered in 
some churches under the direction of the pastor. A Congregational 
Association in Missouri, in 1873,* after much deliberation, author- 
ized " deacons " to preach, approving their appointment first for 
local work, and recommending that they be examined by the pastor 
of the church where they belong, and a committee of the District 
Association, and then ordained for their work. Mr. Dwight L. 
Moody is the most conspicuous example of lay preaching in modern 
times. 

The question, as to how far the laity should be made prominent 
in the various departments of Christian work, has awakened some 
discussion. Its voluntary and spontaneous character, springing out 
of the increasing vital forces of the churches, has enlisted for it 
much sympathy and respect, leading wise and thoughtful men to 
consult as to the best methods of adjusting the churches to the new 
demands. Some have gladly accepted the new movements of lay 
co-operation in practical religious labors, as a timely and desirable 
relief for the over-burdened pastorates, while others, more conserva- 
tive, have feared that it may lessen the respect and the demand for 
an ordained clergy. In the Presbyterian Review^ Professor Mor- 
ris, of Lake Seminary, in an elaborate article, met this clerical 
apprehension, contending that the necessity for the Church, the 
Sabbath, and the clergy, is generic and permanent, and that, there- 
fore, Christian minds will always gravitate toward them by a natural 
law. In June, 1 871, the Interior (Presbyterian) had an editorial on 
" Lay Preaching," in which it said : 

That the Church must have some direct share in the evangelization of the 
world, other than that which it has through the ministers ordained and supported 
by it, is according to a conviction very generally entertained. It is justly felt that, 
besides exerting a healthful influence in society in a general way, each believer 
should be a messenger of salvation to those who have no saving knowledge of 
Christ. And that local church in which the laity have no impulsion to evangelistic 

* See New York Observer, May, 1873. t April, 1871. 



SUNDA Y-SCHOOLS. 69 1 

labors is properly regarded as coming very far short of the ideal of a truly Chris- 
tian organization. This current idea is at the bottom of the usage, more in vogue 
than formerly, of multiplying prayer-meetings, which are conducted largely by the 
laity, instead, as in former times, of multiplying preaching services. 

In the Methodist Quarterly Review for January, 1873, Rev. Abel 
Stevens, LL.D., in an able article on " The Priesthood of the Peo- 
ple," declared that the question — 

" How can the laity be brought into more effective co-operation with the min- 
istry in the life and work of the Church ? " is one of the greatest practical problems 
of modern Christianity, It has been discussed in sessions of the Evangelical Alli- 
ance ; it was the chief thesis in a convention, gathered from all parts of the country, 
not long since, in New York, and is an incessant topic in our religious journals. 
Nearly all evangelical denominations seem to be awaking to its urgency. In the 
New York Convention it assumed, perhaps, a somewhat " radical " form. Its 
supreme importance renders it desirable that it should be cautiously treated ; but 
any just treatment of it from the stand-point of the Reformers and the Apostolic 
Church will appear radical, if not heretical, to the confused vision of our times. 
We cannot fail, however, to perceive at a glance that, if rightly developed, it may 
become an epochal idea of modern as it was of ancient Church history. 

Sunday-Schools 

present one of the most important departments of lay activity. 

The Church of the nineteenth century has distinctly apprehended 
the truth that neither theoretical faith nor personal religious expe- 
rience can be safely and symmetrically built upon a foundation of 
ignorance. To save the Church from an unsightly, abnormal piety, 
from infidelity, superstition, fetichism and priestly impostures, 
a broad and wisely directed religious education is necessary. The 
system of Sunday-schools instituted one hundred years ago, and so 
widely introduced in the first part of this century, since 1850 has 
received great enlargement of scope and a fuller development of 
power. It has been crystallized into more perfect form and 
embodies more vital and enduring forces. Changes in the con- 
ditions it is intended to meet may open new avenues and call for 
new measures, for the work is progressive, and so also must be the 
institution. The Church and the Sunday-school are both in transitu, 
advancing toward a grand consummation ; but no feature of the 
religious record of the present century is more marvelous or more 
commendable than the Sunday-school work. 

In the year 1826 the American Sunday-School Union recom- 
mended a uniform system of lessons, but denominational fences were 
too high to allow its general adoption, Forty-six years of struggle 
and toil, leveling the mountains and filling the valleys, prepared 



692 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the way, in 1872, for this millennial achievement. A system of inter- 
change of opinions, comparing measures, was necessary. From 
1820 to 1832 local Sunday-school conventions were held in New 
England, and, at the latter date, by the instigation of the American 
Sunday-School Union, a non-denominational convention of two 
hundred and twenty delegates was held in New York city. Another 
was held in 1833, in Philadelphia, recommending a system of uniform 
lessons. The third national convention did not meet until 1859, in 
Philadelphia. Others followed, in Newark, N. J., and in Indian- 
apolis, Ind. The first international convention met in Baltimore, 
in 1875, followed by others in Atlanta, Ga., in 1878 ; in Toronto/in 
1881 ; in Louisville, Ky., in 1884 ; and in Chicago, in 1887. These 
conventions have aroused enthusiasm, dispelled bigotry, brought 
Christians into closer affiliation, and shown them how much they 
have in common. 

The uniform system of teaching is believed to have been first 
projected, in 1866, by Rev. John H. Vincent, D.D. The Berean 
Series followed in 1870, and the International in 1875.* The first 
Chautauqua Assembly was organized by Dr. Vincent in 1874, bring- 
ing together teachers and workers for systematic training, pointing 
out lines of work and study, and making a large contribution toward 
a higher popular education. It is the parent of numerous other 
assemblies, from Fryeburg, Maine, to Monterey, Cal., and from 
Florida to the Thousand Islands. Tens of thousands of Sunday- 
school workers have been inspired and instructed, millions of 
Sunday-school scholars have been touched, and the Sunday-school 
work of the whole country has been placed upon a higher plane of 
thoroughness and efficiency by this system of assemblies. Thus a 
new era of biblical study has been inaugurated, of which Dr. Vin- 
cent is the instaurator and prophet. 

The Sunday-school has attained its highest development in 
England and the United States, these two countries aggregating 
nearly thirteen millions of scholars, or more than four fifths of the 
entire enrollment of all countries. Continental Christianity has 
never shown much interest in Sunday-schools, because the Reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century had nearly expended its force when 
this new form of evangelism appeared, while insular churches were 

* A special committee, consisting of Revs. J<>hn H. Vincent, D.D., Edward Eggleston, D.D., 
and B. F. Jacobs, Esq., of Chicago, having been appointed to make arrangements for the 
Sunday-school Convention to be held in Indianapolis in 1872, met in New York city in 1871 
and decided upon a uniform lesson system, and presented it to the Convention, by which it was 
adopted. This measure has given a vast impulse to Sunday-school literature and work all over 
the world. 






1780 



1800 



1810 



1830 



1880 



1893 



1,01! 



4,61 



7,6< 



DIAGRAM X. 

PROGRESS OP SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 



1800 


1 The first appre< 


iable beginning outside of Great Britain. 




1810 


iTotal, 300,000 Members. 






1830 


\ VTotal, 1,689,693. 


L„ „,„,.,. 


100,000 Members. 




1,019, 6\93."' S V 




1 




\ \. 


UNITEDN. 


13 




\ ^N. 


STATES \ 




\ oX 

\ ^K 

BRITISH \ "*< 


AND THE \ 


10 




CANADAS. \ 


I -i 






li 




ISLES. \ 


Sk \ 






\ 


^V \ 


10 

1 o 




4,615,453. \ 


6,949,454. ^\^^ N. 






total for\T880 


12,680,267. ^^^~~^^ 




ieo3 


7,656,104. \ 


11,669,956. ^\^ 


J, 182,601? "» _\^ 



Total, 22,508,661 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL STATISTICS. 693 

just awakening to new life under the inspiration of the Wesleyan 
reformation of the eighteenth century. Robert Raikes and his 
coadjutors did not dream of the possibilities of the germ they 
planted. The mustard seed has become a tree. 

Statistics of Sunday-School Members. 





In the whole world. 


In British Isles. 


In U. S. and Canada. 


In rest of the world 


n 17S0. . . 










1S10. . . 


300,000 








1830. . . 


1,689,693 


1,019,693 


570,000 


100,000 


1SS0. .. 


12,680,267 


4,615,453 


6,949,454 


I,II5,36o 


1893-. • 


22,50S, 66l 


7,656,104 


11,669,956 


3,lS2,6oi 



No such religious force existed one hundred years ago. It is 
the product almost wholly of the nineteenth century. 



Section 3— Revivals. 

After the subsidence of the Millerite excitement of 1 840-1 845, 
many who had implicitly accepted the dogmas of Mr. Miller, and 
supposed them taught in the Bible, were staggered in confidence, and 
did not recover so as to become reliable for Christian service ; public 
confidence outside of the churches was impaired, and much ridicule 
was cast upon religion. From 1843 to l &57 tne accessions to the 
churches were few, in more than half the years not equal to the 
depletion by death and discipline. Spiritual movements were slow, 
heavy and sluggish. Only a few isolated revivals could be cited in 
these twelve years. 

In the winter of 1857-8 the tide turned, and a glorious inflow 
was realized. Seldom since its origin has Christianity achieved 
equal results. Beginning with the leading city of the Union it 
extended throughout the land, leaving few cities, towns or villages 
unvisited. It occurred at a time of great financial distress, in which 
the worldly hopes of many had been frustrated and men's minds 
were easily turned to a serious consideration of religious duties. 
The revival greatly enlarged its scope soon after the opening of the 
year 1858, but the way had been preparing through several previous 
months. The beginning was small and humble, and, as in all divine 
operations, at a point unlooked for by human wisdom. Mr. J. C. 
Lanphier, a devoted city missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church, 
in New York city, while pursuing his regular rounds of duty, 
inquired in spirit, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? " Imme- 
diately it occurred to him that a union prayer-meeting of business 



694 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

men, from twelve to one o'clock, midday, would help the cause of 
religion and introduce its influence into important circles. He 
accordingly made the arrangements, and announced a meeting to be 
held in the vestry of the Fulton Street Church, on the 22d of Sep- 
tember, 1857, at tw r elve o'clock M. It was a new idea — the little 
fire that kindled a great matter. * Thus began a radical, far-reach- 
ing and substantial movement, one of the most remarkable revivals 
of a century full of wonders of grace. 

The " business men's prayer-meetings," " union prayer-meet- 
ings," were adopted elsewhere, in other churches, in New York city, 
in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Albany, Boston, and in all the cities, 
towns and villages of the country. The interest became deep and 
general. Immense numbers professed conversion. The revival was 
the universal topic. 

For the first time in history the secular papers published whole 
pages of revival intelligence, such was the popular demand. No 
extraordinary agencies were employed. The revival was not carried 
forward by flaming evangelists. No sermons were preached except 
at the regular Sunday services. Prayer-meetings and lay efforts 
were the chief agencies, and the exercises were of the most simple 
and direct character. It was estimated that in one week 50,000 f 
persons professed conversion, and that during the whole revival 
300,000 were added to the churches. From 1857 to 1859, 38,000 
were added to the Congregational churches, and from November, 
1857, to November, 1858, the increase of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church was 136,036 communicants. The distinctive doctrinal phase 
of this revival was the unity and the priesthood of believers. 

After the revival came the exciting year i860, when Abraham 
Lincoln was elected President of the United States, and the South 
revolted from the Union, followed by the terrible civil war. The 
attention of the people was called from aggressive religious efforts 
and engrossed with the anxieties and duties of the national struggle. 
Large numbers of the communicants of the churches, in the North 
and in the South, called from their homes into the armies, perished 
in battle or by disease, or were demoralized and lost from the churches, 
by the deleterious influences of camp-life. Many churches through- 
out the vast region traversed by the contending armies were broken 
up and destroyed. Numerous ecclesiastical bodies in those regions, 
unable to hold a session for several years, were seriously disorgan- 

* See Power of Prayer. By Rev. Dr. Prime, late editor of the Neva York Oberver. 
\ Repurt on the State of Religion to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, May, 
1858. 



REVIVALS. 695 

ized and enfeebled. The Protestant Episcopal Church suffered 
much, as did also the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, etc. 
The statistics of that period show a great decline in membership. 
The territory of the Baltimore and East Baltimore Conferences 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church was traversed, retraversed and 
devastated by the scourge of war. In i860 these Conferences re- 
ported a church membership of 81,155, but in 1865 only 58,762 — 
a decrease of 22,393 members. From i860 to 1864 the communi- 
cants in the Methodist Episcopal Church in the whole country 
decreased 66,127. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, lost 
several hundred thousand. 

After the war came the demoralizing influences incident to a 
post bellum period. Gross immorality, crime, luxury, extravagance, 
reckless pecuniary ventures, intemperance, etc., characterized the 
period. So alarming became the symptoms that the newspapers 
often spoke of the " Carnival of Crime." But the war taught some 
£Ood religious lessons. It was noticed that some rationalistic tend- 
encies were perceptibly restrained ; that a deeper sense of dependence 
upon God was apparent in the nation, and that there was a clearer 
recognition of God's providence in the affairs of nations and indi- 
viduals, in minds previously skeptical in regard to such matters. 

With the return of peace there soon came a new impulse of 
spiritual life and power in large areas. Revivals of religion became 
more common than in former decades, and in many individual 
churches a good average religious interest extended quite uniformly 
through the year, and year after year, with little variation. On the 
whole, in a large number of churches, the spirituality has been bet- 
ter sustained than formerly, and piety less spasmodic — one of the 
hopeful signs of the times. Throughout this entire period, the lay 
activity of the churches has steadily grown, fostered and sustained 
by the Young Men's Christian Associations introduced into this 
country in 1 85 1, by the peculiar character of the revival measures 
°f l %57> '58, and by the Christian Commission during the war, all 
of which have been bringing back into the actual life of the church 
universal a practical realization of the principle of the priesthood 
of believers. 

From 1874 to 1877 there were great revivals under Messrs. 
Moody, Sankey, Pentecost, etc., in which vast assemblies in the 
leading cities were powerfully swayed, and large numbers were added 
to the churches. Considered in respect to the dogmatic aspects, 
Mr. Moody's revivals were characterized by the doctrine of imputed 
righteousness, in some hands excessively and unfortunately presented. 



696 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Mr. Moody's work was supplemented by the religious temperance 
reform, under Francis Murphy and the Reform clubs, and by the 
Woman's Christian Temperance unions — all very powerful agencies 
and all together widely and deeply affecting the country. As a 
whole the decade 1870 to 1880 was one of the best spiritually, 
judged by its results, in the history of American Christianity. The 
growth was actually and relatively greater than in any other decade 
— an increase of 3,392,567 communicants in the evangelical churches. 
In the two previous decades, 1 850 to 1 870, the increase was 3, 143,408 ; 
and in the first five decades of this century, 1800 to 1850, it was 
3,165,116. 

From 1877 to 1882 was a period of some spiritual decline, but 
since 1883 there has been an improvement. The flourishing young 
people's societies have greatly helped. In this last period the 
ethics of the Bible have been clearly and emphatically kept in the 
foreground as the logical sequence of genuine faith in Christ (James 
ii. 17, 18.) This work has been conspicuously marked as not only 
a revival, but also a reformation. Human agency and responsibility 
have been pungently emphasized, and the ethical phases of the 
Gospel have had supreme prominence. The dogmatic peculiarity 
that has characterized this work has been such a vital union with 
Christ as will develop from within outwardly, not a putative, but a 
genuine righteousness. 



Section 4.— Spirituality. 

As compared with almost the whole of the last century the 
present shows a great gain in spirituality. Especially during the 
last thirty-five years, the churches as a whole have exhibited a 
considerable advance in this vital element of religious life. The 
Holy Spirit is more intelligently and widely recognized in religious 
work, as the efficient and necessary dependence of the Church, than 
in any former period for long centuries. As a consequence there is 
a deeper awakening of the religious consciousness, a wider expan- 
sion of religious experience, a more joyful and triumphant type of 
piety, and more enduring, heroic zeal. During the present century, 
American Christianity has fully attested its deep vitality by its ex- 
traordinary self-organizing power, its local and national societies for 
home, foreign and city missions, for the publication and distribution 
of Bibles and tracts, for promoting Sunday-schools, for the benefit 
of seamen, for the Sabbath and temperance reforms, for the advance- 
ment of education, etc., etc. ; comprising all conceivable forms of 



UNIVERSAL PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS. 697 

benevolence, enlisting an array of workers outnumbering the largest 
armies of ancient or modern times. 

The last quarter of a century has witnessed no decline in these 
agencies, but rather an increase. The progress of pecuniary benev- 
olence also, so much in advance of the first half of the century, 
and incalculably transcending the previous centimes, both actually 
and relatively, shows the overmastering power of Christian love in 
human hearts, the breaking down of selfishness, and a spirit of prac- 
tical sacrifice for the good of others — a crucial test of spiritual 
gain. 

The growing expansion and practical working of the principle 
of the universal priesthood of believers — another sign of increasing- 
spirituality — has been noticed at length. There is, indeed, much 
superficiality among lay-workers. In the almost infinite number of 
these way-side iaborers it is not strange that some are not profound 
thinkers, mature saints, or discreet actors. May not the same allega- 
tions be made against the clergy? 

This improvement in spirituality of which we speak, in the 
churches as a whole, is not without drawbacks. Some local com- 
munities have suffered religious decline ; some churches have died 
out ; some are in a condition which occasions anxiety ; cases of moral 
collapse and ruin have occurred in men of high religious position ; 
some attempts at reform have proved futile ; some abuses survive 
the most faithful denunciations ; outbursts of religious enthusiasm 
have left some individuals and communities almost barren of spirit- 
ual fruitage, and the spirit of worldliness has often dominated 
churches. All these things and many more exist with mischievous 
tendencies — imperfections incidental to human agents. Some won- 
der that such things can exist in connection with a divine and holy 
religion ; others, that imperfect human agents do not exhibit more 
of these defects ; and others still, that Christianity can endure so 
much imperfection and still stand and work so powerfully. It is 
because of its inherent conserving power and its divine vitality. A 
healthy body throws off large quantities of devitalized matter,, resists 
malaria, heals wounds, and grows strong under heavy strains. 

There is, doubtless, much •' rootless piety," some excessive cul- 
tivation of sentiment, a sensational popularization of sacred things, 
and " floods of namby-pamby talk ; " but they are slight blemishes 
on the great mass of true piety, and much less offensive than the 
whine, the nasal twang, the cant, the rant, the abnormal ecstasy, the 
jerking, the selfish exclusiveness, the superstition, and the torpid 
inactivity which characterized much of the piety of other days. 



698 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Religion is less sanctimonious, has less of " holy tone," but is not 
less genuine and worthy of respect — rather more so on that account. 
There is relatively more "well-rooted" piety, more intelligent relig- 
ious affection, more faithful testimony for Christ. 

The purely voluntary conditions of American Christianity, and 
the plowing and sowing of the common soil of humanity by the 
churches in larger areas than ever before, should not be overlooked. 
Without the steadying or sustaining influence of a hierarchy, or a civil 
power, in times of fluctuation and decline, and with no overshadow- 
ing formalism throwing its concealing mantle over irregularities, 
barrenness and defects, we have a type of piety higher in elements 
of personal godliness than has been furnished in any other age under 
prelatical or civil dependence. 

Modifications. 

The influence of religion is, doubtless, less marked in some por- 
tions of the land than at some former times because it has more 
fully conquered its position, and the contrast between the Church 
and the world is less perceptible because Christianity has largely 
transformed Christendom morally, intellectually and socially : and, 
therefore, it does not look so bright on the new background as on 
the old. Christianity greatly " has softened and shaded the world 
to her own likeness." The moral change in American society within 
one hundred years is very great. 

There is less of physical demonstration and exceptional spas- 
modic fervor; but such phenomena do not measure Christianity. 
Paroxysms startle attention, but do not indicate moral progress. 
The mind of Christendom is rising and going forth in good works. 
Never before was the moral consciousness of the churches so quick- 
ened or their exertions so fruitful. A century and a half ago the 
outlook for Christianity was dreary enough, its spirituality only a 
feeble flame, and its aggressive power reduced to a minimum. Since 
then it has reached the greatest known maximum since the apos- 
tolic age. From that period down to the middle of the last century, 
if we except some remarkable examples among the Moravians, and 
short periods among the Puritans and the Presbyterians in Scotland, 
all in very limited areas, the world has known nothing of such 
spiritual activities as have been developed on this continent within 
this century, and chiefly within the last thirty-five years. Piety has 
come out of the cloisters and gone forth among the masses, in imita- 
tion of " Him who went about doing good." No previous age can 
parallel in magnitude, in grandeur, in intelligent apprehension, the 



THE LIVING CHURCH. 699 

religious activities of this age. The significance is a deepening 
religious vitality, a powerful underlying religious force. The in- 
crease of over fifteen millions of communicants in the evangelical 
churches of the United States in ninety-four years is a convincing 
crucial test. 

Words of Wise Caution 

from an eminent and eloquent thinker, Rev. Professor Austin Phelps, 
D.D., will be appreciated : 

Perils are looming up on the not distant horizon which are the natural product 
of an age of vigilant and inventive expansion. We are lapsing into an unthoughtful 
style of religious life. The meditative graces seem to be waning. A man is 
estimated by what he gives rather than by what he is. Wealth is assuming an 
undue importn nee in the worth of individuals and of churches. Gold is, morally, 
as well as by troy weight, a heavy metal. The outlook is ominous when, in any 
large fraternity of believers, the leaders take their leadership by right of property 
rather than by right of mind. It is never so in heroic ages. We need to learn by 
heart Sir William Hamilton's aphorism, " There is nothing great in this world but 
man, and nothing great in man but mind." From such a condition of things one 
peril often comes without premonition. It is a break, one or many, in the solidity 
of that groundwork of belief which must always underlie permanent growth. 
Great action must be built on great thought. Breadth of expansion must be 
grounded in profound beliefs. Diffusive force must spring from concentrated 
character. A man can do only to the limit of what he is. Beyond that all is 
makeshift. 

Christ, reigning over a territory hitherto unrivaled in extent; 
great benevolences, awakened and sustained by a deeper religious 
devotion ; rapidly multiplying home, city, and foreign mission sta- 
tions, the outcome of intelligent consecration ; magnificent depart- 
ments of Christian labor, many of them heretofore unknown, and 
none of them ever before so numerous, so vast, or so restlessly 
active ; the great heart of the Church pulsating with an unequaled 
velocity ; the fires of evangelism burning with unwonted brightness 
on multiplied altars ; and a religious literature such as has character- 
ized no other age, eminently practical, intensely fervid and richly 
evangelical, emanating from her presses ; all conspire to show that 
more than ever before God has a living Church within the churches, 
towering amid them all in its mightiness — the strength, the support, 
the central life of all ; and that an increasing number of true believers 
are " walking with him in white," a grand constellation of light and 
purity — a bright Milky Way from earth to heaven. 



700 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER VI. 



EVANGELIZING AND ILLUMINATING AGENCIES. 



Sec. i. Foreign Missions. 
" 2. Home Missions. 
" 3. Progress and Test of Pecuniary Be- 
nevolences. 



Sec. 4. Religious Publication Agencies. 

1. Religious Periodicals. 

2. Religious Publication Houses. 
" 5. Higher Education and the Churches. 



Section 1.— Foreign Missions. 

THE present century is pre-eminently " The Missionary Age." 
For long centuries little distinctively foreign mission work 
was done, and the territory of Christendom was not much enlarged. 
But how wonderful the enlargement of the area of Christianity and 
the number of its converts during this century — one of the brightest 
periods in the history of God's kingdom. The American Foreign 
Missionary societies were generated by the quickened spiritual life 
pervading the churches since the great revival of 1800. In their 
inception Christian missions were the spontaneous, impulsive action 
of vital spiritual forces, manifested first in isolated efforts of indi- 
viduals and local churches, before the great national societies were 
organized. The work has wonderfully expanded, and the " grain 
of mustard seed " is rapidly growing to a tree of stately proportions. 
Providence has wrought in friendly co-operation w r ith the expand- 
ing zeal of the churches, and openings for Christian work, never 
before so grand and inspiring, have been entered in lands only nom- 
inally Christian, and also amid the dense shadows of utter heathen- 
ism, large harvests every-where awaiting the reapers. 

Notwithstanding the unparalleled demands for Christian labor 
in our own rapidly-extending domains, in our multiplying hetero- 
geneous populations, the churches of the United States have 
recognized their obligations to the whole world, and Christian work 
is every-where a unit. The cosmopolitan character of the United 
States has given our foreign missionaries favor in the eyes of all 
nations, and a ready access to lands long closed to Christ and his 
Church. The magnificent continents of Asia and Africa and the 



WOMEN IN FOREIGN MISSION WORK. 701 

teeming islands of the Pacific have been penetrated on all sides, and 
the missions of American churches now dot the map of the world. 

Only condensed summaries of the work of these societies can be 
here given. 

Women's Foreign Missionary Societies. 

From the beginning of the foreign missionary movements Chris- 
tian women have shared in the toils and perils of the work. A 
carefully-prepared table of missionary statistics in the Missionary 
Herald of October, 1870, shows that the number of female mission- 
ary ''helpers," American and European, in the employ of the vari- 
ous missionary societies of the world was 2,267 — only thirty-seven 
less than the number of male missionaries. From 1823 to 1872 the 
number of female assistants annually employed by the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions has ranged from 65 
to 205, while the male missionaries sent out, ordained and unor- 
dained, ranged from 81 to 184. The statistics of other societies 
also show that Christian women have borne a prominent part in the 
labors and triumphs of the missionary cause. Mount Holyoke 
Female Seminary claims among her graduates 150 foreign mission- 
aries, and Wellesley College, a much younger institution, claims 21 
missionaries. 

It has been long apparent that one of the greatest hinderances 
of Christian missions in many pagan lands, particularly in Asia, has 
been the rigid customs of society, restricting and depressing women, 
so that few female converts have thus far been won to Christianity, 
and these at great sacrifices. 

Pagan women, until quite recently, have remained almost wholly 
unreached and- unblest. Gradually the conviction gained ground 
that efforts specifically in their behalf must be put forth, and that 
female missionary societies, organized for the purpose of sending 
Christian women into the foreign fields, would be promotive of 
good results. This conviction culminated in the organization of the 
"Woman's Union Missionary Society," in New York, in November, 
i860. As its name indicates, this organization was composed of 
ladies from various religious bodies. It has zealously and success- 
fully prosecuted its work. Its receipts from the beginning have 
amounted to $1,468,263. The next in order was the " Woman's 
Board of Missions " (Congregational), which was organized October 
27, 1868, and was followed immediately by the " Woman's Board 
of Missions for the Interior," another Congregational Society, at 
Chicago, on the 7th of November, 1868. These two societies have 
45 



702 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



been multiplied until over twenty-five foreign missionary societies 
of ladies now exist in the churches of the United States, as follows : 

Exhibit of Work of the Woman's Missionary Societies. 



Name of Societies. 



Baptist, East 

" West 

" Free-will 

Congregational 

Interior 

Pacific 

Disciples 

Lutheran General Synod 

Evangelical 

Methodist Episcopal 

" South 

'" Protestant 

Protestant Episcopal 

Presbyterian, Philadelphia 

North-west 

New York 

Northern New York. . 

" South-west 

Occidental 

Northern Pacific 

Cumberland 

United 

Reformed Church (Dutch) 

United Brethren 

Union, Woman's, New York 



Q'S 



1870 
1871! 

1873: 
1868 
l868' 

1375 
1875 
1879 



1869 

1878 
1879 
187T 
1870I 
1870! 
1870 
1872 
1S77 



1894 
1894! 
18941 
1894! 
1894; 
1894! 
1892 
i893 ! 
1893 
1893 
1894 
1894 
1S94 
1894 



1894 
1S94 
1894 



1887' 
1879 



1875; 
1S75 
1S61 



1S94 
1894 
1894 
1894 
i8g 4i 
1S94 



1,701, 

1,132 
190 

1,782! 
1,784 

75: 

40 

475 

5-463 
2,149; 

i97 

74 

i,344 

...J 

655 
9i 

273 

29; 

543' 
6961 
446 
461 

25 



52S: 

348 

61 

249 



524 
119 

74i 
1,169 

39 

1-543 

264 

69 

60 

.... 

I4 ! 
126 
160 

119; 



91 
47 
8 
125 
70 
10 
21 

4 

11 

148 

37 
10 

153 

'69 

6 

14 

3 
20 

15 
42 
1 
66 



ir. u; 






598 

154 
13 

157 

68 



101 

128 
625 



116 

24 

8 

2S 



56 
267 



295 9-235 

6i 2.094 

5 19° 

241 

S3 1,634 



27 1,116 

21 1,286 

434 12.324 

52 2,793 

4 I 5° 

1S9 8,311 

49 
9 246 
3 4S 


150 

12 2,082 

19I 556 

8 36S 

I47 1 6.485 



Receipts of the Woman's Foreign Mission Boards. 



Name of Boards. 



Baptist, East 

" West 

Congregational 

Interior 

Pacific 

Disciples 

Evangelical Association.. . . 

Free-will Baptist 

Lutheran General Synod. . . 

Evangelical 

Methodist Episcopal 

South. 

Protestant 

Protestant Episcopal 



Amount 
Received. 



Name of Boards. 



$1,389, 

593 

2,190 

986, 

78, 
425 

18, 
i3o 
212 
164 
3,555 
889 

52 
4,535 



715! 
349 
136 

194 
003 
002 

675 

000 

000 

200 

669 

262 

5 o8J| 

765.I 



Presbyterian, Philadelphia. 
North-west.. 



" New York. 

North'n N.York 

South-west 

" Northern Pacific. 

United 

Cumberland 

Refcrmed Church (Dutch) 

United Brethren 

Union, Woman's, New York. . 



Total. 



Amount 
Received. 



$2,540,149 

1,305,735 
1,561.799 
179,950 
103,845 
18,731 
292,537 
118,914 

287,255 

161,224 

1,468,263 



$23,708,880 



Note. — In every case except one the receipts are brought down to 1894. In some cases 
money for home missions and the value of home mission boxes are included. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 703 

Over twenty-three millions of dollars raised by the women's 
boards for foreign missions in the brief period of their organization 
is a most encouraging fact. An exhibit of the foreign missionary 
work of all the churches is a desideratum ; and it will be given in 
such a way that the inquirer may easily ascertain what our churches 
are doing on each continent and in each country. 

Foreign Missions of the Evangelical Churches of the United 

States. 

(Almost wholly from reports for 1894.,) 
EUROPE. 



COUNTRIES. 



European Turkey 

Spain 

Austria 

Sweden 

( iermany 

Finland 

Russia 

I )enmark 

Norway 

France 

Spain 

Holland 

North and South Germany. 

Switzerland 

Sweden 

Norway 

Denmark 

Finland and St. Petersburg 

Italy 

Bulgaria 

Italy...... 

Scandinavia 

England 

( iermany 

Switzerland 

England 

Central Europe 

Denmark 

( iermany 

Norway 

Sweden 

Russia 

Greece 

Italy 

Greece 

(iermany 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 

Decrease in eight years. . . . 



Stations. 



= o 



36 

43 

550 

1 tg 
21 

6 7 | 
25 
^7 
19 

\ 

37o 
159 
169 

60 
1.7 
10 
37 
7 
54 



100 
32 
26 

'47 
277 
10 
90 
70 
16 

3" 

5 

3 

245 

[02 

621 

1 1 12 

55 
'7 



.3 « ./ 



HOARDS. 



2,010 2,745 
2,125! 1,273 



107I 



947 

402 

718 

36,291 

27i332 

[,329 

17,041 

3,165 

1,961 

1.900 

too 

33 

11,63. 

6,993 

16,105 

5,048 

2.721 

747 

1.277 

200 

372 

779 

'o'5 

5,921 

4,823; 

312! 

490 

407 

264 

39o 

552 

43 



153,431 
JI 5o4 2 



m8A. H. C F. M 
5 33 'A. B. C. F. M. 
84 A. B.C. F. M. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptist Missionary Union. 

Baptists, Seventh-Day. 

Methodist Fpiscopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Fpiscopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church- 
Methodist Episcopal Church- 
Southern Baptists. 

Disciples. 

Disciples. 

Evangelical Association. 

Evangelical Association. 

Seventh-Day Adventists. 

Seventh-Day Adventists.. 

Seventh-Day Adventists. 
'Seventh-Day Adventists. 

Seventh-Day Adventists. 

Seventh-Day Adventists. 

Seventh-Day Adventists. 
: Protestant Episcopal. 

Southern Presbyterian. 

Southern Presbyterian. 

United Brethren. 



H5 



* Partly not reported. 



Note. — The above missions originated chiefly from churches in the United States, and most of them 
still receive pecuniary aid from American churches. Some European divines object to the classification 
of them among our foreign missions, but they are evangelizing movements chiefly among papal or lapsed 
rationalistic populations not reached by European churches. 



704 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



ASIA. 



COUNTRIES. 



Stations. 



3 O 



BOARD: 



(£Q25c^ 



Western Asia 
Persia, East and West. . 

Turkey, Central 

Turkey, Western 

Turkey, Eastern 

Turkey, Asiatic 

Arabia 

Syria 

Syria 

Asia Minor 

Asia Minor 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years. . 

Thibet 

In 1886 

Increase in eight years.. 



Japan. 



I 
Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 

Korea -? 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years. ... . . .. 

India. 

Maratha 

Madura 

Ceylon 

North India 

North-west India 

South-west India 

Bengal, Burma 

Bombay 

Malaysia 

Furruckabad,Lodiani.& W. India. 

North-west India 

North-west India 

Majgoan. etc 

Rurki-raj-pin 

Balasore, Midnapur 

Gurdaspur, etc 

Guntur, Repali, etc. 

Siam and Laos 

Kurmah 

Assam 

Telugus 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 



66 



22 j 



9 6J 
45' 
105 
118 

is 

6 



26 
1,616" 

1,266 



2,607 
4,927 
3,852 
2,702 
650 

1,972 
210 

39 



17,079 
12,0:52 



5,047 
63 



169 2,400 
in 1,59 



581 809 



2 37i 

140 

269 



11,079 

1,565 

4,006 

1,335 

263 

568 

4,826 

1,842 

3,3*7 

617 

31 

334 

230 

i,54: 

7 

199 

5i 



538 



31,823 
10,597 



21,226 



383 

575 

400 

1,675 

601 

169 

71 

192 

49 

406 

247 

300 

35 

20 

49 

12 

400 

133 

8,058 

!59 
620 



14,556 
4,737 



2,562 

4,109 

1,588 

56,534 

19,764 

909 

1,503 

1,926 

315 

i,795 

6,960 

1,059 

42 

'860 

30 

6,178 

1,907 

33,337 

3,469 

54-968 



3.502 Presbyterian General Assembly. 
4.991 A. B. C. F. M. 
6,86 5 A. B. C. F. M. 
8,030 A. B. C. F. M. 

2401 Disciples. 

.... Reformed (Dutch) Church. 
7,9i2jPresbyterian Ceneral Assembly. 

4 86jSynod of Ref'd Pres. Ch., U. S. 

132 Synod of Refd Pres. Ch.,U. S. 

500; Friends. 



32.658! 
22.312] 
10,346 

i3o|Moravians. 
3iiMoravians. 



99 



i,4o 5 |A. B. C. F. M. 

376' Baptist Missionary Union. 
1,659 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
297 Methodist Episcopal Ch., South. 
295'Methodist Protestant Church. 

[Evangelical Association. 

1,104' Presbyterian General Assembly. 
237 General Synod Reformed Church. 
237J Reformed Ch.in America (Dutch). 

(Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 

25 Baptist, Southern. 
421 Disciples. 

258'Presbyterian, Southern. 
63 ( Protestant Episcopal. 
. . ] Evangelical Lutheran. 
- ■ Christians. 
jj Friends. 



389 



200,015 
84,897 



15,118 28 



Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Presbyterian General Assembly. 
Presbyterian, Southern. 



A. B. C. F. M. 
A. B. C. F. M. 
A. B. C. F. M. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 
Presbyterian General Assembly. 
United Presbyterian Church. 
Reformed Church in America. 
Disciples. 

Ref'd Pres. Ch. in N. America. 
Free-will Baptists. 
Friends. 

Evangelical Lutherans. 
Presbyterian General Assembly. 
Baptist Missionary Union. 
Baptist Missionary Union. 
Baptist Missionary Union. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 70S 



ASI \ — Continued. 




BOARDS. 



2,326 Alethodist Episcopal Church. 

635 Methodist Episcopal Church. 

922 Methodist Episcopal Church. 

119 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
4,492 Presbyterian General Assembly. 

356 Baptist Missionary Union. 
93 Seventh-Day Baptists. 

572 Methodist Episcopal Ch., South. 
420 A. B. C. F. M. 
1,510 A. B. C. F. M. 
7 82!A. B. C. F. M. 
292 A. B. C. F. M. 

357 Reformed Church in America. 
95,Disciples. 

Protestant Episcopal Church. 
335 Baptists, Southern. 
332 Presbyterian, Southern. 

Friends. 



AFRICA. 



Cape Palmas, etc 


3 

7 
10 
10 

1 
10 

4 

1 
4 

2 

8 

61 

55 


58 

83 

7 

16 

25 
2 

55 
2 

4 

14 
12 

12 

157 

448 
255 


3i 
90 
78 

103 
13 

235 
38 

5 6 

i 

7 
271 
190 

6 
279 
354 
33 

1,807 
1,184 


1,185 

1^743 
1,622 
1,217 

i',66 4 
76 

5,978 
180 
161 
166 

4,138 
1,642 

2,256 
4,095 
3,500 

31,643 
15,426 


1,287 

50 

612 

1,567 

2,323 


Protestant Episcopal Church. 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 




Presbyterian General Assembly. 




Baptist Missionary Union. 




A. B. C. F. M. 




A. B. C. F. M. 


West Central Africa 


34' 


A. B. C. F. M. 

United Brethren. 




274 

1,911 
902 

2,029 

7,654 
5,600 

24,550 
16,920 


Evangelical Lutherans. 


South Africa 


Seventh-Day Adventists. 
Southern Baptists. 




Southern Presbyterians. 




Moravians. 


South Africa, East 

East Central Africa 

South Africa, East and West 


Moravians. 

Moravians. 

Friends. 

United Presbyterian Church. 

Friends. 




Total 




Total in 1886 






6 


193 


623 


16,217 


7,630 









AUSTRALASIA AND POLYNESIA. 



Micronesia, etc 

Sandwich Islands 

Australia 

New Zealand 

Polynesia 

Polynesia 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 



179 



4,198; 

5,366: 
6 5 6| 
259i 
iioi 

8,000 



2.597 A. B. C. F. M. 

Formerly A. B. C. F. M. 
Seventh-Day Adventists. 
Seventh-Day Adventists. 
Seventh-Day Adventists. 
Disciples. 



[6,589 2,597 
[0,852 2,500 



97 



706 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



COUNTRIES. ETC. 



Stations. 



.a a 

3 O 






BOARDS. 



G reenland 

Labrador 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 

Decrease in eight years 

North American Indians. 

The Dakotas, Neb. and Wash 

Indian Territory and Oklahoma. . 

I ndian Territory 

TheDakotas,Minn.,Wis.,Ind.Ter. 
N. Y., Mich. , Wis. , Wash., Ore. , f 
New Mexico, and Oklahoma. . . ) 

Indian Territory 

Indiana and North Carolina 

Indiana and North Carolina 

Indian Territory, Arizona 

Indian Territory, Idaho, The ^ 

Dakotas, Montana f 

Indian Territory 

Indian Terntor}- 

Oregon 

Indian Territory 

Alaska 

Alaska 

Alaska 

Alaska 

Alaska 

Total Indians 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 

Decrease in eight years 



f 
Mongolians on Pacific Coast. -{ 

I 

Total Mongolians 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 



Mexico. 



Total. 
Total 



Increase in eight years 

Central America. 

(xiiatemala 

Mosquito Coast 

Mosquito Coast 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years. . . . 



60; 



iDOi 

si 

4 



270 
40' 



5 


40 


65 


156 


15 


9 


2 




2 




8 


4 



348I 



454 
13,844 

3.422 

1,634 

12,759 
350 
38i 
40 

3,874 

719 

9 

107 



676! 938 
469 ! 745 



39,348 
23,286 



193: 16,062 



30 1.023 

40; 207 

23: 347 

6, 19 

3»! ] 



1,710 
i,oiS 



18 
204I 

I2| 
25 

I6> 

401 



692 



1,200 

190 

4,512 

"265 

3,°27 

5,i54 

584 

1,163 



6? 



16,095 
14,13° 



5 
99: 

105! 

4 2 

63 1 



1,965 



40 

697, 



Moravians. 
Moravian.?. 



569 



858 American Missionary Association. 

\ Baptist Home Mission. 

Baptist, Southern. 

219 Protestant Episcopal Church. 

40 Methodist Episcopal Church. 

[Methodist Episcopal Ch., South. 

360 Friends. 
, . . . Moravians. 
Mennonites. 



Presbyterian General Assembly. 

Southern Presbyterian. 

Cumberland Presbyterian. 

United Presbyterian. 

Synod of Reformed Presbyterian. 

Presbyterian General Assembly. 

Protestant Episcopal Church. 

Moravians. 

Baptist Woman's. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 



150 
2,490 



39 



4,i34 
6.162 



1, 8ooj Methodist Episcopal Church. 

1, 215. American Missionary Association. 

924 Presbyterian General Assembly. 
28.Synod Reformed Church, N. A. 

797 J Baptist Home Mission. 



4,764 
2,902 



,862 



395 Protestant Episcopal Church. 
85 Southern Presbyterian. 
1,108 Presbyterian General Assembly. 
.... Cumberland Presbyterian. 
123 Pres. Associate Reformed Synod. 
3,253 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
',192 Methodist Episcopal Ch., South. 



^ 



6042 
3,8i5 



679 
57* 
108 



A. B. C.F. M. 
Baptist, South. 
Baptist Woman's Home. 



Presbyterian General Assembly 
Moravians. 



Seventh-Day Baptists. 



CHART XI. 



COMMUNICANTS IN THE FOREIGN MISSIONS 

OF THE CHURCHES OF THE UNITED 

STATES. 

Growth from 1850 to 1894. 



1850. 

Europe*.. 5,415 

Asia 8,925 

Africa — 1,411 

South America 51 

Mexico 

West Indies 42 

Polynesia J 23,102 

Central America. . 

Greenland and 

Labrador, 1,247 

North American 

Indians,§ 8,220 15,207 39,348 
Mongolians on the 

Pacific Coast, 413 1,710 



1880. 


i894-t 


78,918 


153,431 


76,470 


274,253 


5,023 


31,643 


1,916 


17,953 


8,919 


16,095 


362 


19,654 


17,904 


16,589 


.... 


775 



Total 47,i66 205,132 572,698 



* Have grown up chiefly among rationalistic and papal populations, from 
funds and laborers mostly from the United States. 
t A few figures are for 1893. 
I A decline in Sandwich Islands. 
§ Pagans. 



FOREIGN MISSIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 707 
NORTH AMERICA— Continued. 



COUNTRIES. 



West Indies 

I 

Total 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 

Decrease in eight years 

Total in North America 

Total in 1886 

Increase in eight years 



Stations. 


'0 

.£_• 

£ p. 


_5 
■J. m 


7 


76 


3 


3 


1 




1 


19 


1 




1 


T 5 


1 = 


113 



:-3 M 



2 ° 

Ort 



a I--B.S 



-5*o 



§5 = £§-5 



823 

365 



864 

3 



924 
960 



s*.»35 

2,472 



363 



17,316 
'168 



19,654 
16,980 



,674 



78,829 
56,620 



L 3,4i7 



BOARDS. 



Moravians. 

Friends. 

Methodist Episcopal Ch., South. 

African Methodist Episcopal Ch. 

jBaptist, South. 

... Disciples. 

. . . Seventh-Day Adventists. 

15 Presbyterian, South. 
244 Protestant Episcopal Church. 

13,676 
12,764 



30,364 
26,214 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Brazil 

Brazil. 

Argentine Republic. 

Chili 

Paraguay 

Pen." 

Uruguay 

Brazil 

Demarara 

Surinam 

Brazil, Chili, Colombi 
Brazil 

Total 

Total in 1887 

Increase in seven yean 



II 


2! 


2 

6 


36 

3 


1 


2 


1 


2 


2 
3 


19 

22 


2 




13 


2S 
26 


7 


23 


48 
28 


179 
84 


20 


95 



'7 519 

92 1 

75 I 

32 r 3,176 

23 I 

40 J 

3 1 



[,006 
7i5 



4,109 
623 



'7.953 
12,724 



38 



, |Seventh-Day Adventists. 



Southern Baptists. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Methodist Episcopal Ch., South. 
116 Moravians. 
2,188 Moravians. 

1,618 Presbyterian General Assembly. 
104 Southern Presbyterian. 



1,563 



43* 



6,065 

4,5°7 



.558 



RECAPITULATION. 



Europe 

Asia 

Africa 

North America 

South America 

Polynesia and Australasia. 



Total 

Total in 1886. 



Increase in eight years. 



44 
400 

61 
211 

48 

24 


2,018 2,745 
4^369! 19,784 


153.431 

274,253 

31,643 

78,829 

17,953 
16,589 

572,698 
332,063 


1,538 




i55,96o 

24,55o 

30,364 

6,065 

2,597 

221,074 
151,9m 






1,188 
179 
212 


2,835 

1,006 

219 








788 

709 

79 


8,414 
5,926 


28,396 
13,398 




2,488 


14,998 


240,635 


79,160 





Note. — The varied methods of tabulating the different classes of laborers, and also of reporting stations 
and out-stations by the various missionary Boards, make it impossible to combine the data with entire satis- 
faction. Some of the smaller boards do not report these items clearly. But the above may be accepted as 
a close approximation to accurate results. 

The Moravian missions given in this table are not supported exclusively by the Moravian churches of 
the United States, but they so largely participate in the missions as to require recognition in the table. The 
Indians and Chinese in America, though not in foreign lands, are nevertheless legitimate subjects of foreign 
mission work, being pagans. 



OS 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 





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FOREIGN MISSIONS OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 709 

Foreign Missions of the Churches of the United States. 

Comparative Table. 



Missions, Laborers, etc. 


1850.* 


1880.* 


1894. 


M issions 

Ordained Missionaries, Foreign and Native. ... 
Lav Laborers 


77 

438 

829 

1,267 

47.266 

29,210 


129 

1,792 

4.167 

5,959 

205,132 

65,825 




Total Laborers 


2S.396 
572,698 
221,074 


Communicants 


Scholars in Day and Boarding Schools 



Comparative View of Receipts. 

Total average yearly receipts in each decade, 1810-1819 $20,621 

1820-1829 74,571 

1S30-1S39 288,583 

1S40-1S49 508,792 

1850-1859 S42J28 

1860-1S69 1,292,971 

11 " 1870-1S80 1,947,647 

1S81-1S94 3,335,749 

Total receipts of all the foreign missionary 

societies of the United States from 1S10-1894 103,869,528 

From the foregoing tables it appears that the number of foreign 
missions supported by the churches of the United States increased 
from 1850 to 1887 as follows: 

Number of missions, 77 to 175, or over twofold. 

Number of ordained missionaries, 438 to 2,395, or over fivefold. 

Number of lay helpers, from 829 to 9,832, or twelvefold. 

From 1850 to 1894: 

The total laborers increased from 1,267 to 28,396, or twenty-twofold. 
The communicants, from 47,266 to 572,698, or twelvefold. 

The number of scholars in day and boarding schools, from 29,210 to 221,074, over 
sevenfold. 

Since 1880 the foreign mission communicants increased almost 
180 per cent. ; the mission pupils, 240 per cent. ; the total laborers, 
380 per cent. 

The average yearly receipts since 1880 have been $3,335,749, or 
nearly three times as much as from 1 860-1 869. During the year 
1894 the receipts for foreign missions by the boards in the United 
States were $4,924,779 ; for 1893 they were $5,119,668 ; and for the 
foreign missionary societies in the world about $14,000,000 were 
received during each of the last two years. 

* See Problem of Religious Progress, by the author of this volume. Hunt & Eaton, 
New York city. 1894. Pp. 736-738. 



710 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Section 2.— Home Missions. 

The unparalleled increase of the population since 1790 has 
created extraordinary demands upon the Christian activity and 
liberality of the American churches. With an average yearly gain 
many times larger than that of any European country, new villages 
and cities springing up as by magic, and the inhabitants spreading 
out over an immense territorial area, it has been incumbent upon 
the churches to furnish these new communities with the facilities for 
religious watchcare and instruction. Large masses of ignorant and 
unevangelized people from other lands — Papists and Rationalists 
from Europe, and heathen from Asia — have crowded to our shores, 
and the utmost diligence and labor have been required to preserve 
the land from misrule and moral ruin. The moral and religious 
necessities of the country, therefore, have been very great. How 
have they been met? 

The great revivals of religion extending throughout the land at 
the opening of the nineteenth century, and followed by successive 
waves of spiritual impulse in the subsequent decades, prepared the 
churches of the United States to appreciate the necessities of the 
situation, and inspired them with the requisite spirit of self-sacrifice. 
In a previous chapter the organization of numerous home mission- 
ary societies was noticed, as one of the immediate fruits of the new 
revival age. As the years have passed they have multiplied and 
increased in efficiency, and thousands of localities have felt their 
blessed influence. In reviewing the century, we cannot fail to rec- 
ognize the profound significance of those movements of Providence 
which prepared the way in the American churches by which the 
nation has been religiously permeated and strengthened, and been 
able to bear so well the severe strain which has come upon it, from 
the large exotic and heterogeneous masses that have been absorbed 
in its population. 

The close of the late civil war devolved upon the American 
churches new duties to a large class of the population, which had 
before been almost wholly excluded from their efforts. The freed- 
men of the South became the beneficiaries of their sympathy. In 
emancipating the slaves, the nation assumed the relation of guardian 
to the emancipated, involving the obligation to provide for and 
protect them. In this important relation their physical wants were 
to be cared for, their civil and personal rights protected, and the 
means of intellectual improvement afforded. This work was first 
committed to the Freedmen's Bureau — a provisional measure organ- 



WORK AMONG THE FREEDMEN. 



71 1 



ized by the United States Government, which subserved a valuable 
but temporary purpose. In the suspension of its functions, the 
churches of Christ recognized a providential call too obvious and 
imperative to be unheeded, summoning them to supplement its work 
with higher and more spiritual agencies. All the leading denomi- 
nations entered zealously into this work, organizing societies or boards 
through which their benefactions were collected and appropriated. 

It was at first supposed by many that the colored population of 
the South, paralyzed by the terrible sufferings of the war, would be 
considerably diminished in numbers. But the Census has dispelled 
this illusion, showing a large increase. 

The Proportions of the White and the African Races. 



YEARS. 



White. 



1S5O 19,553,068 

i860 26,922,537 

1870 33.589.377 

18S0 43,402,970 

1S90 54. 983,890 



Percentage of Total. 



African. 



3,638,808 
4.441,830 
4,880,009 
6,580,793 
7,470,040 



White. Colored. 



64.31 
85.62 

87.II 
86.54 
87.80 



T5.69 

14-13 
12.66 

13. T2 

n-93 



From i860 to 1890 the colored population, with all its disad- 
vantages, its sufferings and privations, increased 68 per cent. ; while 
the white population, with all its accessions by immigration, etc., 
increased 104 per cent. 

A race which could increase so rapidly during the terrible 
scourge of the civil war and the severe hardships following it, so far 
from being destined to an easy extinction, must rather be regarded 
as entitled to high consideration, and to the most intelligent and 
generous provision for its pressing needs. These few facts shed 
floods of light upon the importance and urgency of the educational 
work among the freedmen. 

The full record of these labors would fill many pages with the 
most significant statistics and evidences of astonishing results. The 
toils and triumphs of the American Home Missionary societies are 
without a parallel in ancient or modern times. They are here pre- 
sented in brief summaries, for the glory of God and the encourage- 
ment of his Church. 

The following partial summaries of the Home Missionary and 
Colportage work, full of instructive significance, will be pondered 
with pleasure and profit : 



7 12 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

RELIGIOUS VISITS. 

By missionaries of the Baptist Home Missionary Society in sixty-one 

years, 3,710,187 

By agents or colporteurs of Baptist Publication Society in sixty-nine 

years 1,202,043 

By colporteurs of American Tract Society in fifty-two years 14,163,167 

By colporteurs of American Bible Society in twenty-eight years 16,468,078 

By colporteurs of Presbyterian Board of Publication in forty years . . . 3,390,940 



Total visits 38,934,41 



PRAYER-MEETINGS HELD. 

By missionaries of the Baptist Home Missionary Society in sixty-one 

years 821,393 

By colporteurs of Baptist Board of Publication in thirty-nine years.. . . 108,939 

By colporteurs of the American Tract Society in fifty-two years 476,558 

Total by agents of three Boards 1,406,890 

ADDITIONS TO CHURCHES BY PROFESSION OF FAITH. 

By missionaries of American Home Missionary Society in sixty-seven 

years 409,257 

By missionaries of Presbyterian Home Missionary Society in fifteen 

years 1 15,304 

By missionaries of Baptist Home Missionary Society in sixty-one 

years 128,181 

Total by agents of three Boards 652,742 

YEARS OF LABOR PERFORMED. 

By missionaries of American Home Missionary Society in sixty-seven 

years 48,701 

By missionaries of Baptist Home Missionary Society in sixty-one 

years n ,303 

By missionaries of Presbyterian Board of Home Missions in eleven years. 9-453 

By colporteurs of Presbyterian Board of Publication in forty years. . . . 7,504 
By agents and colporteurs of Baptist Board of Publication in forty-five 

years „ 1,029 

By colporteurs of the American Tract Society in fifty-two years 5<955 

Total by agents of six Boards . §3.945 

These are only partial exhibits of the spiritual activities and 
benevolence of the American churches during the century. If the 
full statistics could be gathered they would thrill and amaze us. 
What we have here gathered are highly significant, and indicate 
religious activities of incalculable proportions, almost wholly un- 
known until within the last eighty-five years. They are unmistaka- 
ble evidences of the deep spiritual vitality of the modern churches 
and their ardent aggressive force. 



XII. c 



OUR LATEST AND GREATI 




Rocky Mountain States and Territories. 



This is the greatest in area of the sections into which our country 
is divided, and probably greatest in natural resources. The majestic 
mountains are God's provision for watering the valleys and plains. 
They trend across the path of the prevailing winds that come cloud- 
laden from the western ocean, so that the high peaks may catch the 
clouds and wring them dry and treasure their waters in the form of 
snow in their deep gorges, whence they are distributed perpetually 
and economically over the regions below. 

If it be true, as every authority on the subject asserts, that about 
one half of this western region of mountains, and the valleys and 
plains which they irrigate, is arable, and the other half comprises 
forests, grazing lands, and mineral mountains, we must expect at an 
early day a denser population than we have in the States eastward. 
The vastly greater resources, and the superior facilities for develop- 
ing them and for populating the country, explain their rapid growth. 
We may expect greater things in the immediate future.* 



Report of Presbyterian Home Mission Hoard, 1894, p. 



28. 



B5T HOME MISSION FIELD 



In the United States Census for 1890 there is a vast area called 
" The Western Division " (see below), comprising eleven States and 
Territories, with 1,175,55° square miles, or 40 per cent, of the whole 
United States exclusive of Alaska. Total population in 1850, 
178,818; in 1870, 981,510; in 1890, 3,027,613. Increase, 1870 to 
1890, 209 per cent. During the last two decades this field has re- 
ceived much attention from various 
following results : 



Home Mission Boards, with the 



Church edifices. . . 
Church valuation 
Church sittings. . . 



1870. 
1. 1 24 
$9,541,736 
437.048 



1S90. 
4,2 1 1 
825,983,636 
i.i 10,917 



Increase. 

3,087 

816,441,900 

773,869 



In 1870 there were sittings for 45 per cent, and in 1890 for only 
36 per cent, of the whole population. 



Church Communican rs in 1890. 



STATES. 



Populs 



Roman 
Communi 



Jew; 



Colorado 412, 198 

Nevada 45, 702 

California 1,208,130 

Wyoming 60,705 

Montana 1 32, 159 

Oregon 3*3. 7&7 

Idaho 84,383 

Washington 349.390 

New Mexico ^ 53. 593 

Utah 207,905 

Arizona 59,620 

'Total 3,027.613 



47.H' 


1,062 


1,640 


3.955 




417 


156,846 


6,179 


1.396 


1,185 




1.322 


25. 149 


140 




30.231 


1,165 




4-S09 




14,816 


20,848 


150 




100,576 




453 


5,958 




117,640 


19,000 




6,500 


415,668 


8,696 


144,184 



K \ angel 


cal 


Protest 


mt 


C ommuni- 


cants 




34 


024 


T 


505 


I76 


I98 


3 


T98 


7 


1S9 


39 


128 


4-4" 


37 


800 


4 


720 


4 


517 


1 


472 


257 


162 



Inhabitants to one 

Evangel. Roman 
Com', ant. Catholii . 



s 
30 

10 

19 

18 

s 
19 

9 
32 
46 
40 



Pecuniary Importance of this Region. 



states. 



Total or True Valuation of Real and 
Personal Proterty. 



Montana $453.i35- 2 "9 

Wyoming 169,773,710 

Colorado 1,145,712,267 

New Mexico 231,459,897 

Arizona 188,880,976 

Utah 349,411,234 

Nevada 180.323,66s 

Idaho 207,896,591 

Washington 

Oregon 

California 



760,698,726 
590,396,194 



840,000,000 
54,000,000 

240,000,000 
49,000,000 
41.000,000 

114,000,000 

156,000,000 
29,000,000 
62,000,000 

154,000,000' 



2,533.733,627 1,343,000,000 638 



,184,522 
016,748 
243.303 
349.793 
440, 79 T 
159.995 
134,012 
552,681 
562,164 
553,932 
767,017 



Total |.$6,8i 1.422,099 $2,282,000,0008834,969,958 #2,250 $1,291 $843 



Per Capita of 
Total Valuation. 



1890. 



>3,429 
2,797 
2,780 
1,507 
3,i68 
1,681 

3.941 
2,464 

2,177 

1,882 
2,097 



T,022 

2,596 

1,235 

4IO 

I,OI4! 

792 

2,506 

890' 

825 

S82 

i,553 



770 
50S 
34i 
356 
186 
733 
437 
566 
567 
1,140 



HOME MISSIONARY STATISTICS. 



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MMenMenMinMOCOMencnoOMMtO-P.D O 

pMMOCOMMOMMO>"o"oeno"D4^en "to 

UjlUlMMCMMCOCOGOMCOONCOGOtOO O 

DinMioocnGo4>CocnenotOOeno>4>4- 



Lo 



- ,o 



7 14 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Comparative View of Receipts. 

Average yearly receipts in each decade : 

Inclusive. Inclusive. 

1820 to 1829 $23,382 i860 to 1869 $2,101,571 

1830 " 1839 234,271 1870 " l88o 2,842,923 

1840 " 1849 306,235 1 88 1 " 1894 4,611,898 

1850 " 1859 808,010 

Total receipts of all the Home Missionary Boards, 1820 to 1894, 
as per preceding table, $143,656,176. 



Section 3.— Progress and Test of Pecuniary 
Benevolences. 

It is not possible to make a full and complete exhibit of the prog- 
ress of the pecuniary benevolences of the American churches. 
The necessary data have never been tabulated and probably could 
not now be collected, but we know enough to assure us that there 
have been great advances — triumphs of Christian love over the 
natural selfishness of the human heart — one of the crucial tests of 
real religious progress. JNor can we now appreciate the stern 
conflicts with covetousness encountered by the founders of the 
foreign and home missionary societies in the first half of this 
century. How low was the standard of giving, and how few the 
number of the givers! The story of the penuriousness in those 
days seems almost incredible. Dr. Harris's magnificent prize essay 
on " Mammon," published in 1836, opened the eyes of many in 
regard to giving, and led the van of a large number of books, sermons 
and tracts on systematic beneficence, which have exerted a powerful 
influence for good. But the battle has not been fully fought. 

The receipts of the foreign and home missionary societies which 
we have tabulated in the preceding pages will help us to judge of 
the progress which has been made. 

Total Receipts for Given Years. 

Foreign Missions. Home Missions. Total. 

1850 $675,000 $557-123 $1,232,123 

i860 1,075,070 1,450,479 2,525,549 

1870 1,753,706 2,472,246 4,225,952 

l88o 2,600,000 3,389,845 5,989,845 

1894 4,924,779 7,089,859 12,014,638 

Note. — There is, however, very much money expended for domestic mission work, for city 
missions, e'c, which is not tabulated or included above. 



between 714 $c 715 facing chart 



DIAGRAM XIII, 



TOTAL WEALTH OF THE UNITED STATES. 



$7 
Per 



1850. 

135,780, 

capita, 



228. 
$308. 



1860. 

$16,159,616,068. 
Per capita, $514 



1870. 

$30,068,518,507. 
Per capita, $780. 



1880. 

$43,642,000,000. 
Per capita, $870. 



1890. 

$65,037,091,197. 
Per capita, $1,039. 



XIV. CHART. 

Distribution of Wealth ix the United States (1S90). 



i. 

2. 

3- 
4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 

S 

9- 
io. 
ii. 

12. 

13- 
14- 
15- 
16. 

17- 
iS. 
19. 

20. 
21. 
22. 

23- 
24. 

25- 

26. 

27- 
2S. 

29. 
30. 

3i- 

32. 

33- 
34- 
35- 
36. 

37- 
33. 
39- 
40. 

41. 

42. 
43- 
44- 
45- 
46. 

47- 
48. 

49- 

- 1 



Total Wealth by S 

New York <J 

Pennsylvania 

Illinois 

Ohio 

Massachusetts 

California 

.Missouri 

Iowa 

Texas 

Indiana 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 

Kansas 

Minnesota 

New Jersey 

Nebraska 

Kentucky 

Colorado 

Maryland 

The Billion Dollar 

Tennessee 

Virginia.. 

Georgia.. 

Connecticut 

Washington 

Alabama 

Oregon 

North Carolina 

Rhode Island 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Arkansas 

Mississippi 

Montana 

West Virginia 

South Dakota 

South Carolina 

Florida 

Utah 

District of Columbia. . . . 

North Dakota 

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

New Mexico 

Idaho 

Arizona 

Nevada 

Delaware 

Wyoming 

Indian Territory 

Oklahoma 



TATES. 

;8, 576,701,991 
6,190,746,550 

5,066,751,719 

3,951,382,384 

2,803,645,447 

2,533.733,627 

2,397,902,905 

2,287,348,333 

2,105,576,766 

2,095,176,626 

2,095,016,272 

1,833,308.523 

i.799o43:5oi 

1,699,851.927 

1,445,285.114 

1,275,685,514 

1,172,232,313 

1,145,712,267 

1,085,473,048 

Line. 

887,956,143 

862,318,070 

852,409.449 

835,120,219 

760,698,726 

622,773,504 

590,396,194 

584,148,999 

504,162,352 

495,301,597 

489,134,128 

455,147,422 

454,247.638 

453,135,209 

438.954.S81 

425,141.299 

400,911,303 

389,489.38s 

349.411,234 
337,006,506 

343,59 r >.733 
325,128.740 
265,567,323 
231,459,897 
207,896,391 
188,880,976 
1 So, 2 23,66s 

175,673,795 

169,773.710 

159,765.462 

48,285,124 



1 



17 

18 

19 
20 
21 
22 

23 
24 

25 
26 

27 
28. 
29. 
30. 

3i- 
32. 

33- 
34- 

35- 
36. 
37- 
38. 

39 
40. 

4i- 
42. 
43- 
44- 
45. 
46. 

47- 
48. 
49. 



Per Capita Wealth by States. 

Nevada $3 

Montana 3 

Arizona 3 

Wyoming 2 

Colorado 2 

Idaho 2 

Washington 2 

California. . . . . , 

Oregon 

North Dakota , 

Utah 

New Mexico 

District of Columbia , 

Rhode Island 

New York 

Illinois 

Iowa 

South Dakota 

Massachusetts 



Kansas 1 

Nebraska 

Iowa 

Pennsylvania 

Connecticut 

Wisconsin 

Ohio , 

. Delaware 



1 

1 

I 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Maryland 1 

Michigan 1 

New Jersey 1 

The One Thousand Dollar Line. 

Florida 

Indiana 

Texas 

Missouri 

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

Oklahoma 

Maine 

Kentucky 

West Virginia 

Virginia 

Tennessee 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

North Carolina 

Mississippi 



941 
429 
168 

797 
780 
464 
177 
097 
S82 

844 

6S1 

507 
491 

459 
430 
324 
300 

293 
261 
252 
205 
196 

177 
119 
087 
076 
043 
041 
001 
000 

995 
956 
942 
895 
863 

799 
7S1 

740 
631 
575 
521 
502 
464 
443 
412 
403 
361 
352 



South Carolina . 
Indian Territory 



CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 7 15 

Actual Increase. 

Foreign Missions. Home Missions. Total. 

1S50 to i860 §400,070 $9 s 3o56 $1,293,426 

1S60 to 1S70 67S.636 1,021,767 1,700,403 

1S70 to 1SS0 846,294 917,604 1,763,893 

1SS0 to 1S94 2,324,77c) 3,700,014 6,024,793 

Relative Increase. 

Foreign Missions. Home Missions. Total. 

1850 10 1S60 59 per cent. 160 per cent. 105 per cent- 

1S60 to 1S70 63 per cent. 70 per cent. 67 per cent. 

1S70 to 1S80 4S per cent. 37 per cent. 41 per cent. 

18S0 to 1S94 89 per cent. 109 per cent. 100.5 P ei ' cent. 

We look with much satisfaction upon these amounts raised for 
these two great benevolences, so far transcending any thing of the 
kind ever before raised for such purposes. Since 1880 the annual 
receipts for foreign missions have reached about $4,924,779, and for 
home missions, $7,089,859, making a total of $12,014,638, against 
$5,989,845 in 1880. 

Hut when we come to compare these figures with the member- 
ship of the evangelical churches raising the above amounts, and also 
the wealth they represent, we see no occasion for boasting, but 
rather for humiliation. Let us, then, look at two pro rata tests. 



The Membership Test. 

\r em i e Inhabitants Average paid for foreign and 

l>er member. home missions for each member. 

1S50 3,529,988 6.57 35 cents. 

1S60 5,240,554 6.00 48 " 

1S70 6,673,396 5.7S 63 " 

1880 10,065,963 5.00 59! " 

1890 13,823,618 4.53 87 " 

That our gifts for foreign and home missions in the last four 
decades have ranged from thirty-five to eighty-seven cents for each 
communicant shows progress, though not large. Many have given 
munificent sums, but multitudes of communicants have given 
nothing, or only a few dimes, and those spasmodically. 

The Wealth Test. 

The total wealth of the United States has been officially re- 
ported as follows : 

1850 $7,135,780,228 1880 $43,642,000,000 

i860 16,159,616,068 1890 65,037,091,197 

1870 30,068,518,507 

46 



16 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



What share of the above wealth is held by the members of the 
evangelical churches represented in the afore-mentioned missionary 
boards? I have submitted this inquiry to many thoughtful persons, 
and they all agree that it should be estimated at \\\z\x pro rata share 
numerically. For instance, if the communicants of these churches 
in 1880 were one fifth of the whole population of the country their 
wealth may be safely estimated at one fifth of the total wealth. 
This would be a moderate estimate ; probably it is too low. Divid- 
ing by the afore-mentioned figures, 6.57 in 1850, 6. in i860, 578 in 
1870, 5. in 1880 and 4.53 in 1890 would give a not excessive esti- 
mate of the wealth of these churches in these different years. 
Total Pro Rata Wealth of the Evangeijcal Churches. 

1S50 $1,084,593,490 1SS0 $8,728,500,000 

i860.. 2,693,269,344 1890 14056,973,774 

1S70 5,202,164,274 

Figuring on this basis how infinitesimal do our offerings for 
foreign and home missions appear! The evangelical Christians of 
the United States gave for foreign and home missions, in 1850, 
one mill and one tenth ($0.0011) on a dollar of their aggregate 
wealth ; in i860, nine tenths of a mill (§0.0009) 5 m ^/O, eight 
tenths of a mill ($0.0008); in 1880, six and one half tenths of a 
mill ($0.00065); in 1890, eighty-four one hundredths of a mill 
($0.00084). 

The total amounts raised for these causes increased from 
$1,232,123 in 1850 to $12,014,638 in 1890, or nearly ten-fold — an 
interesting and impressive advance ; but it does not keep pace with 
the immense increase of the wealth of the churches, which has 
advanced a little over thirteen-fold. Even if these offerings had 
increased as much relatively as the aggregate wealth, and $15,000,000 
had been raised for foreign and home missions, it would have been 
only at the rate of a little more than one mill on a dollar of the 
wealth in the hands of these churches. 

While God is providentially opening the world for the Gospel 
as never before, while he is pouring into the lap of his Church 
pecuniary resources as never before, and while, as never before, the 
Holy Spirit is prompting devoted young Christians in our colleges 
and seminaries to cry, " Here am I, send me" into the field — 
making a clear case of large opportunities and great possibilities 
— nevertheless, with all the great advances in the aggregates of 
our benevolent contributions, are we not criminally falling short 
of our high calling? Style, and luxury, and accumulations have 
increased manifold more than the benevolent offerings ; their exac- 



THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. 1\1 

tions have been allowed by Christian people, and relatively only 
paltry pittances have been doled out, to advance the glorious king- 
dom of Him — the rightful owner of every penny and every rood of 
our possessions, and of every possibility of our being. When will the, 
churches appreciate the rare opportunities of these times, live less 
selfishly, and take a larger share in the great work of evangelization ? 



Section 4.— Religions Publication Agencies. 

The press has become one of the most potent factors in modern 
progress. To what an extent has evangelical Christianity recog- 
nized this agency and employed it in its service? The answer to 
this inquiry divides itself into two parts — periodical literature and 
volume publication. 

i. Religious Periodicals. 

An able writer has said : 

Among the elements which determine the characteristics of a people no branch 
of social statistics occupies a more important place than that which exhibits the 
numbers, variety and difference of newspapers and other periodicals. Composing 
as they do a part of the reading of all, they furnish nearly the whole of the reading 
which the greater number, whether from inclination or necessity, permit them- 
selves to enjoy; and it was in virtue of this fact that the most philosophical of 
British statesmen signalized "newspaper circulations" as a more important 
instrument of the popular intelligence than was generally imagined in his day. 
The writers ol these papers, he added, "are indeed, for the greater part, either 
unknown or in contempt, but they are like a battery in which the stroke of any 
one ball produces no effect, but the amount of continued repetition is decisive. 
Let us only suffer any person to tell his story morning and evening but for a 
twelvemonth and he will become our master." 

And if such was the idea of Burke respecting the influence of the public press 
it is equally true that the quality and dissemination of its fugitive sheets may be 
said to stand as an exponent at once of the intelligence and domestic economy of 
our people. It was in this view that Lord John Russell, in his great speech on 
Parliamentary Reform, delivered in the year 1822, cited the multiplication and 
improvement of newspapers as gratifying evidences of the augmented wealth and 
expanding culture of the middle classes of Great Britain. And it was in this view 
also that a great Greek scholar was accustomed to say that a single newspaper 
published in the age of Pericles (had that age produced any such phenomenon) 
would, if handed down to us, be a better index of Athenian life and manners than 
can now be found in any existing memorials of the Grecian civilization. 

The newspaper and periodical press, now covering so wide a field of activity in 
every department of thought, has won its way to the commanding position it 
occupies from very small beginnings. Taking its origin in Italy, and under a 
form bearing some resemblance to that of modern times, capable of being traced 
to the sixteenth century, the newspaper has in our day enlarged equally the area 



718 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

of its diffusion and the character of its contents, while the celerity with which it is 
disseminated equalizes throughout large tracts of country the conditions of that 
popular intelligence which makes up an enlightened public opinion.* 

Criticism. 

Most of the religious newspapers maintain a high religious and 
intellectual character, and are very potential in their influence upon 
the public conscience. That some of them are not liable to the 
criticism of being " gossipy, scrappy, volatile, with extensive shal- 
lows of watery and tepid romancing, neither cold nor hot in a lit- 
erary or a Christian sense," we would not dare to affirm. They 
often have "paying and paid-for attractions," and may or may not 
be worse for that. And if they have some " semi-secular and quasi- 
religious" articles, instead of those exclusively devotional and 
spiritual, it must be confessed they show practical wisdom, and will 
be quite as well adapted to help their readers in the religio-secular 
affairs of life. Too often articles curious and nondescript, flagrant 
and saucy, ill-tempered and slanderous, frolicsome and foolish, and 
others, olipods of almost anything remotely related, if at all related, 
to Christianity, have appeared in the religious journals, impairing 
their influence, lowering their dignity, and suggesting the query 
whether some professedly religious papers ought not to designate, 
by special captions, the departments intended to be considered as 
religious. Nevertheless, allowing for healthy criticisms, the religious 
journalism of the United States is confessedly one of the most 
powerful and beneficent agencies of moral and religious progress. 

In no country has the influence of the press been more sensibly 
witnessed or more widely extended than in the United States. 
The earliest newspaper on the continent of North America was the 
Boston News Letter, whose publication commenced April 24, 1704. 
In 1720 there were seven newspapers in the American colonies; in 
1 7/5, 35 ; in 1800, about 200 ; in 1810, 359 ; in 1840, 1,631 ; in 1850, 
2,526; in 1870, 5,871; in 1880. 11,314. Of the latter 8,633 are 
published weekly. 

An account of the origin of the religious periodicals has been 
elsewhere related. f In 1828 there were 34 religious newspapers; 
in 1835,90; in 1850, 191; in 1870,407; in 1880,553; * n 1894,821. 

The United States Census for 1890 did not give as full details 
about the periodicals as some former Censuses did. The next best 
source is Newspaper Directories, but these do not fully cover the case. 



* Uftited States Census Report, i860. Vol. on Mortality, etc., p. 319. 
t See Period II, Chapter III, of this volume. 



DEDUCTIONS. 719 

Periodicals and Newspapers. 

1S50. 1870. 1880. 1887. 

Religious 191 407 553 691 

All others 2,520 5.464 10,761 14,015 

Total 2,717 5,871 11,314 1-1,706* 

Copies Published in a Single Year, f 

1S50. 1870. 

Religious 33,643,484 125,950,496 

All others 392,764.492 1,382,597,754 

Total 426,409,976 1,508,548,250 

Regilak Circulation in a Single Year.| 

lSy_>. 1S7O. 

Religious 1,071,657 4,764,358 

All others. ...'... . 4,111,360 16,078,117 



Total 5,183,017 20,842,47 



Deductions. 

Moreover, it has been an occasion of frequent remark within a 
few years that Christianity is now commanding the attention and 
respect of the secular press as never before, notwithstanding their 
occasional sneers at religion. Not many years ago religious matters 
were almost wholly ignored by the secular press. When the lead- 
ing papers in New York city, the Times, Herald, World, and Tribune, 
in the great revival of 1857 and 1858, reported whole pages of revival 
intelligence, it awakened surprise and remark. But the papers only 
met a demand in the public mind and showed how deep and gen- 
eral was the religious interest. Since that time reports of the most 
spiritual movements o( the churches have been more common. 
Revivals of religion, the number of conversions and baptisms, 
abstracts of sermons and whole sermons, missionary intelligence, 
and reports of conferences, associations, and assemblies, are gath- 
ered up by eager reporters and crowded into the columns of the 
secular papers. Whole columns of religious intelligence are com- 
mon in the Saturday's and Monday's issues. These things all show 
that Christianity is identifying itself with the advancing intelligence 
of the age, and that Christ is fast ascending the thrones of power 
and influence the world over. 

Ayer s Newspaper Annual furnishes data of religious periodicals 
which advertise which we have collated and tabulated. It is not, 
however, quite complete. 



* American Newspaper Directory. New York. George P. Rowell & Co. 1887 and 1893-4. 
t For these items we have no later data. 



720 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



PERIODICALS OF 
DENOMINATIONS. 



Advent ._ , 

Anti-Catholic 

Atheist and Free Thought 

Baptists (all kinds) 

Catholic, Roman. . .. ( 

Christian and Disciples 

Christian Endeavor 

Christian Scientist 

Church of God (Winebrennarians). . 

Congregational 

Episcopalian 

Ethical Culture 

Evangelical Association 

Evangelical and Non-Sectarian 

Friends 

Jewish 

Lutherans (all kinds) 

Mennonites. 

Methodists (all kinds) 

Moravians .' 

Mormons 

Presbyterians (all kinds) 

Reformed Churches 

Salvation Army 

Shakers 

Spiritualists 

Swedenborgian 

United Brethren 

Unitarian 

Universalist 

Young Men's Christian Association. 
Not specified 



Total 522 



fc.a 



6,175 

8,070 
378,081 
586,058 
111,718 



3,750 
141,289 
86,696 

48,500 

527,921 

27,100 

84,000 

37,717 

16,300 

591,605 

2,750 

3,850 

204,536 

69,800 

3,500 
37,400 

6,716 
20,550 
12,133 
34,800 



{,051,906 






1894. 



fc.2 



14 

6 
125 
120 
22 

9 



5 

in 



82 821 



U 



5i,59i 

21,000 

37,o5o 

1,077,435 

1,187,784 

227,046 

42,100 

10,200 

13,275 

106,021 

124,293 

3,800 

266,594 

970,677 

40,500 

143,085 

105,484 

10,200 

3,475,317 

2,025 

18,843 

294,023 

123,355 

41,000 

2,000 

57,000 

4,613 

178,512 

13,500 

33,000 

28,000 

367,158 



8,976,481 i 95 



Classified. 



Non-Christian . . . 
Roman Catholic. . 
Non-Evangelical. 

Evangelical 

Total Protestant. 



76 

19 

398 

4i7 



63,679 
2,263,300 
2,326,979 



7 


47 


11 


120 




17 


64 


637 


64 


654 



An increase in the circulation of religious periodicals, from 
3,051,906 to 8,976,481, or nearly threefold, in ten years, is an en- 
couraging indication. The increase of the circulation of the non- 
Christian periodicals was only from 133,320 to 261,778, not quite 
doubling; the Roman Catholic, from 586,058 to 1,187,784, just 
about doubling; the Protestant, from 2,326,979 to 7,516,919, or a 
more than threefold increase. In the latter calculation the non- 
Christian periodicals are not included. Besides those tabulated, 
the various Protestant Churches publish a vast amount of Sunday- 
school papers which are exerting a great influence. As an example, 
one Church, the Methodist Episcopal, is cited, because the data are 
in hand. In addition to the 3,475,317 circulation, for all Methodist 
bodies, included in the foregoing table, the Methodist Year Book 
for 1895 gives a circulation of 3,248,538 to periodicals regularly pub- 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICATION HOUSES. 



721 



lished in New York and Cincinnati for Sunday-schools and young 
people, among which is the Epworth Herald, a weekly, with a circu- 
lation of 70,000. None of these are comprised in Aycrs Newspaper 
Annual, and hence are left out of the tabulation. 

Looking through the Annual, we notice a few Roman Catholic 
papers with a large circulation, namely: 



In Boston 

The Pilot 

The Republic 41,286 I Freeman's Journal. 

The Working Boy 70,000 I The Young Catholi 



In New York City. In Philadelphia. 

74,878 The Catholic News 152,000 The Guardian Angel 43, 500 

..... 11,300 
7,5°o 



40,000 I The Catholic. 
Catholic . 35,000 I The Standard 



But the total Catholic and Protestant periodicals, in five leading 
cities, gives an immense preponderance to the Protestants. 





Boston. 


N 


ew York. 


Philadelphia. 


Chicago. 


Si 


. Louis. 


CHURCH. 


ii 


Circu- 
lation. 


OS- 


3j 


V 

ii 




jj 


3 J 


oJl 

ii 




Roman Catholic 


5 
31 


239,664 
74°, 599 


12 
4° 


365,000 
725,146 


8 
34 


70,040 

367,621 


10 
37 


59,3° 2 
397,865 


4 
18 


71,500 







Outside of New York city, in the State, the Roman Catholics 
have 10 periodicals with a total circulation of 53,300, and the Prot- 
estants 17 periodicals with a circulation of 94,304. In other States 
the relative proportion is the same. In the whole United States 
the circulation of the Roman Catholic periodicals is about one 
seventh as large as those distinctively Protestant. 

2. The Religious Publication Houses. 

The publication houses of any country exert a great influence 
upon its character. The sphere of a publisher's influence is not 
restricted to the limits of a parish or a literary club, or the precincts 
of a college, or the boundaries of a nation. " The ancient Roman 
Empire was not so broad as the field traversed by the books of 
many modern publishing houses. They sway an amount of mind 
which cannot be estimated, and under their control have been, in no 
inconsiderable degree, private character, public institutions, govern- 
ment, law, religion, and, indeed, all the dearest and most profound 
interests of society." 

Will the churches of Christ subsidize this engine of such immense 
power, and employ it in the service of his kingdom ? This pro- 
found inquiry once engrossed the attention of far-seeing men and 
led to frequent anxious consultations as to the means and measures 
for its accomplishment. It has now been in a good degree favor- 
ably answered. 

The increase in the circulation of religious books during the last 
century has been incalculable. The impulse which has contributed 



722 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

to this result has been threefold — improvements in the art of print- 
ing, the increase and more general diffusion of wealth, and the new 
spirit of religious enterprise that has pervaded the churches. The 
principal advance has been within the last sixty years. The extent 
of the book trade in this country seventy-five years ago may be 
judged from the following fact : The paper manufactured and used 
for book printing in 1810 was about 70,000 reams, equal in weight 
and size of that now used to about 30,000 reams, a considerable 
part of which was used for spelling-books and other small books.* 
Estimated at $3 50 per ream it would amount to $245,000, and its 
weight was about 630 tons, which is about the quantity now used 
in a single year by two great religious houses — the American Bible 
and Tract societies. In the year 1826, 17 religious books were 
noticed in the columns of the New York Observer, under the 
head of "New Publications;" in 1835, the number was 24; in 
1 841 the number was 125 works published by the trade, besides 
those issued by the religious houses; in 1848 there were 168 of 
this class. Now, besides religious publication houses, there are 
numerous and extensive establishments of an individual and pri- 
vate character, engaged in sending forth almost exclusively relig- 
ious publications. 

These religious publication societies are intimately connected 
with the missionary work, both foreign and domestic. They have 
been characterized as " the right arm of the missionary enterprise." 
The domestic missionary who wisely pursues his work will avail 
himself of their aid. He will employ Bibles, tracts, Sunday-school 
books and other religious publications as appropriate means both of 
salvation and edification. A part of these societies have carried on a 
system of missionary colportage, in which the distribution of relig- 
ious books and tracts has been united with personal religious con- 
versation and prayer in the families of remote and destitute local- 
ities. To furnish a religious literature to the world in an age like 
ours is a stupendous undertaking, and has required large wisdom, 
steady zeal and great liberality. The work has been nobly begun, 
with sublime determination that an evangelical literature of sterling 
worth, in the English language, shall be made " the heritage of the 
reading world," and that both way-side and fire-side preaching, 
through oral and printed truth, shall supplement the more formal 
proclamation of the Gospel. We here give a summary of the 
pecuniary receipts of these agencies : 

* History of the Art of Printing. By Isaiah Thomas. 



RELIGIOUS PUBLICATION SOCIETIES. 



728 



7 — 

^ tt n. o 

0) Q. o — 

£ • Cm 



^. 


- 


Q- 


3 


- 




7 


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724 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Comparative View of Receipts. 

Average Annual Receipts in Each Decade. 

Inclusive. Inclusive. 

1S00 to 1829 $79,505 i860 to 1869 $3,011,959 

1S30 " 1839 453,909 1S7O " 1S80. 3,833,624 

1S4O " 1849 718.74O lS8l " 1894 5,000,000 

1850 " -859 1,838,231 

The exact figures, in the last period, as per table, are a little less ; 
but the large publishing house of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, the twelve Lutheran publishing houses, the Reformed (Ger- 
man) Church, the Disciples, the Second Adventists, etc., etc., are 
not included in the column for 1 881-1894, being given only in the 
aggregate. The total yearly average for 1881 to 1894 cannot fall 
below $5,000,000, but would probably considerably exceed that sum. 
Some amounts given in response to our inquiries have been given 
only in aggregates. 

Grand total for all the decades, $170,699,891. 



. Section 5,— Higher Education and the Churches. 

In our sketches of the Colonial Era the origin of the educa- 
tional institutions of the country was narrated, showing that these 
great agencies of enlightenment and culture grew out of the relig- 
ious life of the people, and largely as direct results of the organ- 
ization of the churches. The influence of the churches upon 
scholarship and culture, and the share of the churches in founding 
and maintaining institutions of learning, is a topic so directly related 
to the history of Christianity as to call for extended notice in these 
pages. A religion that fails to identify itself with intelligence, 
science and the best progress of the age can have no hold upon the 
future. It is the mission of Christianity to enlighten. It has been 
freely asserted of late that the churches, especially the evangelical 
churches, are perceptibly losing their hold upon the intellect and 
scholarship of the age ; that few young men in the colleges are 
Christians in the usual acceptation of the term ; that denomina- 
tional colleges are relatively declining, and that they are destined 
to be superseded by State universities and other large institutions 
founded by individual munificence. What are the facts? 

By referring to pages 436-7 the reader will find statistics of the 
colleges for 1830 of the most reliable character, from which the 
following table is compiled : 



DATA COXCERNING COLLEGES. 



725 



Colleges in the United States in 1830. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Congregational 

Presbyterian 

Baptist 

Protestant Episcopal 

Reformed (Dutch and German). 

Methodist Episcopal * 

Unitarian 

Roman Catholic 



Total Denominational 
Non-denominational. . 



Founded 
before 
1800. 



Aggregate. 



Founded 
between 

1800 
and iS^o. 



2S 



Total 

in 
1830. 



8 

9 
4 

5 
2 
2 

1 
4 

35 
14 

49 



Pro- 
fessors. 



53 

39 

16 

34 

16 
12 

20 



190 

85 

275 



Students 
for the 
Degree 

of A. B. 



,047 
517 
I96 
203 

287 
172 
247 



2,669 
913 

3.5S2 



Here are 49 colleges in 1830, with 275 professors and 3,582 
students. From 1800 to 1S30 the colleges increased 28, of which 
number 20 were denominational and 8 undenominational. In 1800 
the denominational colleges were 71.5 per cent, of the whole; in 
1830 71.5 per cent, of the whole, and at the latter date these de- 
nominational colleges had 74.6 per cent, of all students in colleges. 

For the data concerning the colleges in i884,f the latest availa- 
ble, we are indebted to the very able reports of General Eaton, J Com- 
missioner of Education at Washington, D. C. Collating from his 
report, we have a satisfactory basis for a comparison with the year 
1830 — a sufficiently long interval to indicate quite clearly the 
educational tendency of the century. 

Changing the phraseology for the reasons indicated below, and 

* These two colleges, under Revs. H. B. Bascom and Dr. Martin Ruter, did not become per- 
manent Methodist colleges. The Wesleyan University, founded at Middletown, Conn., in 1831, 
was the first permanent Methodist college. 

t Cannot make later comparison of the Church colleges because the Commissioner no longer 
reports the denominational relations. 

Jin using General Eaton's reports we have discarded the terms "sectarian" and " non-sectarian " 
sometimes used, because not expressing what they are intended to express, and consequently put- 
ting most of the colleges in a false light. It is well known that no ecclesiastical tests in either 
admitting, disciplining, advancing or graduating students are used by any of the colleges, unless 
it be in some of the Roman Catholic colleges. In all the colleges of the Protestant churches no 
questions are asked in regard to religious belief, and students are at liberty to select the place of 
worship which accords with their denominational predilections just as freely as in purely State 
colleges. Harvard College, reported as " non-sectarian," is no more so than over two hundred 
others reported as sustaining denominational relations ; for Harvard, during more than half a 
century, has been under the direction of a " Board of Fellows " all of whom have been Unitarians 
except one elected within a few years ; and, besides, the Theological School of Harvard College 
is usually mentioned in the Unitarian Year Book as a Unitarian institution. Yale, Columbia, 
Williams and many other colleges also reported by General Eaton as " non-sectarian " recently were 
reported as Congregational, Episcopal, etc. But there has been no severance in their denomina- 
tional relations. 



726 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



using the terms denominational and undenominational, we have on 
the one hand the colleges of the churches, comprising those closely 
related to the churches in origin, sympathy and patronage, some of 
which are organically held by ecclesiastical bodies, and, on the 
other hand, those which sustain no denominational relations. This 
classification fully and fairly covers the question, What are the 
churches doing for collegiate education, and how far are they iden- 
tified with advanced intellectual culture ? In carrying out this 
classification the advantage of any doubt in regard to institutions 
not fully known is given to the undenominational list. 

Of the 61 colleges classified in the following table as undenomi- 
national, 23 are State institutions, some of them founded before 
the disruption of the union between the Church and State ; four, 
city institutions ; three, military ; two, agricultural ; one, deaf mute ; 
and the remainder are not clearly indicated as to their character. 
Nearly half of the latter are under the presidency of evangelical 
divines. Eight of the State and city institutions have clergymen 
for presidents, and many of the professors and students are active 
evangelical communicants. General Eaton's report for 1883-4 gives 
370 colleges and universities. In 1870 he gave a large number ; but 
he has probably since that time found that some of them should be 
classified in a different table. With the aid of the Year Books ot 
the denominations we have carefully examined the list, and as- 
signed to the churches those marked " unsectarian " which are 
properly denominational in their origin, affiliation, patronage, etc. 
We give the following carefully classified table : 

Colleges and Universities in the United States — 1884. 



DENOMINATIONAL RE- 
LATIONS. 







2 




O 

V V 

45 
26 


O sn 

u 


Students in 
the Collegia 
Course for 
A. B. 




33 2 
3*7 


3,728 
3,108 


c 
I 


r 7 
1 1 


140 
90 


[,326 

807 


I 


2 


14 


^37 




5 


4 r 


33i 




'4 


7 
102 


11 

860 




63 


534 


4,93 8 




46 


39^ 


4,060 




7 
1 


1 


449 





DENOMINATIONAL RE- 
LATIONS. 



L I 



j c o « 



wSv< 



Swedenborgian. . 
United Brethren. 

Unitarian 

Universalist . . . . 



! 

! 4| 



13 
238 

,040 
260 



Total Non-Roman Catholic. . ! 252I 2,215; 21,301 
Roman Catholic | 57J ....I 4,647 



Baptist (all kinds) 

Congregational 

Christian and Disciple * 

Episcopal 

Evangelical Association 

Friend 

Hebrew 

Lutheran 

Methodist (all kinds) 

Mormon 

Presbyterian (all kinds) 

Reformed (German and Dutch) 
Seventh-Day Advent 

* The practice of the Disciples in taking to themselves the designation "Christians," which 
for three quarters of a century has been held by another religious denomination, so confuses the 
statistics that it is necessary to combine the two bodies. 

t When General Eaton gives 65,522 students in the colleges he comprises those in the prepara- 
tory as well as the collegiate departments. 



Total Denominational j 309! 2,215! 25,948 

Undenominational 1 6ij 7821 6,819 



Aggregate 



.1 370 2,997] +3 2 ,767 



DIAGRAM XV. 



1830. 




COLLEGES, DENOMIN. 
AND UNDENOMINi 


ATIONi^L 




1 \\* 

1 \ X'cP 


^TIONAL. 




STUDENTS IN COURSE FOR 




\ Y%, 








\ \ -, \ <? 


DEGREE OP A.B. 






\" \ ^\ cP 










Each line measured from the perpeudicular line on the left . 




I r_ \ 








1^ \ 








\ m ^ 








l -n 


\& \ 






1 CO 

I — ' 


k \ 








\& \<^ 






112 








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X> \o 






\ 


\<i> v^- 






yz. 


VZ' \' s 






\-z. 


\<& V 






\C3 


\% \? 






1^ 


% V 






IS 








\5 


V \ 






\> 


\<p \ 






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li — 


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« 




\n 


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\* \ 






n 








ICO 




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L 


\ ^ 


\% 




\ 


\ ■» 


Vjp 




r 


V^ 


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Icp 


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\°° 


\ip 


V-^ 






X- 5 ? 


\<*\ 




1? 


V 


\ *> 


1884. 


\ 







DIAGRAM XVI. 



1830 



DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGE 
STUDENTS, 1830-1884. 

Each line measured from the perpendicular line on the left. 

BAPTISTS, all kinds. 
METHODISTS, all kinds. 
PRESBYTERIANS, all kinds. 



18 84 




47 



CLASSIFIED TABLE OF COLLEGES. 



727 



Comparison of 1830 with 1884. 





Colleges. 


Students. 




1830. :88 4 . 


1830. 

2,669 
913 


1884. 




35 309 
14 61 

40 370 


25,94S 
6,819 


Undenominational 




Total 


3.582 


32,767 



Increase from 1830 to i 



Population 

Denominational Colleges. . 
Undenominational " 



335 I 1 *-' 1 " cent. 
7S3 «* *« 

335 



Denominational Students . . . 872 per cent. 
Undenominational " .... 653 " 



Iii 1830 the denominational colleges were 71.5 percent, of the 
whole; in 1884 they were 83.5 per cent. In 1830 the students in 
the denominational colleges were 74.6 per cent, of the whole ; in 
1884 they were 79.2 per cent. 

Of the students in denominational colleges 



In 18-.0. 

The Baptists had 7.3 per cent. 

" Congregationalists 38.8 " 

" Episcopalians 7.6 " 

" Methodists 6.4*" 

" Presbyterians 19.3 " " 

" Roman Catholics None reported. f 

" Non-Evangelical Churches ... 9.2 per cent. 

" Evangelical " .... 90. S " " 



In 1884. 

14.3 per cent. 

n. 9 " " 

3.1 " " 

190 " 

15.6 " " 

17.9 " " 

5.1 " " 

94.9 " " 



The Year Books of some of the religious denominations, within 
a few years, have furnished carefully-prepared tables of all the 
higher educational institutions of the churches, including theolog- 
ical seminaries, colleges and universities, female colleges, classical 
seminaries and academies. Many denominations give no such in- 
formation in any tabulated form ; but such as have been prepared 
and published we give, that the relation of the churches to the 
higher education may be more fully seen and appreciated. 

Stall's Lutheran Year Book for 1886 gives the following: 



Lutheran Educational Institutions in the United States.}: 









- T u u. 

1/1 ■ o, 1 ir..J . : q, ] c £. 



I- .|-S § i 

o W> 3 ho 



■{■ O Z & 

§ £ S J« 



Theological Seminaries. . . 19 4311 

Colleges 24J 2,532 

Classical Seminaries 27 1,864! 

Young Ladies' Seminaries. 11 722 



Total 



81! 5,549' 



bD'2 Sic dji"©^. 
55.S.S fc.5 f^H fc.S >~^- 



43ij 
7691 
119 



5 !5i 
[9 103 



46,975 
101,660 



$157,000 



5 577,ooo 
55,35°| J 4, 65,000 



.319] 26 394: 6 207,285: 



fc.E 



35 



c u 
S'-oO 



>K 



$330,000 

1,101,000 

308,500 

186,000 



$1,925,5001 18 



* These institutions did not become permanent. All the Methodist colleges now existing were 
founded after 1830. t Four colleges, but students not reported. 

% For fuller summary exhibit see page 123 of the Year Book. 



72; 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Regular Baptist Institutions (North and South). 

1886.* 



CLASSIFICATION. 


I! 

7^- 





tfl 

C 

P 


11 


Value of 
Buildings 

and 
Grounds. 


*J 
c v 
W £ 


p. 

c 

« 

E- 5 




6 

29 

27 
44 


45 
277 
261 
262 


445 
4,482 
3,238 
4,841 
3.420 


97,250 
235,859 

33,7oc 
26,981 
18,230 


$608,5771 §1,603,251 


$2,211,828 
7,868,722 
2,140,200 

1,822,536 
896.500 




Seminaries for Female Education. . . 


1,620,200 

1,274,200 

690,500 


530.000 

548,33^ 
206,000 








Total 


125 


996 


16,426 


412,020 




$14,939,786 






-'"■''' 



1894. 





7 

35 
32 
47 
3 1 


54 
701 
388 

369 
269 


772 
9,088 
3,675 
5,250 
5,i77 




fi768.^^o S2.66i.6a6 &s 401.618 


Universities and Colleges 


500,316 7,442,617 10,529,721 19,171,045 
47,867 2,696,804 1,193,082 4,121,906 
48,130, 2,421,600, 1,256,633 3,787,793 
19,570', 1,256,425 93,5°° 1,380,54° 


Seminaries for both sexes 

" for Colored and Indians.. 


Total....... 


152 
27 


i,79i 


29,966 


75i,i33 
339,"3 


$14,585,676; $15,434,582! $31,862,902 
6,871.960 8.198,312 16.923,116 







1 884.t 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 



Theological Seminaries , 

Colleges and Lniversities , 

Female Seminaries and Colleges. , 
Classical Academies. , 



Total. 



9 


45 


541 




43 


649 


12,42c 




25 


203 


2,50c 




67 


422 


11,02(1 




*44 


1,3*9 


26,491 


.... 



$410,500 

4,179,710 

895,500 

1,391,950 



$653,500 

5,083,921 

35,700 

212,700 



86,877,660 $5,985,8211 $12,863,481 



All Institutions for Higher Educa- I 
tion ) 



Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

260 



4,84c 



$2,393,700' $978,000 



$3,37!, 7°o 



Both Meth. Episcopal Church and Meth. Episcopal Church, South. 

~1~ 



Total two Methodist Bodies. 



2171 i,579 3*,337 



$9,271,36. $6,963,821! $16,235,181 



1 894.} 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 





17 
56 
56 
9 
76 


70 

1,424 

430 

167 

464 


79. 

24,033 

10,679 

1,246 

6,639 




$573,000 
9,584,679 
2,490,708 
1,182,589 
792,005 


$1,651,750' 

10.701,673! 
548,166) 
354,752; 
89-233, 


$ 


Colleges and Universities 




Classical Seminaries 

Female Colleges and Seminaries 

Foreign Missionary Schools 








Total 


214 
12 

202 


2,555 
46 


43,388j .... 

375 


$14,631,981 


$13^345,5741 


s 


Less duplications 






Net total 


2,509 


43,oi3J 


$14,631,981 


$i3,345,574| 


$27,977,555 





Methodist Episcopal Church, South.;}; 



All Higher Institutions i 79 | 897: 16,620] ....] $4,485,042' $1,538,000] 



Both Meth. Episcopal Church and Meth. Episcopal Church, 



$6,023,042 
South. 



Total two Methodist Bodies. 
Increase in ten years 



381! 3,4o6 
164 1.809 



59,633 
28,296 



$19,117,023 

9,845,663 



$14,883,574 
7,919,753 



$34,000,597 
17.765,416 



* Baptist Year Books for 1886 and 1894. f Methodist Centennial Yea?- Book, pp. 
% Methodist Year Book, 1895. 



191-195. 



ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL WORK. 729 

These two Baptist and two Methodist denominations, representing 
nearly one half of the communicants of the evangelical Churches of 
the United States, have 533 institutions of higher education, manned 
by 5,1 17 instructors, having 89,599 students of various grades, largely 
collegiate ; property valued at §33,702,699, and endowments amount- 
ing to $30,318,156. Total, $64,020,855. All this has been done by 
people who pay large taxes every year for the support of the public 
school system — and pay them cheerfully, besides their contributions 
to support their denominational institutions of higher education. 
In the Methodist Episcopal Church, from 1865 to 1883, the educa- 
tional property increased 143 per cent., and the institutions of this 
denomination report 402,882 different students who have been 
instructed in them from the beginning, a period of about sixty years 
since the first Methodist academy was founded. If the remaining 
denominations, representing 55 per cent, of the evangelical com- 
municants of the United States, and the unevangelical churches 
and the Roman Catholic Church should report their educational 
statistics as fully as those tabulated in the preceding paragraph, 
there would be found* not far from 175,000 youth in the more 
advanced educational institutions of the churches. 

That the churches are doing so much advanced educational 
work in a country so liberally provided with public high schools, 
academies and colleges is a fact worthy of consideration. It is too 
apparent to be intelligently or honestly denied that the churches 
are not losing their hold upon the intellect of the age, and are the 
most active promoters of the most advanced scholarship and 
culture. 

The Theological Seminaries 

also indicate great educational progress, as will appear from the 
following table : 



*This will appear from the following- facts: In tables VI, VII, VIII and IX, of General 
Eaton's report, 1883-4, comprising the best educational institutions from the grade of high 
schools and academies up to colleges and theological seminaries, we find that the Presbyterian 
Churches (all branches) have 176 institutions ; the Protestant Episcopal Church, 133; the Con- 
gregational churches, 91 -, the Friends, 58; the Roman Catholic Church, 229; and several 
smaller bodies, 105 — total, 792. Deducting the 46 institutions in the preceding table not report- 
ing their students from the 465 leaves 419, which reported 58,021 students. Adding the 46 to the 
792 from General Eaton's reports, we have 838 institutions. Proceeding; upon the supposi- 
tion that the 838 average as many students as the 419, we have for the 1,257 church insti- 
tutions 174,063 students out of the total 272,072 reported in the afore-mentioned tables 
of General Eaton. Besides, doubtless, a large number of those specified as non-sectarian, 
and many of the 315 not specified, sustain similar denominational relations with those reported 
as Methodist, Congregational, or Episcopal institutions, and are in direct affiliation with the 
churches. 



SO 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Theological Seminaries. 



CLASSIFICATION. 


1S3C 


.* 


1883- 


-4-t 


Seminaries. 


Students. 


Seminaries. 


Students. 


Evangelical Churches 


17 
I 


631 

73 


I20 
2 

I 


3,972 
38 

55 


Universalist Churches 










iS 

18 


709 


127 
19 


4,076 
1,214 


Roman Catholic 




Ao^recrate .... 


709 


I46 


5,296 





The theological students of the Protestant churches in 1884 
were 3.3 as many as those of the Roman Catholics. In 1830 the 
Protestant theological students were 1 in 18,146 inhabitants; in 
1884 one in 13,739 inhabitants. While the population increased 
335 per cent, the theological students of the Protestant churches 
increased 474 per cent. 

It has been sometimes asserted that the influence of evangelical 
religion upon educated young men is declining. It is not possible, 
perhaps, to obtain exact data for fully testing this matter, but we 
have a class of statistics which go far to settle it. The number of 
students, in the colleges and universities of the highest grade, who 
are " professedly religious," or members of evarigelical churches, 
is certainly one good test. These we have in a tolerably complete 
form, covering a period of over fifty years. 

Percentage of College Students Pious. 



DATE OF STATISTICS. 



1S30. 

i355- 
1865. 

1870. 
1372. 

iS3o. 
1385. 



"3 ti 


U 1/1 tfl 




£r£6 O 


,0 s . 


— C/3 P. 


P fcJD M 

3 <u c 


SUE* 


fc 


H 


28 


2,633 


30 


4,533 ; 


33 


7,35i | 


32 


7,8i8 | 


12 


1,891 | 
12,063 • 


6 5 


noj 


15,344 



693' 26 

1,727 38 
3,380 46 

3,162 40 

941 5° 

6,051 50 

7,3Di! 48 



per cent. 



*See American Quarterly Register, May, 183 r. 

t Report of General Eaton, Commissioner of Education, 1883-4, p. clxix. 

%\n this list are 9 State colleges, 4 State normal schools, 2 agricultural and mechanical inst? 
t in ions, r polytechnic department, 1 medical and 1 military institute. See table in report of Y 
M. C. A. of United States, 1885. 



IDENTIFIED WITH HIGH CULTURE. 731 

The opinion, current in some quarters, that the colleges are 
degenerating, morally and religiously, and that skepticism and dis- 
sipation are setting at naught the better influences of other days, 
is disproved by the foregoing statistics, and by many concrete testi- 
monies * which cannot be inserted in these limited pages. All the 
foregoing facts show the strong and enduring progress of Christian- 
ity in the United States ; that it is identified with the highest 
educational culture of the age ; that the denominational institu- 
tions are incalculably leading in number and students all the unde- 
nominational colleges, and that the great principles and blessed 
experiences of Christianity are being voluntarily and intelligently 
adopted by a far larger proportion of college students than ever 
before. 

* See article by Rev. C. F. Thwing, D.D., in Sunday Afternoon, September, 1878. 



732 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER VII. 



GROWTH OF "EVANGELICAL" PROTESTANT CHURCHES. 



Sec. i. The Actual Growth. 
" 2. The Population Test. 

1. The Large Cities. 

2. In New England. 

3. In the Whole Country. 



Sec. 3. The Interdenominational Test. 

1. The " Evangelical " and the 

" Liberal " Churches. 

2. The Evangelical Protestant and 

Rom. Catholic Bodies Compared. 



THOROUGHLY tabulated statistics of the churches of the 
United States have long been regarded as a desideratum. So 
new is much of the ecclesiastical life in America, so multiform the 
organizations, so numerous the schisms and the reunions, so many 
the changes in the names of the religious bodies, and so immature 
the methods of collecting and classifying the data in some denom- 
inations, that many who have undertaken to gather this information 
have either given up the work in disgust or have prematurely con- 
tented themselves with only partial and imperfect results, supposing 
their work complete. The results of many years of research by the 
author of this volume, given to the public in his book, The Problem 
of Religious Progress* were received with great favor by representa- 
tive persons in all the denominations, and indorsed by the best 
ecclesiastical experts. No unfavorable criticism of the tabulated 
data came to the author's attention. Since that time he has 
extended his researches with conscientious care and brought his 
tables down to the latest date. 

In every case the best available statistics have been tabulated, 
gathered, as far as possible, from official sources — the Minutes, 
Almanacs and Year Books of the denominations — though in some 
cases only estimates are given ; but even these, in almost every 
instance, are made by prominent officials of the denominations. 
The principal statistics of the Roman Catholics, Unitarians, Uni- 
versalists, and some other bodies are given in the chapters where 

* Phillips & Hunt, 805 Broadway, New York city, N. Y. 1881. 



EARLY STATISTICS. 



733 



their history is sketched. By reference to foot-notes the author 
gives his authorities. We have now to do with the growth of the 
Evangelical Protestant Churches, which will be tested by compari- 
sons with the population, with the Roman Catholic Church, etc. 



Section 1.— Tlie Actual Growth. 

The statistics for 1775 will be found on page 256, from which it 
will appear that there were 1,918 churches and 1,435 ministers in 
the evangelical denominations at that time, the number of the com- 
municants unknown. In the very unfavorable period (1775 to 1800), 
the churches made some progress, and we have the following exhibit 
for 1 800 : 

Churches, Ministers and Communicants, iSoo. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Baptists, Regular 8 

Baptists, Free-Will 3 

Congregational 4 

Friend 5 

Methodist Episcopal Church 6 . 

Presbyterian 7 

Protestant Episcopal s 



SMALLER BODIES. 

Lutheran, Dutch, and German Reformed, Seventh- 
day Baptist, Six-Principle Baptist, Mennonite, 
Moravian, etc., estimated 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions or 
Congrega- 
tions. 1 



Ministers. 



1,500 
8lO 



500 
320 



Total 



600 

'287 
300 
264 



3,030 



2,651 



Communi- 
cants. 



100,000 
3,000 
75,000 
50,000 
64,894 
40,000 

9 n,978 



20,000 



364,872 



1 In some cases the congregations are given. 2 Christian Retrospect and Register, by Rev. Dr. 
Baird, p. 220 ; also article on the " History of the Baptists," by Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D., in American 
Quarterly Register, 1841-42. 3 Appleton's old Encyclopedia, article, "Free-Will Baptists." ^Historical 
Sketches of Congregationalism, by Rev. Joseph S. Clark, D.D., and Dr. Baird's Christian Retrospect 
and Register, p. 220. 5 Estimated. 6 General Minutes 0/ the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

7 Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. 8 Episcopal Record, i860. 9 Dr. Baird, in Report to Evangelical Alli- 
ance, 1850, set the number of communicants at 16,000 in 1800. 

We have noticed that, in 1800, our country began to emerge 
from the troublesome period of the closing decades of the previous 
century. The national constitution had been adopted, the acrimony 
of the debates incident to its adoption and the starting of the fed- 
eral government was subsiding, and the nation started into this 
wonderful century with a great revival of religion, which inaugu- 
rated a new spiritual era of numerous revivals, transcending in 
frequency, power and beneficent results those of any former period. 
The first five decades of this century have been noticed as charac- 



34 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



terized not only by great revivals, but also by great moral agitations 
and reforms and the inception of numerous benevolent and evan- 
What is the exhibit of the churches for 1850? 



gelizing agencies. 



Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1850. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Baptist, 4 Regular, North 5 . 
Baptist, Regular, South 5 . . 



Total. 



Baptist, Free- Will 6 , 

Baptist, Seventh-day 7 

Baptist, Seventh-day German 4 . 

Baptist, Six-Principle 4 

Baptist, Anti-Mission 4 



Total Baptist. 



Congregational 8 

Disciple, or Campbellite 4 

Dutch Reformed 9 

Dunker 4 

Episcopal, Protestant 10 

Evangelical Association n 

Friend (Evangelical) (estimated by Friends). 

German Reformed 8 

Lutheran 8 

Merinonite 8 . 

Moravian 8 



Methodist Episcopal 13 

Methodist Episcopal, South 15 

Methodist Episcopal, African 15 . . . . 
Methodist Episcopal, African Zion 15 . 

Methodist Protestant 16 

Methodist Wesleyan 15 

Methodist Primitive 15 

Methodist Reformed 15 

Methodist Still wellite 15 



Total Methodist l6 i7,ooo 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions or 
Congrega- 
tions. 1 



3.557 
4.849 



8,406 

1,126 
7i 

21 

2,035 



11,659 

i,97i 

1,898 
286 
152 

i,35o 
200 

600 

1,603 

400 

3i 



Ministers. 2 



2,665 
2,477 



5,142 

867 

58 

4 

25 

907 



7,003 

1,687 
848 
299 
160 

i,595 
195 

260 

1,400 

240 

27 

4,129 

i,556 

127 

7i 

807 

400 

12 

50 



'7,152 



Communi- 



296,614 
39°. 1 93 



686,807 

50,223 

6,351 
400 

3,586 
67,845 

815,212 

197,197 

Il8,6l8 

33,780 

7,849 

89,359 

12 2i,374 
70,000 
70,000 

163,000 

25,000 

3,027 

14 693,8n 
^514,299 

14 22,I27 

14 4 .8i 7 
14 65,8i5 

14 2 1,400 
14 I,II2 
14 2,050 

200 



:4 i,325,63i 



1 In some cases, probably, congregations are reported instead of Church organizations. 2 Local preach- 
ers and licentiates not included. 3 Some Churches include baptized children, but not many. 4 Baptist 
Almanac, 1851. 5 Divided on the basis of the two General Conventions which, since the schism in 1845, 
have not affiliated, as is also the case with the Methodist Episcopal Churches, North and South, and the 
Presbyterian. 6 Free-Will Baptist Register, for 1851. 7 Seventh-day Baptist Manual, for 1852. ^Chris- 
tian Almanac, 1850, and Dr. Baird's Christian Retrospect and Register. 9 Christian Retrospect and 
Register, by Dr. Baird. 10 Church Almanac. n Official document, number of churches estimated. 
12 Ministers added with members to make the total communicants, as with the Methodist bodies, because 
of peculiarities of Church polity. 13 Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1850. 14 According 
to the polity of the Methodist Churches it is necessary to add the number of preachers to the number of 
members in order to get the total communicants, because they are not reckoned into the number of com- 
municants in the local churches, as with other denominations. 15 Fox and Hoyt's Ecclesiastical Regis- 
ter. 16 The Methodist Minutes do not report the number of Church organizations, The United States 
Census for 1850 gave 14.861 church edifices (all kinds of Methodists). The organizations or societies con- 
siderably exceed the edifices, hence the above number is partly estimated. 17 Besides 10,599 local preachers. 



EVIDENCES OF GROWTH. 



735 



Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1850. — Continued. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Presbyterian, Old School 1 

Presbyterian, New School - 

Presbyterian, Reformed General Synod of, in North 

America. 3 

Presbyterian, Reformed Synod of, in North America 3 . 

Presbyterian. Associate 4 

Presbyterian, Associate Reformed 4 

Presbyterian, Cumberland 5 

Presbyterian, other small bodies (estimated) 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions or 
Congrega- 
tions. 



Total Presbyterian. 



2,595 
1,568 

63 

50 

214 

332 

500 



Ministers. 



5,322 



1,926 
i,473 

43 

33 

120 

219 

450 



4,264 



Second Advent 6 

Schwenkfelder 4 

United Brethren 7 

Several small bodies (estimated). 



Aggregate 



500 

IOO 


450 

75 


43,072 


25,655 



Communi- 
cants. 



207,754 
139-797 

6,800 

6,000 

l8,000 

26,340 

75.O0O 

8,000 

487,691 

40,000 

800 

8 50,450 
11,000 



3,529,9 88 



1 Minutes 0/ General Assembly \ Old School, 1850. 9 Minutes 0/ General Assembly, New School, 
1350. 3 Rev. R. Baird, D.D., in American and Foreign Christian Union, vol. II, pp. 77, 78. 4 Fox 
and Hoyt's Ecclesiastical Register. 6 Christian Retrospect and Register, by Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. 
* Estimated by Revs. J. Litch and J. V. Hines. 7 Official sources. Number of churches estimated. 

8 Having a polity like the Methodist churches it is necessary to add the number of preachers to the 
number of members in order to get the total communicants, because they are not reckoned into the number 
of communicants in the local churches, as with most other denominations. 

We have here evidence of remarkable growth of 40,000 churches, 
23,000 ministers, and nearly 3,200,000 members in fifty years, or 800 
churches and 64,000 members annually. The next period takes us 
to 1870, through the revulsion following the Millerite excitement, 
the severe spiritual distractions and the demoralization of the civil 
war, the trying period of foreign immigration, and the insidious and, 
to many minds, fatal influence of Spiritualism and other forms of 
skepticism. What do the statistics for 1870 show? 



Churches, Ministers, 


and Communicants, 


1870. 




DENOMINATIONS. 


Church 
Organiza- 
tions x or 
Congrega- 
tions. 


Ministers. 1 


Communi- 
cants. 1 


Baptist, 2 Regular, North 3 


5,857 

IO,777 

8ll 

4 i7,445 


4,112 

6,331 

375 
10,818 


495,099 
790,252 
125,142 




Baptist, Regular, Colored 3 






Total North and South 


I,4IO,493 





1 See references (i, z, 3) under previous table. ^Baptist Year Book, 1871. 3 For the division see 
explanation under table V, reference 5. 4 In 1870 the United States Census reported 3,061 less church 
organizations of the Regular Baptists than their Year Book gave. See Compendium of Census, 1870, 
p. 517, note. > 



736 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1870. — Continued. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Baptist, Fvee-Will 1 

Baptist, Free-Will, minor bodies l . 

Baptist, Seventh-day 2 

Baptist, Seventh-day, German 3 . . . 
Baptist, Six-Principle 3 



Total Baptist, 



Congregational 5 

Disciple, or Campbellite 6 . 
Dunker 3 

Episcopal, Protestant 8 . . . 
Evangelical Association 2 . 
Friend, 11 Evangelical 



Lutheran, 12 General Synod 

Lutheran, General Council 

Lutheran, General Synod of North America. 
Lutheran, other Synods 



Total Lutheran, 



Mennonite 14 . 
Moravian 15 . . 



Methodist Episcopal 16 

Methodist Episcopal, South 16 

Methodist Episcopal. African 17 

Methodist Episcopal Church, African Zion 

Methodist, Protestant " 

Methodist, Wesleyan 17 

Methodist, Free 16 

Methodist, Primitive 11 

Methodist, Welsh Calvinistic ls 

Methodist, Reformed 3 

Methodist, Congregational 19 

" The Methodist Church " 20 



Total Methodist. 



Presbyterian, General Assembly 21 

Presbyterian, General Assembly, South 21 

Presbyterian, United of North America 21 

Presbyterian, Reformed, Synod 22 

Presbyterian, Reformed, Synod, General 22 

Presbyterian, Reformed, Ass. Synod of South 21 

Presbyterian, Cumberland 21 

Presbyterian, Free Synod 21 

Presbyterian, minor bodies 3 



Total Presbyterian 



Church Or- 
ganizations 
or Cong'ns. 



Ministers. 



Communi- 
cants. 



1,355 

174 

78 

20 

22 



19,094 

3,121 

'2,478 
300 

'2.752 
9 8i 5 
39 2 

7 997 

998 

214 

1,183 



7 3,392 

270 

72 



278 

526 
469 
729 

87 
60 

1,600 



8,47i 



1,116 



86 



12,040 

3,194 
2,200 

250 
2,803 

587 



591 
527 
121 

686 



65,605 

8,549 
7,609 
2,000 
3,000 



L9 2 5 

325 
66 

9, J 93 

2,922 
560 
694 

423 

250 

128 

20 

20 

100 
766 



15,076 

4,238 
840 

553 
86 



1,116 
60 



6,893 



1,497,256 

306,518 
450,000 

40,000 
207,762 
10 73,566 

57,405 

91,720 

129,516 

16,662 

150,640 



13 388,538 

39,100 

7,634 

10 i.376,327 

10 598,35o 

10 2oo,56o 

10 i64,69i 

10 72,423 

10 2O,25O 

10 7,866 

10 2,O2O 
2,000 
3,000 
6,000 

10 54,562 



>2, 499, O52 

446,56l 
82,OI4 
69,805 

8,577 
6,000 
4,500 

80,000 
6,000 

10,000 



713,457 



1 Free-Will Baptist Register, 1871. 2 Official statement to the author. 3 Estimated. 4 United States 
Census gave 15,829 Baptist Churches of all kinds. 5 Congregational Qtiarterly , 1871. 6 Estimate of 
leading officials. Number of churches from United States Census, 1870. 7 Congregations or parishes. 
" Church Almanac, 1871. 9 United States Census, 1870. 10 Ministers added with members to make the 
full number of communicants. See explanation under tables III and V. ^Friends' Review, 1871. 
12 New York Observer Year Book, 1871. 13 Includes baptized children in some synods. 14 Professor 

Schem, 1867. 15 Official statement. ie Annual Minutes, 1870. 17 Methodist Almanac, 1871. ^Apple- 
ton's Annual Cyclopedia, 187c. 19 New York Observer Year Book, 1871. 20 Minutes of said Church, 
1871. , S1 Official Minutes, 1870. 22 For !866. 



MORE RECENT GROWTH. 



737 



Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1870. — Continued. 



DENOMINATIONS. 


Church Or- 
ganizations 
or Cong'ns. 


Ministers. 


Communi- 
cants. 


Reformed Church (late Dutch) l 


464 

1,179 

225 

4 i,445 
400 


493 
526 

881 
350 


61,444 
96,728 
56,000 
10,000 

5 nS,936 
30,000 

20,000 


Reformed Church (late German) ' 


Second Advent ' 2 


Second Advent, Seventh-day- 


United Brethren 3 


Winebrennarian, or Church of God 6 


MINOR BODIES NOT WELL KNOWN. 

Bible Christian, Schwenkfelder, German Evangelical 
Church Union, River Brethren, Bible Union ' 


Aggregate 


70,148 


47,609 


6,673,396 



1 New York Observer Year Book, 1871. 2 Estimated by Revs. J. Litch and J. V. Hines. 3 Official 
statement to the author. * United States Census, 1870. 5 Ministers added with members to make the full 
number of communicants. See explanation under tables III and V. « Baptist Year Book. 7 Estimated. 

In the two decades (i 850-1 870) the number of the churches 
increased about 27,000; the ministers, nearly 22,000, and the com- 
municants over 3,100.000, or about as much as in the previous fifty 
years — a most surprising fact. We are now prepared to see what 
will be the progress from 1870 to 1880. 

Churches, Ministers and Communicants, 1880. l 



EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS. 



Baptist, 2 Regular, North 3 

Baptist, Regular, South 3 13,827 

Baptist, Regular, Colored 2 



Total, 



Baptist, Free-Will 4 

Baptist, Free- Will, minor bodies 4 

Baptist, Anti-Mission 2 . . . . 

Baptist, Seventh-day 5 

Baptist, Seventh-day, German (estimated). 
Baptist, Six-Principle 2 



Total Baptist 



Congregational (Orthodox) 6 

Disciple 7 

Dunker s 

Episcopal, Protestant 9 

Episcopal Reformed 10 

Evangelical Association n 

Friend, Evangelical 8 (partly estimated). 



Church Or- 




Members or 


ganizations 


Ministers. 


Com muni- 


or Cong's. 




can is. 


6,782 


5,28o 


608,556 


13,827 


8,227 


1,026,413 


5,451 


3,089 


661,358 


26,060 


16,596 


2,296.327 


1,432 


1,213 


78,OI2 
25,000 


900 


400 


40,000 


94 


no 


8,539 


25 




3,000 


20 


12 


2,000 


28,531 


18,331 


2,452,878 


3,743 


3,654 


384,332 


5,100 


3,782 


591,821 


250 


200 


60,000 


3,000 


3,432 


338,333 




IOO 


9-448 


i,477 


893 


112,197 


392 


200 


60,000 



1 The Year Books for 1881 contain the statistics for 1880, but some of the Annual Minutes of the 
churches give the statistics for the given year. 2 Baptist Year Book for 1881. 3 Divided on the basis 
of the two General Conventions, North and South, which are as separate as the Methodist and the Pres- 
byterian Churches, North and South. The colored associations are also independent of the others. 
4 Free- Will Baptist Register for 1881. ^Minutes of Convention for 1880. 6 Official Statistics, 1881. 
7 Rev. F. \V. Green, Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Disciples. 8 Estimated. 
9 Church Almanac for 1881. Another Almanac a few more. 10 Statistics published after late conven- 
tion. ™ Almanac Evangelical Association^ i8«i. 



738 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Churches, Ministers axd Communicants, 1880 — Continued. 



EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS. 



Lutheran, 1 General Council. . . . 
Lutheran, General Synod, South. 
Lutheran, General Synod, North, 

Lutheran, Independent 

Lutheran, Synodical Conference. 



Total Lutheran 



Methodist Episcopal ' 2 

Methodist Episcopal, South 4 

Methodist Episcopal, African 5 

Methodist Episcopal, African Zion 6 

Methodist Episcopal, Colored '' 

Methodist, Congregational b 

Methodist, Free 9 

Methodist, Primitive 9 k . 

Methodist, Protestant 10 '. 

Methodist, Reformed (estimated) 

Methodist, Union American n 

Methodist, Wesleyan in the United States 11 . 



Total Methodist 



Mennonite (estimated). 
Moravian 13 



Presbyterian, General Assembly 14 

Presbyterian, General Assembly, South 14 .., 
Presbyterian, United of North America 14 . 

Presbyterian, Cumberland 14 

Presbyterian, Synod of, Reformed 14 

Presbyterian, General Synod of, Reformed 

Presbyterian, Welsh Calvinistic 16 

Presbyterian, Associate Synod of South 14 . . 
Presbyterian, other bodies (estimated) 



Total Presbyterian 



Church Or- 
ganizations Ministers, 
or Cong'ns. 



624 
122 
84I 

369 

,176 



1,151 
214 

285 

913 

99O 



553 



3,132 

12,096 

3,887 

L738 

i,Soo 

638 

225 

260 

52 

L335 

IOI 

400 



Members or 
Communi- 
cants. 

184,974 
18,223 

123,813 
09,353 

554,505 



12 29,278 j 22,582 



950,86s 

; r,755,oiS 

832, 1S9 

387,566 

300,000 

112,93s 

13,750 

12,31s 

3.369 

135,000 

3,000 

2,250 

i7,oS7 



'3,574,4^5 



Reformed Church (Dutch) 14 

Reformed Church (German) 17 

Second Advent 18 

Second Advent, Seventh-day 14 

United Brethren in Christ 19 

Winebrennarian, or Church of God 20 . 

Ger. Evan. Un., Bible Christians, Schwenkfelder, Bible 
Union, River Brethren, little known (estimated). . . 



Aggregate , 



300 


350 


50,000 


84 


94 


9,49i 


5-489 


5,041 


57 S,6 7 i 


I 928 


1,060 


120,028 


813 


684 


82,119 


2,457 


1.386 


in 863 


117 


in 


io,473 


50 


32 


6,Soo 


137 


100 


11,000 


112 


121 


6,686 
10,000 


11,103 


8,538 


937,640 


5io 


544 


80,208 


1,405 


748 


155,857 


800 


600 


70,000 


640 


144 


15,570 


4,524 


2,196 


157,835 


400 


350 


30,000 






25,000 



97,090 



69,870 I 10,065,963 



1 Lutheran Church Alma7iac, 1881. These statistics probably involve some errors. 2 To December, 
1880. 3 Including ministers, because not reckoned elsewhere as communicants, and also probationers. See 
explanation under table III. 4 Almanac of Methodist Episcopal Church, Sotith, for 1S81. 5 Official 
Report for 1880. * 3 Furnished by Rev. R. G. Dyson, a prominent minister of said Church. 7 Methodist 
Almanac, 1881. 8 Methodist Congregational. 9 Minutes for 1880. 10 Furnished for 1880 by a leading 
minister. u Minutes of said Church for 1879. ]2 Church organizations of the Methodist Churches are 

not published in the Minutes, and therefore cannot be accurately gathered. The United States Census re- 
ported 25,278 for all Methodist bodies in 1870. It is a moderate estimate to suppose that they have since in- 
creased 4,000. One branch of Methodism has increased its church edifices 3,700 since 1870. 13 Official sta- 
tistics, 1881. »« Official Minutes, 1880. 15 Furnished by Rev. David Steele, D.D., Philadelphia. '"Report 
of the Second Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, p. 963. J7 Almanac of the Reformed Church, 18S1. 
"Estimated by leading Advent officials. »« Almanac of United Brethren-, 1881. 20 Baptist Year Book, 1881. 



GROWTH MAINTAINED. 



789 



The remarkable growth of the previous periods seems not to 
have fallen off in the years since 1870, for the gain from 1870 to 
1880 was equal to that of the first fifty years of the century, carrying 
the numbers of the evangelical communicants in the United States 
up to ten millions — an increase of about twenty-sevenfold since 
1800. The statistics for 1890, collated in the United States census, 
show a continued increase ; and those for 1894 not less so. Though 
some churches give statistics for 189001* 1893, yet the rate of growth 
keeps up. For 1890 and 1894, we have statistics of some non- 
evangelical and non-Christian organizations, but our comparisons of 
growth are made only for the evangelical churches, because those 
only are comprised in the previous periods. At best the statistics 
of the other bodies are little better than estimates. 



1890. 

Ministers. Church Organizations, and Communicants. 

(From United States Census, 1890, classified by the author.) 



DENOMINATIONS. 



/. Evangelical Bodies. 
Adventists : 

1. Advent Christians 

2. Church of God 

3. Church of God in Christ Jesu 

4. Evangelical 

5. Life and Advent Union. . . . 

6. Seventh-day 

Total 

Baptists: 

1. Church of Christ 

2. Free-will 

3. Free-will, Original 

4. General 

5. Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit . 

6. Primitive 

7. Regular, North 

8. Regular, South, White 

9. Regular, Colored 

10. Separate 

11. Seventh-day 

12. Six-Principle 

13. United 

Total 

Brethren, Plymouth : 

I 

II 

Ill 

IV 

Total 



Ministers. 



883 

94 

34 

50 

2S4 



1.364 



80 

1.493 

118 

332 

300 

2,040 

6,685 

8,957 

5,468 

19 

115 

14 
25 



25,646 



Church 
Organiza- 



580 
29 
95 
30 
28 

995 



1,757 



152 
1,536 

167 

399 

473 

3,222 

7.907 
16,238 

12,533 

24 
106 

18 
204 



43,029 



109 



86 



314 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



25,816 

647 

2,872 

1,147 

I,Ol8 

28,991 



60,491 



8,254 
87,898 
11,864 
21,362 
12,851 

121,347 

800,450 

1,280,066 

1,348,989 

1.599 

9-!43 

937 

13,209 



3,717,969 



2,289 
2,419 

1,235 
718 



6,661 



740 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants — Continued. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Ministers. 



Brethren, River : 

1. In Christ 

2. Old Order of Yorker 

3. United Zion's Children 

Total 

Catholic : 

1. Apostolic 

2. Armenian 

3. Reformed 

Total 

Christadelphians 

Christians, The , 

Church, South 

Total 

Christian Missionary Association. . 

Christian Union Churches 

Church of God (Winebrennarians) 

Congregationalists 

Disciples of Christ 

Dunkards : 

1. Consei-vative 

2. Old Order 

3. Progressive 

4. Seventh-day Baptists, German 

Total .\ 

Evangelical Association 

Friends : 

1. Orthodox 

2. Primitive 

3. Wilburite 

Total 

Friends of the Temple 

German Evangelical Synod 

Lutherans : 

1. General Synod 

2. United Synod, South 

3. General Council 

4. Synodical Conference 

Independent Synods. 

5. Joint Synod of Ohio 

6. Buffalo Synod 

7. Hauge's 

8. Norwegian in North America 



128 

7 
20 



155 



95 
7 



i,35o 

85 



1,435 

10 
183 
522 

5,058 
3,773 



1,622 

237 
224 

5 



2,o8S 



1,235 



1,113 
11 

33 



1,162 



4 

680 



966 
201 

i,i53 

1,282 



397 
20 
58 

194 



Church 
Organiza- 



24 

63 

I,28l 
143 



1,424 

13 
294 

479 

4,868 
7,246 



720 

135 

128 

6 



989 
2,310 



794 
9 

52 



855 

4 

870 



1,424 

414 

2,044 

1,934 



421 

27 

175 

489 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



2,6S8 
214 
525 



3,427 



1,394 

335 

1,000 



2,729 
1,277 

90,718 
13,004 



103,722 

754 
18,214 
22,511 

512,771 
641,051 



61,101 

4,4H 

8,089 

194 



73,795 
138,313 



80,655 

232 

4,329 



85,216 

340 
187,432 



164,640 

37,457 
324,846 

357,153 

69.505 

4,242 

14,730 

55,452 



LATEST OBTAINABLE DATA. 741 

Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants — Continued. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Lutheran Independent Synods (Continued): 

9. Michigan 

Danish in America 

German, Augsburg 

Danish Church Association 

Icelandic Synod 

I mmanuel 

Suomai 

United Norwegians of America. 
Independent Congregations 



10. 
II. 

12. 
13- 
M- 
15- 

16. 

17- 



Ministers. 



Total 



Mennonites : 

1. Mennonite 

2. Bruederhoef 

3. Amish 

4. Old Amish 

5. Apostolic 

o. Reformed 

7. ( ieneral Conference 

S. Church of God in Christ 

9. Old(Wisler) 

ro. Hundes Conference 

1 1 . Defenseless 

12. Brethren in Christ 



Total 



Methodists 

1. Methodist Episcopal 

2. Union American Episcopal 

3. African Methodist Episcopal 

4. African Union Methodist Protestant. 

5. African Methodist Episcopal Zion.. . 

6. Protestant Methodist 

7. Wesleyan 

S. Methodist Episcopal, South 

9. Congregational 

10. Congregational, Colored 

11. Congregational, New 

12. Zion Union Apostolic 

13. Colored Methodist Episcopal 

14. Primitive 

15. Free 

16. Independent 

17. Evangelical Missionary 



37 
10S 

49 
40 



109 
47 



4,691 



336 

9 

22S 

7i 

2 

43 
95 
18 

17 

37 

IS 

31 



Total 



Moravians. 



Presbyterians : 

1. Presbyterian General Assembly, North, 

2. Cumberland 

3. Cumberland, Colored. 

4. Welsh Calvinistic , 

5. United of North America 

48 



905 

15.423 

32 

3.321 

40 

1,565 

i,44i 

600 

4,801 

150 

5 

20 

30 

1,800 

60 

657 

8 

47 

30,000 
114 



5.9:4 
1,861 

393 
100 
73T 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions. 




3.595 



246 

5 
97 
22 

2 
34 
45 
18 

15 
12 

9 
45 



550 

25,861 

42 

2,481 

40 

1,704 

2, c 29 

565 

I5,OI7 

214 

9 
24 

32 
i,759 

84 
1,102 

15 
11 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



51.489 

94 



6.717 
2,791 

224 

187 
866 



11,482 

IO.l&I 

7.010 

3-493 
1,991 

5,58o 

1,385 
119,972 

4i,953 



1,231,072 



17,078 

352 

10,101 

2,038 

209 

1,655 

5,670 

471 

610 
1,388 

856 
1,113 



4i,54t 



2.240,354 

2,279 

452,725 

3,415 

349,788 

141,989 

16,492 

1,209,976 

8.765 

319 

1,059 

2,346 

129,383 

4.764 

22,110 

2,569 

95i 



4,589,284 
11,781 

788,224 

164,940 

12,956 

12,722 

94,402 



742 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants — Continued. 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Presbyterians (Continued) 



6. 

7- 

8. 

9- 

10. 

ii. 

12. 



Presbyterian General Assembly, South. . . 

Associate of North America 

Associate Reformed Synod, South 

Reformed Presbyterian in United States. 
Reformed Presbyterian in North America 
Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanted).. . . 
Reformed Presbyterian in U. S. and Can. 



Total. 



Protestant Episcopal. 
Reformed 



Total 



Reformed Church: 

1. Church in America 

2. Church in the United States. 

3. Christian 



Total 



Salvation Army. 
Schwenkfeldians 
Social Brethren. 



United Brethren : 

1. In Christ 

2. (Old Constitution). 

Total 



Church 
Ministers. Organiza- 

tions. 



Independent Congregations. 
Total Evangelical. 



II. A T on- Evangelical Bodies. 



Chinese Temples 

Christian Scientists 

Church of the New Jerusalem 

Church Triumphant (Schweinfurth). 

Communistic Societies : 



Shakers 

Amana 

Harmony 

Separatists 

New Icaria 

Altruists 

7. Adonai Shomo 

8. Church Triumphant. 



Total 



1,129 
12 

133 

124 

29 

1 
I 



2,39 J 

31 
116 

115 

33 
4 
1 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



10,448 

4.M6 
78 



3,476 

5,019 

83 



4,224 



553 

880 

63 



5,102 



572 

1. 510 

99 



1,506 



2,267 
53i 



54 



gS.iSs 



26 
119 



Friends (Hicksite) 

German Evangelical Protestant. 



115 



2,lbl 
329 

4 
20 



3,731 
795 



4,526 
156 



151,172 



47 
221 

154 
12 



201 

52 



179,721 

1,053 

8,501 

io,574 

4,602 

37 
600 

1,278,332 

532,054 

8.455 



540,509 



92,970 

204,518 

12,470 



309,953 

8.742 
306 
913 



202,474 
22,807 



225, 2S1 
14,126 



13,823,518 



S.724 

7,095 

384 



1,72s 

1,600 

250 

200 

21 

25 

20 

205 



4-0-I9 

21,992 
36,156 



DIAGRAM XVII 



GROWTH OF CITY POPULATIONS COMPARED WITH 
TOTAL POPULATION OP UNITED STATES. 



iS40, 





1 


\ 

\ 




1850. 


J 


\ 


\ 




ft* 








Wo 






1 1" 11 




\-* 




r- \\£ 




\* 




ml \o 




V 




s \5 








-\\ \rn 






Ar 




— Y& 


I860. 


U\\ l o 
.... Ol \"H 






3} \co 




v£ 




2 \t> 

- \° 








5 W" 2 - 








\s 




V 




O \C3 




\ 




m\ \ -* 




\ 




— \T 








m \^ 




\ 




c/> \ -» 








' 1 I 10 




\ 


1870. 


\ff 




\ 




\-o 




\ 




\^ 




\ 




1 \> 




\ 




\^ 




\ 




I \° 




V 




i w 




V 


1880. 


1 \ 




\ 



LATEST OBTAINABLE DATA. 



743 



Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants — Continued. 



DENOMINATIONS 



Jews : 

1. Orthodox. 

2. Reformed 

Total. 



Latter Day Saints : 

1. Church of Jesus Christ 

2. Reorganized 



Total . 



Society of Ethical Culture 

Spiritualists 

Theosophists 

Unitarians 

Universalists 



Communi- 




Total Non-Evangelical 


3.770 

9-157 

9 

13 

1 

1 


3.S63 

10,231 

14 

12 

1 

4 


533,753 

6,231,417 
10,850 


///. Catholics. 
The Roman Catholic Church 


Greek Catholics 


Russian Orthodox 


13,504 
100 


Greek Orthodox 


Old Catholics 


665 




Total Catholics 


9,181 


10,262 


6,256,536 





Summary. 



Evangelical 

Non-Evangelical , 
Catholic 



Aggregate. 



98,185 
3,770 
9,181 



11,136 



151,172 

3,863 

10,262 



165,297 



13,823,518 

538,753 
6,256,536 



20,618,807 



1894. 

Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants. 

(In a few cases the data are for 1890 and 1893.) 



0.2 



DENOMINATIONS. 



1894 
1890 

1894 



/. Evangelical Bodies. 
Adventist : 

1. Advent Christians 

2. Church of God 

3. Church of God in Christ Jesus 

4. Evangelical 

5. Life and Advent Union 

6. Seventh-day 

Total 



Ministers. 



833 
29 

94 

50 

45 

267 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions. 



60O 
19 

95 
45 

28 

1,151 



1,318 



i,938 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



40,000 

647 

2,872 

7,332 

1,500 

37,404 



755 



744 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants — Continued. 



4>.S2 



1890 

1894 

1890 

1893 

1890 

1893 



1890 

1894 

1890 



:S93 



1893 
1894 



1894 
1890 
1894 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Baptists: 

1. Church of Christ. 

2. Free-will 

3. Free-will, Original 

4. General 

5. Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit . . 

6. Primitive 

7. Regular, North 

8. Regular, South 

9. Regular, Colored. 

10. Separate 

11. Seventh-day. 

12. Six-Principle 

13. United. 

Total 

Plymouth Brethren (four bodies). . . 
Brethren, River (three bodies). . . , 

Catholic : 

1. Apostolic 

2. Armenian 

3. Reformed 

Total 

Christadelphian 

Christian, North and South 

Christian Missionary Association.. 

Christian Union Churches 

Church of God (Winebrennarians) 

Congregational 

Disciples of Christ 

Dunkers, three bodies 

Evangelical Association 

United Evangelical Church 

Friends (three bodies) 

Friends of the Temple 

German Evangelical Synod 

Independent Congregations 

Lutherans (all bodies) 

Mennonites 



Ministers. 



80 

1,323 

Il8 

400 

300 

2,040 

8,l82 

9,6lO 

7,502 

24 

112 

14 

25 



29,790 



155 



95 
7 



1,3" 
10 

183 

522 

5,i38 

4,031 

2,461 

1,327 

550 

1,162 

4 

766 

54 

5,532 

9°5 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions. 



152 

1,550 

167 

516 

473 

3,222 

8,322 

17,346 

12,454 

19 

92 

18 

204 



44,535 

314 
in 



24 

63 
1,424 

13 
294 
479 

5,236 

7,246 
938 

2,112 
120 
855 
4 
978 
156 

9,221 
550 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



8,254 
85,565 
11,864 
23,272 
12,851 

121,347 

842,587 

i,363,35i 
1,291,046 

i,599 
8,491 

937 
13,209 



3,784,373 

6,661 
3,427 



1,394 

335 

1,000 



2,729 

1,277 
110,701 

754 

18,214 

22,511 

561,631 

641,053 
87,000 

115,000 

40,000 

85,216 

340 

175,667 
14,126 

1,338,134 
52,049 



Qv5 



1894 



1890 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Methodists : 

1. African Methodist Episcopal Ch. 

2. African Methodist Epis. Zion... 

3. African Union M. E. Church. . . 

4. Colored Methodist Episcopal Ch. 

5. Congregational 

6. Congregational, colored 



Min- 


Church 
Organ- 
izations. 


Local 


Proba- 


Total Com- 


isters. 


ers. 


tioners. 


municants. 


4,252 


4,425 


14,575 


26,437 


528,029 


3,650 


1,605 


7,926 




425,000 


115 


115 


75 




3,869 


1,224 3,672 


2,354 




128,817 


150 214 






8,765 


5 


5 






319 



LATEST OBTAINABLE DATA. 



745 



Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants. — Continue'. 



o-- 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Methodists: 

1890 7. Congregational, New. . 
8. Evangelical Missionary 

1S93 9. Free Methodists 

i3go 10. Independent 



1894 



1S90 



11. Methodist Episcopal Church.. . . 

12. Methodist Episcopal Ch., South. 

13. Primitive Church 

14. Protestant 

15. Union American Methodist Epis. 

16. Wesleyan 

17. Zion Union Apostolic 



Min- 



20 

47 

624 

s i 

16.625 
5.7S6 

65 
1.500 

115 

600 

30 



Total 34,Si6 



Church 


Local 


Organ- 


Preach- 


izations. 


ers. 


24 




II 




1,102 


850 


*5 





For 1890. 




25,S6i 


14,507 


15,017 


6,720 


89 


1 


2,200 


1,200 


115 


j 


565 





32 


.... 


55.067 


48,207' 



Proba- 
tioners. 



321 



667 



Total Com- 
municants. 



1.059 

951 

23 326 

2,5<39 

2,698,282 

1,390,377 

5,005 

162,789 

7,o8l 

16,492 

2,346 



5,405,076 



* These probationers are added into the communicants, and probably nearly forty thousand were not 
specified ; but probationers in the Methodist churches enjoy all the privileges of the church. 



1S94 

1890 
1S93 
1894 
1890 
1894 

1S90 

1893 
1S90 

1894 
1890 



1804 



1894 



DENOMINATIONS. 



Moravians 



Ministers. 



Pres 

1. 



byterian : 

Associate of North America. 
Associate Reformed Synod, South. 

Cumberland 

Cumberland, colored 

General Assembly 

General Assembly, South 

Reformed in North America. 

Reformed in United States 

Reformed in U. S. and Canada.. 

Reformed Covenanter 

United of North America 

Welsh (Calvinistic) 



Total. 



Protestant Episcopal 

Protestant Episcopal, Reformed, 



Total. 



Reformed Churches: 

1. Late Dutch. . . 

2. Late German. . 

3. Christian 



Total. 



Salvation Army. 
1S90 Schwenkfeldian 
" .Social Brethren 



115 



12 

103 

1,966 

393 
6,641 

1,319 

33 

107 

I 

4 
810 



n,4S 9 

4,323 
116 

4,439 



614 
938 

74 



1,626 

Officers. 

L753 

3 

17 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions. 



96 



31 

131 

2,920 

224 

7,387 
2,713 

39 
122 

1 

4 

935 

187 



14,694 

4,870 
112 

4,982 



612 
1,646 



Communi 
cants cr 
Members 



12,535 



1,053 

io,o8S 

184,138 

12,956 

893.997 
199,167 

4,602 

9,874 

600 

37 

111,119 

12,722 



1,440,353 

580,507 
10,655 

591,162 



100,811 
221,473 

15,598 



2,379 

Bands. 
631 
4 
20 



337,882 

Enrolled. 

50.000 
306 

9 J 3 



46 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Ministers, Church Organizations, and Communicants — Continued. 



:&94 



1890 



1S94 



isgo 



1893 
1S90 



DENOMINATION! 



United Brethren : 

1. Old Church 

2. Old Constitution, 



Total 

Total Evangelical. 



//. Non-Evangelical Bodies. 

Chinese Temples 

Christian Science 

Church of the New Jerusalem 

Church Triumphant (Schweinfurth). 

Communistic (eight bodies) 

Friends (Hicksite) 

German Evangelical Protestant 

Jews, Orthodox and Reformed 

Latter Day Saints (two bodies) 

Society of Ethical Culture 

Spiritualists 

Theosophists 

Unitarian 

Universalist 



Total Non-Evangelical 

III. Catholic. 

Greek Catholic 

Greek Orthodox , 

Old Catholics 

Roman Catholic 

Russian Orthodox 



Total Catholic. 



Ministers. 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions. 



2,150 
200 



4,207 
IOO 



114, S23 



119 



115 
44 

200 

2,043 

4 



4,307 

158,695 



47 
221 



5*9 
756 

,826 



9 

1 

1 

9,656 

13 



154 

12 



201 
5* 

533 
856 

4 

334 
40 

445 

T.012 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



223,638 

iS,ooo 



241,638 
15,217,948 



8,724 

7.095 

384 

4,049 

21,992 

36.156 

I3O.496 

166,125 

1,064 

45,030 

695 

67-749 

44,263 



3,9-13 



14 

1 

4 

512 

12 



9,710 



,543 



534,422 



10,850 

100 

665 

*7,485,640 

13,504 



7,5io,759 



Calculated at 85 per cent, of the total Roman Catholic population as estimated in their last Year Book. 

Summary. 



I. Evangelical bodies 

II. Non-Evangelical bodies 
III. Catholic bodies 



114,823 
3,826 
9,710 



I5S,6 9 5 
3,943 
S,543 



15,217,94s 

534,422 

7.510,759 



Aggregate. 



128,359 



171, 1S1 23,263,12c) 



Recapitulation of Evangelical Statistics. 



YEAR. 



1775- 
1800. 
1850. 
1870 
1880. 
1890 
1894 



Ministers. 



i,435 
2,651 

25,555 
47,609 
69,870 
98,185 
114,823 



Church 
Organiza- 
tions. 



I,9l8 

3,030 

43,072 

70,148 

97,090 

151,172 

158,695 



Communi- 
cants or 
Members. 



364,872 

3,529,988 

6,673,396 

10,065,963 

13,823,518 

15,217.943 



PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



1^1 



Increase of Communicants. 
In 50 years— 1800-1850 3,165,116 

M 20 " — 185O-187O 3,143,408 

" 10 " — 1870-1880 3,39 2 »587 

" 10 M — 1880-1890 3,757,°55 

44 4 " — 1890-1894 1,394,330 



Average yearly. 

63,302 
I57iI70 
339,258 

375,765 
348,5S2 



All persons familiar with the history of Christianity will agree 
that the above exhibit of religious progress cannot be paralleled in 
the history of God's kingdom in any land or any age. It is all the 
more remarkable because only one hundred years ago it was a com- 
mon boast of infidels that " Christianity would not survive two 
generations " in this country. Instead of that, Christianity, since 
then, has achieved her grandest triumph. How often has the prog- 
ress of Christianity in the apostolic age been cited as a marvel of 
growth which the Church of our times should emulate. Such per- 
sons forget that the growth of the Churches of the United States 
in this century has far transcended that of the first Christian cent- 
uries. Eminent students of history have made the following esti- 
mate of the number of nominal Christians: 



Close of the first century. . . 500,000 
Close of the second century.. 2,000,000 
Close of the third century. . . . 5.000,000 
Close of the fourth century. . . 10,000,000 
Close of the fifth century 15,000,000 



Close of the sixth century .... 20,000,000 
Close of the seventh century. . 25,000,000 
Close of the eighth century.. .30,000,000 
Close of the ninth century.. . .40,000,000 



If the communicants in the foregoing table were multiplied by 
three and a half (Rev. Dr. R. Baird used four as the multiple), we 
would have a fair estimate of the number of adherents of evangel- 
ical Christianity in our country. This would give us, in 1800, 
1,277,052; in 1890, 46,492,668; in 1894, 53,262,818; an increase of 
51,985,766. 

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, 
for thy mercy, and for thy truth 's sake." 



Section £.— The Population Test. 

In a country of such marvelous growth, where so many things 
so luxuriantly flourish, there are strong competing forces, and Chris- 
tianity is subjected to severe crucial tests. 

The population test is one of the most legitimate as well as one 



748 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



of the severest. If Christianity would fulfill its long avowed pre- 
dictions of the conquest of this world for Christ, it must not only 
keep pace with the growth of the population, but also gain upon 
it. What country has made such an advance in its population 
as the United States during this century? History furnishes no 
parallel. To follow up the growth and expansion of the popu- 
lation in so large an area; to furnish them with religious influences, 
and to make such a lodgment of Christian truth in their hearts as 
to hold them to Christianity, is a task of no small magnitude, 
especially when the additions to the population come from such 
diverse sources, and are hostile to the prevailing type of religion in 
the land. 

i.— The Large Cities. 

A marked tendency of the population to accumulate in large 
centers has been perceptible during the last fifty years. Notwith- 
standing the inhabitants have been spreading out into new terri- 
tories, filling up vast solitudes with active, industrious, organized 
communities, so that from 1790 to 1880 the thirteen original States 
increased threefold, and nine great Territories with a million of 
people are now rapidly maturing to the condition of States, at the 
same time the growth of the city populations has been even more 
wonderful. At the opening of this century, only six cities of 8,000 
inhabitants and upward were registered in our national census. In 
1880 they numbered 286. In the last census, the " Fifty Principal 
Cities," * all with populations exceeding 35,000, and one half 
exceeding 63,000, and located in all parts of the country, are tabu- 
lated. We have constructed similar tables of the same cities f for 
1840, 1850, i860 and 1870.^: Forty years is a sufficiently long period 
for testing the growth of the populations and the churches in them. 
Analvzed and classified the statistics afford valuable instruction. 



I —Urban Populations of 8,000 Inhabitants and Upward. 



1800 
1840. 
1850. 
i860. 
1870. 
1880. 



DATE. 



Number 
of Cities. 

6 

44 

85 

141 

226 

286 



Population. 



210,873 

1,453.994 
2,897,586 
5,072,256 
8,077,875 
11,318,547 



Percentage of the 
total population of 
the United States. 



3.9 per cent. 

8.5 " " 
12.5 " " 
16.1 " " 
20.9 " " 
22.5 '• " 



* See Compendium of United States Census, t88o. P. 542, etc. 

t San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, and a few others which did not exist in 1840. or were 
only small hamlets, are introduced at later dates. 

% These tables are too bulky for insertion in this volume, but the summaries are used. 



THE POPULATION TEST. 
II.— Urban and Rural Populations Compared. 



749 



PERIOD. 



1840. 
1S50. 
i860. 
1S70. 

18S0. 



50 Principal Cities, 



1,325,622 
2,417,699 

2,937,4S9 
5.686,897 

7w94,503 



Other Cities of 8,000 



Number of 
this class. 



Population. 



nhab ts. Population outside 
of all cities of 8,000 
inhabitants and up- 
ward. 



35 

91 

176 

236 



479.8S7 
1,034,767 
2,384,978 
3.524-044 



15,615,459 
20,294,290 
26,371,065 
30,486,496 
38,837,236 



III.— Proportion of the Above Populations to the Whole Popula- 
tion of the United States. 



1840. 
1850. 
1S60. 
1870. 

18S0. 





92.3 per cent. 
87.5 " " 
83.9 " " 
79.1 " " 

77-5 " " 



IV.— Actual Increase in Population. 



1840-50. 
1 S 50-60. 
1860-70. 
1870-S0. 



1,092,077 
1,519.790 
1,749,080 
2,107,606 



554,880 
1,350,211 
1,139,066 



4,678,831 
6,076,775 
4,115,431 
8.350,74c 



V.— Relative Increase. 



1S40-50 I 78. percent. 

1850-60 62.8 •' " 

1S60-70 44.4 " " 

1870-80 ! 37-4 " " 



106 per cent. 
130 " 

43 " " 



29 pei 
29 •' 
15 " 
27 " 



of the foregoing 



tables will disclose some 



An examination 
important facts. 

1. — Great and rapid increase of city populations. The popula- 
tion of the " Fifty Principal Cities" has increased since 1840 from one 
and one third millions to seven and three fourth millions (see Table 
II.), or from 7. 7 per cent, of the whole population of the country to 
15.5 per cent. The other cities of 8,000 inhabitants and upward 
increased from less than half a million in 1850 to three and a half 
millions in 1 880, or from 2.1 to 7 per cent, of the whole population 
of the United States. 

2. — The cities held their growth during the period of the civil 
war (see Table III.), while the rural population relatively declined. 
With the exception of the war period the relative increase of the 
rural populations was quite uniform. 

3. — The relative increase of both classes of cities declined 
each decade (see Table V.) notwithstanding their large actual 
increase. The larger bases on which the percentage is calculated 
account in part for this showing, but not altogether. The actual 
increase is less, compared with the bases on which the gain is made. 



7SO 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



4. — The rural population increased 4,678,831 from 1840 to 1850; 
but from 1870 to 1880 it gained 8,350,740. But this class of popu- 
lation is all the time concentrating in newly forming centers, soon 
to be added to the list of city populations, thus enhancing the 
interest in the great problem of the cities. 



Foreign Elements. 

Another important element entering into the problem of the 
cities is the exceptionally large proportion of the foreign-born pop- 
ulation. If the population were homogeneous, of common race, 
ideas, customs, language, etc., the task of molding them morally 
and religiously would be much easier. But we find them of every 
conceivable nationality, of all shades of religion and no religion, and 
a very large share of them acknowledging allegiance to a foreign 
pontiff. The tables * of the foreign-born populations of the " Fifty 
Principal Cities " show that there are inhabitants from: 



Africa (not specified) .in 40 cities. 

Asia " " "30 " 

Atlantic Islands " 33 " 

Australia ..." 47 " 

Austria " 50 " 

Belgium " 46 " 

Bohemia , "46 " 

British America "50 " 

Central America "22 " 

China " 46 " 

Cuba " 41 " 

Denmark " 50 " 

Europe (not specified) "42 " 

France " 50 " 

German Empire "50 " 

England " 50 " 

Ireland " 50 " 

Scotland " 50 " 

Wales '• 50 " 

Greece " 32 " 

Greenland " 12 " 



Holland in 50 cities 

Hungary "46 " 

India " 45 " 

Italy " 49 " 

Japan " 16 " 

Luxemburg..... " 34 " 

Malta " 20 " 

Mexico. " 40 " 

Norway " 48 " 

Pacific Islands "24 " 

Poland " 50 " 

Portugal " 33 " 

Russia " 50 " 

Sandwich Islands " 32 " 

South America " 49 " 

Spain "48 " 

Sweden " 50 " 

Switzerland " 50 " 

Turkey " 33 " 

West Indies "47 " 



What more striking exhibit of the wide distribution of the most 
diverse elements in our large cities ! What a polyglot population ! 
The natives of fourteen of the localities are in every one of the 50 
principal cities; those of 15 other localities are in between 40 and 
50 of the cities ; and the natives of only five localities are in less 
than half of the 50 cities. The foreign-born population of this 



* Census of 



Vol. I, pp. 546-551- 



DIAGRAM XVIII. 



SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF THE FOREIGN ELEMENTS 
IN THE FIFTY PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE U. S. 



1850 



I860 



1870 







X 


V 
\"« 

\CP 

YS 

r 


v£, X* 

V x^ 


\* \ 
1 V * \ 



* About 8o per cent, more than the foreign born in all the cities. In some cities more than 
too per cent, additional. 



FOREIGX-BORN POPULATION. 



751 



country has been collated in the census only since 1850. From 
these sources we have derived the following exhibit : 



DATE. 


u.« 

a -5-~ 

J.jj| 

,5s.c ~ 
'3 -; 'C 
o- ft 


1 v ■ 

O -w « 

- rt 

B O u 
ten 

fa 


DATE. 


Proportion of the foreign-born 
to the whole population. 

! 


Proportion of the for- 
eign-born to the whole 
population outside of the 
50 cities. 




In the 50 prin- 
cipal cities. 


In the whole 
country. 


1850 

i860 

1870 

1880 


710,784 
1,436,122 
1,950,192 
2<33°i343 


2,264,602 
4,V38,697 
5,566,546 
6,697,943 


1850 

i860 

1870 

1880 


37.1 per cent. 

, 38.3 ;; ;; 

1 34- 1 
.' 29.8 >l " 


9 per cent. 
13 " " 
14 
13 " " 


1850 

i860.... 
1870.... 
1880... 


7 per cent. 

• 9 " 
.it kt 
.10 " *' 



In addition to those born in foreign lands there are those who 
sustain the closest relations to foreign customs and ideas, one or 
both of whose parents were foreign-born. The United States cen- 
sus for 1880 gave the number of this class for only New York city, 
39 per cent., which, with those actually born in foreign lands, made 
80.1 percent, either foreign-born or one or both of whose parents 
were foreign- born. The Massachusetts census for 1885 gave these 
two classes in the whole State at 53.6 per cent, of the whole popu- 
lation, or almost twice as large as the foreign-born alone (27.13 p^r 
cent.). It also gave the following : 



I Foreign-born, 
Foreign-born. ^^ one or both 



parents foreign- 
born. 



Boston I 34.14 per cent. 

Cambridge 32.16 

Fall River.. 
Lawrence . . 
Lowell ! 



Holyoke. 



J 49.16 " 
43-99 " 
40-37 " 



49-77 



67.02 per cent. 

64.6 " " 

81.3 " " 
77-4 " 

68.4 " " 

82.7 " " 



New Bedford 

Salem 

Worcester 

65 towns and cities 
in Massachusetts 



Foreign-born. 



30.71 per cent. 
27.06 " "' 
29.51 " " 



Foreign-born, 
and one or both 
parents foreign- 
born. 



51.3 percent. 

55-2 ' 
59-7 



The foreign element of Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee 
and San Francisco will rank with New York city. In these, and 
possibly in some other cities, the foreign-born, and those one or both 
of whose parents are foreign-born, may be safely estimated at twice 
the number of the foreign-born ; in others, at 80 per cent, more than 
the foreign-born. The latter will be a safe rule for most large 
cities. This will give in the " 50 principal cities" 4,194,617 as the 
foreign increment, or nearly 54 per cent, of their total population, 
and shows the difficulty with which the churches have to contend. 

We next inquire how have the evangelical churches competed with 
the population in the cities ? It is a matter of regret that only a few 
of the denominations publish their statistics in such a form as to 
make them available for comparisons, covering a period of forty 
years in these fifty cities. We are confined to the following: the 



752 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Presbyterians, embracing the Old School and New School while 
separated, and the Southern body since its secession in 1861 ; the 
Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Episcopal, South, the Con- 
gregationalists and the Reformed (late Dutch) Church ; which, for the 
sake of convenience, we will call six denominations. The points of 
comparison are the churches, the ministers, and the communicants, 
which will be considered as a whole. How have these religious 
bodies jointly competed with the population ? 



Churches. 



1840. 
1850. 
i860. 
187O. 

1880. 
1886 



657 

870 

1,114 

1,450 

1. 714 



Ministers. | Communicants. 



899 

L399 
1,824 

2,195 

2,616 



104,706 

157-933 
222,625 
298,474 
414,184 
496,694 



1840. . 

1850. . 
i860. . 
1870. . 
1880. . 



Inhabitants 
to one Church 



3,680 
4,526 
5, io 4 

5-375 



Inhabitants Inhabitants to 

to one Minister, one communic't. 



2,686 
2,812 
3,H7 

3,551 



12.67 

15-30 

17-33 
19.05 

18.81 



The above table shows a steady falling behind the increase of 
the population in each decade, and in every point of comparison, 
except that since 1870 the communicants have made a slight gain 
on the inhabitants — the fruitage of the abundant labors of city 
missions and young people's societies. It is not possible to find in 
previous centuries anything which parallels the city missions of our 
times. The growth of the last eighty years in the United States, 
they now exist in all the cities, and the Young Men's Christian 
Associations, the Young Women's Christian Associations, the 
Societies of Christian Endeavor, the Epworth Leagues, etc., etc. — 
all until quite recently unknown — are zealously cultivating the field. 
Within a radius of ten miles around Boston, in 1800, there were 
only 18 evangelical churches; in 1894 there were 358, though in a 
few sections Protestant services are not numerous. 

From the last census we tabulate some striking facts. 

The urban populations of the United States, comprising munici- 
palities of 4,000 and upward, were in 448 communities, with an aggre- 
gate population of 18,284,385, or 29.20 per cent, of the total 
population of the country in 1890. These cities are 7 per cent. 



PROPORTION IN NEW ENGLAND. 



753 



more than in 1880. They have a foreign element of 25 per cent., 
while in the whole country this element is 1477 per cent. 





A T 


ABLE OF 


124 Largest Cities 


1 








a, 
c 
P-. 

3 4 


•S'H 
u i 

c E 

1(5 & 


u 

« On 

EPl, £ 


Inhabitants to 
one Roman 

Catholic Ad- 
herent. 


Evangelical 
Protestant 
Communi- 
cants. 


Evangelical 
Protestant 
Population or 
Adherents. 3 


tn £ 

£ 6 « 

•2 c 

•§£ 1 

£ 5< 


4 tarcest ci.ics, 


500,000 inhabitants 


t 4,463,458 
J 5-229.432 
r 4,291,148 


1,013,968 
1,191,163 

807,580 


1,166,063 

1,367,847 

928,717 


3-8 
3-8 
4.6 


486,220 
654,068 

704,415 


1,701,770 
2,289,238 
2,465,453 


2.6 


24 cities 100,00c 
ants 


to 500,000 inhabit- 


2 -3 


96 cities 25,000 
ants 


to ioo,coo inhabit- 


i-7 








Total... 


13,988,938 


3,012,711 


3,462,627 


4.06 


i,844-703 4 


6,456,461 






2.2 



1 See an extended tabulation of these cities in " The Religious Forces of the United States," by H. K 
Carroll, LL.D., pp. 404-435. 

2 Fifteen per cent, more than the Roman Catholic communicants. 

3 The communicants multiplied by three and a half. 

4 A few denominations specified : Baptist communicants (five bodies), 157,952 ; Congregational, 66,551 ; 
Lutheran (fifteen bodies), 77,002 ; Methodist (thirteen bodies), 231,856 ; Presbyterian (seven bodies), 92,021 ; 
Protectant Episcopal, 79,033, etc. 

2— In New England. 

All eyes have been turned with much interest to this great 
emigrating and immigrating section, and grave inquiries have been 
made in regard to the religious prospects. In 1880 about 600,000 
New England-born people were scattered in the United States out- 
side of New England, and about 800,000 foreign-born inhabitants 
had come to more than fill their places, not to speak of 80 per cent, 
more, the offspring in the first degree of the latter class, most of 
whom are Roman Catholics. What is the statistical exhibit of the 
evangelical churches? One point of comparison, the communicants, 
will suffice. 



Evangelical Communicants and the Population in New England. 





1850. 


i860. 


187O. 


I880. 


1890. 




72.294 

49,632 

44.329 

124,899 

lS,220 
75.7IO 


81,275 
50,953 
46,334 
153,572 
22,732 
96,817 


80,178 
50,371 
49,504 

175,326 
26,426 

107,169 


86,894 
53,518 

55,9S8 
213, 2S8 

33,542 
123,934 


89,695 

54,262 

56,138 

268,345 

44,539 
147,625 


New Hampshire 


Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 




Total communicants. . . . 


335. 0S4 


451,688 


488,974 


567,164 


660,604 


Total population 


2,728,116 


3,135,283 


3,437,924 


4,010,436 


4.700,745 



49 



754 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Inhabitants to One Communicant. 



1850. 



1S60. 



1870. 



1SS0. 



1890. 



Maine 

New Hampshire. 
Vermont 

Massachusetts. . . 
Rhode Island.. . . 
Connecticut 



Total average. 



8.07 


7-73 


7.82 


7.48 


7.10 


6.41 


6-39 


6.31 


6.46 


6.56 


7.08 


6.80 


6.67 


5-94 


5-7i 


7.96 


8.01 


8.31 


8-35 


8.18 


8.09 


7.68 


8 22 


8.24 


7-37 


4.89 


4-75 


5.01 


5.02 


4-97 


7.06 


6.94 


7.18 


7.02 


6-93 



It appears that the communicants in the evangelical churches in 
New England slightly gained on the population from 1850 to 1880, 
notwithstanding the larg-e foreign accessions. The foreign-born 
in 1880 amounted to 20 per cent, of the whole population, and in 
Massachusetts to 25 per cent. In 1880 the foreign-born in Con- 
necticut were 20 per cent., and in Rhode Island 26 per cent, of the 
whole population. In 1885 it had risen to 27 percent, in Massachu- 
setts. Few States now have a larger pro rata foreign element than 
Massachusetts, and this is chiefly Irish and French Roman Catholics. 

People in other sections can hardly realize the difficulty of the 
task in New England. In 1880 only one State exceeded Massachu- 
setts, relatively, in its foreign-born population. Wisconsin had 31 
per cent. New York and Michigan ranked a little lower than Mas- 
sachusetts, having 24 per cent. Then follow Illinois, 19 per cent. ; 
Iowa, 16 per cent. ; Pennsylvania, 13 per cent. ; Ohio, 12 per cent. 
Going South, Louisiana has 5.7 per cent., Kentucky 3.3 per cent., 
Tennessee 1 per cent., and Georgia seven tenths of one per cent. 
For statistics of foreign-born in 1890 see Chart XXV, facing 
page 776. 

Further on we will notice that in 1850 the Roman Catholics esti- 
mated their population in New England * at only 100,000, but now 
it was reckoned at over 1,413,000 — a fourteen fold Roman Catholic 
increase, while the whole population had not quite doubled. Under 
such circumstances the progress of the evangelical churches is 
remarkable. How many evangelical churches have been founded 
in the West by people who have gone forth from this section ! And 
what generous contributions of money have been made by those who 
remain in New England to aid the evangelizing work in the West ! 

3. — In the Whole Country. 

It would be gratifying to examine into the relative growth of 
these churches in other sections of the country; but many churches 



* See table in the latter part of this chapter. 



PROPORTIOX IN PHE WHOLE COUNTRY. 765 

in other sections have never published their statistics in such a form 
as to make it possible to produce a thorough tabulation and com- 
parison with the population in limited areas. We, therefore, next 
take the country as a whole. 

The relative growth will be exhibited by the following table : 



FOPULATION. 



Churches. 



Ministers. ' Communicants. 



1S00 5.3 5.9 2 5 3.030 ! 2,651 

1S5O 23,191,876 43.072 25,655 

1S7O 3S.55S,37I 70,143 47.609 

1S80 50,152, S66 97,090 j 69,870 

1S90 62,622,250 151,172 107,335 

1S94 1 I5S.695 114,823 



364.S72 

3,529,9S8 

6,673,396 

10,065,963 

13,823,61s 

15.217.94S 



1S00 one church in 

1S50 one church in 

1S70 one church in 



,751 inhabitants. 

53S inhabitants. 
549 inhabitants. 



1SS0 one church in 516 inhabitants 

1S90 one church in 414 inhabitants 



1800 one minister in 2,001 inhabitants. 1S80. 

1850 one minister in 900 inhabitants. 1S90. 

1870 one minister in S09 inhabitants, j 



one minister in 718 inhabitants, 
.one minister in 5S3 inhabitants. 



1S00. .one communicant in 14 50 inhabitants. I 1SS0. .one communicant in 5. inhabitants. 
1S50. .one communicant in 6.57 inhabitants. . 1S90. .one communicant in 4.53 inhabitants. 
1S70. .one communicant in 5 78 inhabitants. | 

From 1800 to 1890 the population increased 11.8 fold, the com- 
municants 37.9 fold. 

From 1850 to 1890 the population increased 170 per cent., the 
communicants 291 per cent. 

From 1880 to 1890 the population increased 24 per cent., the 
communicants 37 per cent. 

While in the cities and in New England, the localities in which 
the foreign elements of our population have so largely concentrated, 
the struggle has been severe, in the nation as a whole, evangelical 
Protestantism has wonderfully outrun the population. 



Section 3 — The Interdenominational Test. 

Three classes of churches, popularly distinguished as the " evan- 
gelical," the " liberal " and the Roman Catholic, may be said to be, 
in a qualified sense, competing bodies, because representing either 
radically different polities or divergent theologies. 



756 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



I.— The " Evangelical " and the " Liberal M Churches 

are at such great disparity in numbers that we have hesitated to 
make a comparison lest it should seem invidious. The briefest 
exhibit is therefore given of the Unitarian and the Universalist 
bodies, the most important * of their class, which are best com- 
pared by their churches or " parishes." 

1850. x 894. Increase or Decrease. 

Universalist \ 1,069 1,012 Decrease, 57 

Unitarian % 246 445 Increase, 199 

Total 1. 315 I AS7 Increase. 142 

Evangelical 43,072 160,771 Increase, 117,699 

2.— The Evangelical Protestant and the Roman Catholic 
Bodies Compared. 

(1.) In tJic Cities. — The large foreign increment in the population 
of the cities, coming chiefly from Roman Catholic countries, has 
afforded Romanism a rare opportunity for growth in the leading 
centers. Its churches, priests, monks, nuns, hospitals, asylums and 
parochial schools have increased in the cities far more than in the 
rural towns. It has substantial and imposing church edifices and 
cathedrals, and is subsidizing the press in its interest. Only two 
points of definite comparison, however, can be used with the Prot- 
estant bodies in the cities — the churches and the clergy. These, 
while confessedly unsatisfactory, may serve some purpose. 



The Roman Catholic Church and Six § Protestant Bodies in the Fifty 

Principal Cities. 



18^0 
i860 
1870 
1880 
1886 



Churches. 



Roman 
Catholic. 



I70 
312 

495 
676 

S3 1 



Six Protestant 
Churches. 



657 

S70 

IJI4 
1,450 

T-7U 



Clergy. H 



Roman 
Catholic. 



336 

565 

1. 031 

I, =,62 

I.S92 



Six Protestant 
Churches. 



899 

1-399 
LS24 
2.195 
2,616 



From the preceding table it is evident that the increase of the 
Roman Catholic churches and clergy, considered relatively, is much 
greater than those of the six Protestant bodies. It is not diffi- 
cult to account for it, by the transference of her people in 



large 



* Besides these there were probably not more than 100 churches of all others of this class in 
[850, and scarcely 200 in 1886. t See also Chapter III, Section 5. in this period. 

X See also Chapter III. Section 6, in this period. § As explained on page 752. 

I Full tables of the Roman Catholic clergy and churches will be found on pp. 622-623. 



DIAGRAM XIX. 

EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTISM, ROMANISM, AND THE 
POPULATION IN NEW ENGLAND, 1850 TO 1890. 



Total Population, 2,728,116. 



1850 



| Evangelical Population. 



1 ] Roman Catholic li 

I J Unclassified remainder. 



1860 



1870 



1880 



1890 




1.367.000 



Total Population, 4,700,745. 



'■'■' Estimates in Roman Catholic Year Books comprising whole families. 
1 1 hree and a half times the communicants of the Evangelical Churches. 

Note. — For a fuller consideration of the religious status of New England the reader is referred to 
the Methodist Reviezv, November, 1894, pp. 875-889. 



INTERDENOMINA TIONAL COMPARISON. 



757 



aggregates from Europe to America. The actual increase from 
1850 to 1886, in the number of the Roman Catholic churches, was 
561 to 1,057 increase in the six Protestant bodies, and the Roman 
Catholic clergy increased 1,556 to 1,717 increase in the six Protest- 
ant denominations, leaving out of the account more than sixty other 
Protestant bodies. Furthermore, it has been before noticed that in 
these cities, in 1870, Romanism had one church in 1 1,489 of the total 
inhabitants, and, in 1880, one in 11,530 — a slight relative decrease. 
It should also be stated that from 1850 to 1880 the foreign-born in 
these cities increased three and a half-fold ; the Roman Catholic 
churches less than fourfold, and the priests about four and a half 
fold— not much more than the foreign-born increment, not to 
reckon those of the second degree foreign. While the Roman 
Catholics had in 1880 one church in 11,530 of the total inhabitants 
the six Protestant bodies had one in 5,375 of the total inhabitants, 
leaving over sixty Protestant bodies unreckoned. There are, however, 
some large sections of some great cities with no Protestant churches, 
or almost none, owing to the removal of the Protestant church-going 
population to new sections. 

(2) /;/ New England we have a striking example of Protestant 
territory invaded by Romanism, as will be seen by the following 
statistical exhibit : 

1850. 











T> 


H 




1 

















c 








(^ 




t; 1 


DIOCESES. 


1 


10 

.si 


■A 

JZ 
3 


~7> c 
a.2 
re *2 

-c 3 


.5 •£ 
3 


10 

D 

bo 
"0 


cademie 

arochial 

:hools. 


.5 

■a* 2 

= 8^3 


2-2 


«5| 

s & 




- 


~ 


U 


Uco 


Wtfi 


u 


< P-C/} 


Ph gc/2 


o~ 


rt-^-5 


Boston 


T 


60 


63 






I I 




3 


80,000* 


Hartford 


I 


11 


12 ... . 


7 






20,000* 




......... 







Total 


2 


71 




7 








3 





















1890. 



Boston (I Archbishop) i i! 352; 164 

Burlington 1 54 72 

Hartford 1 184 

Manchester 1 60 

Portland I 70 

Providence 1 146 

Springfield I 166 



Total 1890 7 1,032 



[48 
52 
70 
71 

107 



6S4 



280 



97 

22 

25 

20 

35 
50! 1 



2! 
1 5 



1 11 
1 10 



249 8145 



J 97 



28,100 
4>55Q 

16,200 
7,000 
5,700 

11,800 

10,000 



550,000 
46,000 

253,000 
73,000 
80,000 

195,000 

170,000 



83,35o 39 i,3 6 7.ooo 



iS 9 4.f 



Total 1S94. 



7 1,181 



745 



418 


273 


857 


314 


104,573 


63 



1.413.000 



* For 1S48. (Table for 185c). t Hoffman's Catholic Almanac for 1894. 



758 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

A glance at the above table will be sufficient to convey to any 
mind the remarkable growth of Romanism in New England, where 
in 1800 there was only one Roman Catholic church, except a few 
small ones among the Indians in remote parts of Maine. The 
great changes in the population already alluded to — 600,000 New 
England-born persons removed and living in other parts of the 
United States, in 1880, and about 800,000 immigrants occupying 
their places, with nearly as many more who are foreign in the second 
degree — easily account for the situation. With all this disadvan- 
tage Protestantism, as has been seen on a previous page, has held 
its own with the population and also largely aided in evangelizing 
other sections of the country. 

(3.) In the West the page is reversed, and we have a striking 
example of the territory of Romanism invaded by Protestantism. 
It has been well said that it is one of the marvels of the age that 
the United States is not a Roman Catholic country. In the 
opening chapters, we noticed how, at the beginning, Romanism 
possessed all British America, Central America, Mexico, New Mex- 
ico, California, Texas, and the Gulf line to Florida, the Mississippi 
valley and the vast area beyond. The only religious occupancy 
of those great regions was Roman Catholic, and that Church held 
the right of way from the Blue Ridge to the Pacific. Maryland, 
also, at the first was a Roman Catholic colony, dividing the Protest- 
ant colonies in the North from those in the South. This French 
and Spanish cordon at one time bid fak, with the aid of the aborig- 
ines who had been attached to the papal standard, to destroy the 
Protestant colonies. Until near the close of the last century 
scarcely a Protestant existed within those extensive domains. 

What is the situation to-day ? Instead of Roman Catholic pre- 
ponderance in this great region, there are single Protestant denom- 
inations that outrank it. Some single denominations, and, in several 
cases, two Protestant bodies jointly, exceeded it in the afore-described 
field in 1893. The following statistics, combining data carefully col- 
lated from official year books of said bodies, make an impressive 
exhibit : 

Churches. Clergy. 

Roman Catholic 5,753 5-3°2 

Methodist Episcopal Church alone 15.446 io,c2S 

Regular Baptists (3 bodies), North, South, and Colored 13,620 21,028 

But there are points in the West where the Roman Catholic 
Church presents great strength and exerts immense power. 

(4) /;/ the Whole Country. — The phenomenal growth of Roman- 
ism in this country causes periodical alarm in some minds. The 



DIAGRAM XX. 



ILLUSTRATING THE RELATIVE PROGRESS OP THE EVAN- 
GELICAL AND ROMAN CATHOLIC POPULATIONS 
AND THE WHOLE POPULATION OP THE 
UNITED STATES. 
1800 ~ 



Total 



5,308,483. 



CLASSIFIED POPULATIONS. 

Roman 

Catholic. Evangelical. 

l800 100,000 1,277,052 

1S50 1,614,000 12,354,96s 

1S70 4,600,000 23,356,886 

1880 ^,367,330 35,230,870 

189O 8,579,966 48,382,663 



1850 



1870 



I880 



1890 




23,191,876. 



Total Pop., 38,558,371. 



Total Pop., 
50,152,866. 



REMARKABLE GROWTH OF ROMANISM. 



759 



remarkable eleven and four-fifths fold reduplication of the total popu- 
lation in ninety years excites our wonder, but Romanism has far 
exceeded that — rising as high as eighty-fivefold. In 1850 it stood 
about one fourteenth of the population, and in 1890 about one 
seventh. Those, however, who pause at this point, or who make 
their calculations cover the whole period of ninety years without 
inspecting the intervening periods, are misled. 

In the following table three leading points of comparison are 
placed side by side. But inasmuch as the Roman Catholic " popu- 
lation," as given in their year books, comprises their entire adher- 
ents, the adherents of the evangelical churches are put in the same 
form, multiplying the communicants by three and a half.* 



VI'.AR. 



Churches. 



Roman 
Catholic. 



Evangel- 



1S00. 
1850. 

1S70. 
iSSo. 
1S90. 



r.245 
3.912; 
5,S 5 6 i 

3 1 , 



7.6 



3.030 

43.072 

70,148 

97,090 

151. 172 



Clergy. 



Roman 
Catholic 
Priests. 



50 
I.302 

3-9 66 
6.402 

8,77S 



Evangel- 
ical 
Ministers. 



2,651 

25,655 

47,609 

69,870 

107,335 



Church Population. 



Roman 
Catholic. 



Evangelical. 



100,000 1.277 °5 2 

1. 614.OOOJ 12,354.95b 

4,600,000! 23,356,886 

6,367.330: 35,230,870 

8,579,9661 48.382,663 



YEAR. 



1S00, 
185O, 

1S70. 
1SS0. 
1S90. 



Inhabitants i o 
one Church. 



Roman 
Catholic. 



Evangel- 
ical. 



lS.627; 

9.856, 

8.564 
8 600 



•75i 
538 

549 
516 
414 



Inhabitants to 
one Clergyman. 



Percentage of the Whole 
Population. 



Roman 
Catholic 
Priests. 



106. Il8 

17.812 

9.722 

7.834 

7-134 



Evangel- 
ical 

Ministers. 



Roman 
Caiholic. 



Evangelical. 



2,OOI 
9OO 

S09 

718 
583 



i .8 per cent. '24 percent. 
6.9 per cent. 53.2 percent. 
II .9 per cent.j6o. 5 per cent. 



12.6 per cent 

13.7 per cent 



70.5 per cent. 
77.3 per cent. 



In the foregoing exhibits the growth of the Roman Catholic 
Church, both actually and relatively, is seen to be very large from 
1800 to 1870. From 1850 to 1870, the period of the large Irish 
emigration, were the years of its greatest growth, since which time 
it has received less re-enforcement by immigration, the Scandinavian 
countries having contributed a larger quota than formerly. The 
year 1870 marks the point from which the Roman Catholic Church 
in this country has made relatively smaller numerical progress. The 
leaders seem to be aware of this, and are, therefore, more energet- 
ically pushing their schools, hospitals, asylums, and various religious 
orders, that they may hold their people more closely in the midst of 



* Rev. R. Baird, D.D., multiplied by four. 



760 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

the powerful abrasions from which they are suffering under the 
influence of the Protestant civilization. The evangelical churches 
have advanced more relatively since 1870 than before. Comparing, 
we have the following striking figures: 



Increase of Churches, 

Period I. 1850 to 1870, Roman Catholic 2,667 

Period II. 1S70 to 1890, Roman Catholic 3, 719 

Increased 1,052 more in the latter than in the former period. 

Period I. 1850 to 1870, Evangelical Protestant 27,076 

Period II. 1870 to 1890, Evangelical Protestant 81,024 

Increased 53,948 more in the latter than in the previous period. 

Increase of Clergy. 

Period I. 1850 to 1870, Roman Catholic 2,664 

Period II. 1870 to 1890, Roman Catholic 4,812 

Increased 2,148 more in the latter than in the previous period. 

Period I. 1850 to 1870, Evangelical Protestant 21,954 

Period II. 1870 to 1890, Evangelical Protestant 59,726 

Increased 37,772 more in the latter than in the former period. 

Increase of Church Populations. 

Period I. 1850 to 1870, Roman Catholic 2,986,000 

Period II. 1870 to 1890, Roman Catholic 3,977,966 

Increased 991,966 more in the latter than in the former period. 

Period I. 1850 to 1870, Evangelical Protestant 11,001,928 

Period II. 1S70 to 1890, Evangelical Protestant 25,025,777 

Increased 14,023,849 more in the latter than in the former period. 

Per Cent, of the Whole Population. 

1870, Roman Catholic II. 9 per cent, of whole population. 

t88o, Roman Catholic 12.6 per cent, of whole population. 

1890, Roman Catholic 13.7 per cent, of whole population. 

In 1890 1.8 per cent, more than in 1870, and 1.1 per cent, more than in 1880. 

1870, Evangelical Protestant. . 60.5 per cent, of whole population. 

1880, Evangelical Protestant 70.5 per cent, of whole population. 

1890, Evangelical Protestant 77.3 per cent, of whole population. 

In 1890 16.8 per cent, more than in 1870, and 6.8 per cent, more than in 1880. 

We have put in as compact and succinct a form as possible these 
great facts of religious progress, withholding extended amplification. 
Who can fail to be impressed with the exhibits? Some persons will 
doubtless reiterate heavy allegations against Christianity, and flip- 
pantly ignore the statistics of its progress as "only mathematics," 
" liable to be very deceptive," and " having no relation to religious 
matters." But we are accustomed to apply figures to all departments 
of science, to political, moral and social life. Moral tendencies are 
often summarized in statistical tables, then analyzed, and conclusions 
deduced. The numerical exhibits of religious denominations, care- 
fully combined and analyzed, represent the existence and operation 
of spiritual forces, but each in its own sphere. 











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CHURCH EDIFICES. 



761 



Church Edifices. 

The estimation in which sanctuaries of worship are held by any 
people, and the extent to which they are provided for the whole pop- 
ulation, are indications of religious progress. Every United States 
census since 1850, except that for 1880, has contained statistics of 
the churches, their number, seating capacity, and valuation, and in 
1870 and 1890 the number of church organizations were reported 
and tabulated, and in 1890, for the first time, the number of the 
communicants were given. So far as can now be determined, the 
census of the churches for 1890 is much better than any other. In 
the appendix full tables will be given, and the summaries as here 
introduced will be found instructive and impressive. 



Church Organizations. 

1870. 

Evangelical Churches 66,701 

Non-Evangelical 1,442 

Non-Christian 189 

Roman Catholic 4,127 

Other Catholic 



Total 72,459 



1890. 
I5M72 

3. 2 39 

624 

10,231 

31 

165,297 



Church Edifices. 
1850. i860. 

Evangelical Churches 35,670 

Non-Evangelical 823 



Non-Christian. . . 
Roman Catholic. 
Other Catholic. . 



36 
1,222 



50.343 
1,039 

77 
2,550 



1870. 

57,94o 

1,184 

152 

3,806 



1890. 
131,400 
2,074 

349 

8,776 

40 



Total 37,751 54,009 63,082 142,639 



Evangelical Churches.. 

Non-Evangelical 

Non-Christian 

Roman Catholic 

Other Catholic 



Total . . 



Seating Capacity 

1850. 



13.173779 
374,812 

18,371 
667,863 



i860. 

17,276,103 

413,802 

34,412 

1,404,437 



1870. 

9.112,515 

488,768 

73.265 
1,990,514 



1890. 

39,414,250 

693,250 

1 39*434 

3.365.754 

9.153 



14,234,825 19,128.754 21,665,062 43,621,841 



Valuation of Church Property, 



1850. 
Evangelical Churches. .$72,354,909 

Non-Evangelical 5,298,518 

Non-Christian 418,600 

Roman Catholic 9,256,758 

Other Catholic 



i860. 

$135,033,300 

8,455-211 

1,135,300 

26,774,119 



1870. 
$274,654,281 
13,688,500 

5.155.234 
60,985,566 



$527,093,103 

24,413,095 

9,816,875 

118,069,746 

301,620 



Total $87,328,801 $171,397,932 $354,483,581 $679,694,439 



762 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The average sittings to the whole population of the United 
States were : 

In 1850 61 per cent. I In 1870 56 per cent. 

In i860 60 " I In 1890....^,...,.... 69 " 

If all the people should attend public worship at one service 
thirty-one per cent, of the population would not find accommoda- 
tions ; but this supposition is wholly improbable and even impos- 
sible. As a whole, therefore, allowing one third of the people to be 
necessarily absent from religious worship, there may be presumed 
to be accommodations for all who can at one time attend. There 
are, nevertheless, many localities in which there is a lack of sittings, 
and in some others a surplus. It is the work of the numerous home 
mission and church extension boards to seek out and supply these 
destitute areas — a work which is being vigorously pushed in all de- 
nominations. 

Of the total church accommodations, the evangelical churches 
hold the following proportions : 

In 1850 92 per cent. I In 1870 88 per cent. 

In i860 90 " I In 1890 91 

The Roman Catholics in 1890 had 7 per cent of the whole; the Methodists 
(all branches) had 29 per cent. ; the Baptists (all branches), 26 per cent. ; the Pres- 
byterians (all branches), 9 per cent. 



PE.XDIXG PROBLEMS. 



763 



CHAPTER VIII. 



REVIEW AND OUTLOOK-PENDING PROBLEMS. 



The Problem of the Population. 

The Spirit of Free Inquiry. 

Modern Revolutionizing Tendencies. 



The New Functions of Public Opinion. 

The Civil Problem. 

The Problem of Protestantism. 



FROM lofty battlements and city towers, ancient watchmen 
scanned outlying fields and reported indications of safety or 
alarm. From elevated hill-tops and observatories, generals watch the 
progress of great battles and direct the movements of the contending 
forces. History is the philosopher's tower of observation, from whose 
serene summit epochs are marked, crises discovered, tidal move- 
ments traced, beacon-lights discerned, and national destinies prog- 
nosticated. 

Many have been the inquiries, at home and abroad, as to the 
prospects of American Christianity and the American Republic. 
The attention of European divines and statesmen has been thought- 
fully directed toward the United States, closely studying the in- 
stitutions and scrutinizing their progress. Regarding them as 
experimental, and apprehensive that their own are seriously defect- 
ive, they watch with deepest interest the practical working of our 
civil and ecclesiastical polities. Favored with unequal natural ad- 
vantages, embodying the highest moral and religious principles in 
its life, and bearing the impress of lofty providential purposes, the 
nation has become " a spectacle to angels and to men." 

From the extended survey which this volume has taken, we now 
analyze a few points in the politico-religious situation and tenden- 
cies, and make inquiry as to the prospects. The thoughtful student 
of the field has discerned 



Many Problems, Ciiril, Social, Economic, Moral and 

Religions, involved in our national Life, 

upon the favorable solution of which our hopes depend. The 
Negro Problem, the Indian Problem, the Mormon Problem, the 
Chinese Problem, the Capital and Labor Problem, the Poverty Prob- 



764 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

lem, the Drink Problem, the Illiteracy Problem, etc., etc., all en- 
gage much attention, and each, in the estimation of specialists, is of 
great importance. Most of them have been already treated, in a 
historical way, in the preceding pages, others are of secondary rele- 
vancy in this volume, and the lines of discussion in others are yet 
immature. At this stage in the volume, the author, after a severe 
and unexpected compression in the last two hundred and fifty pages, 
finds himself compelled to narrow the range of these final inquiries, 
and selects six problems, which, in respect to wide scope and vital 
importance to the life of the churches and the nation, seem to him 
most fitting. 

THE PROBLEM OF THE POPULATION 

is one of the most familiar. From the beginning, we have been a 
mixed nation of alien peoples, of diverse educations, customs and 
motives, of many bloods and conflicting theories. The God-fearing 
founders of New England and the no less intensely Protestant set- 
tlers of New York brought the best brain, muscle and education of 
Britain and Holland. William Penn and the Quakers came teaching 
lessons of peace and good will. The Huguenots, a people of pure, 
unquenchable faith and lofty ideals and purposes, came to decorate 
our homes and churches, and a goodly number have adorned Amer- 
ican statesmanship and jurisprudence. The cavaliers of Old England 
brought to the Middle and Southern colonies sentiments of family 
pride, aristocratic privilege and lordly prerogative. Florida and 
the South-west received their early impress from the gay and chiv- 
alrous emigrants of Andalusia and the Pyrenees. French civilization 
skirted our northern border and penetrated the Mississippi Valley. 
Many from the abject and criminal classes of the Old World came 
bound by humiliating terms of indentured servitude, and Africa 
yielded up multitudes of her dusky children to a bondage most 
heartless and rigorous. 

Such were the strangely varied forces converging in our colonial 
life. Could such diverse peoples blend into national unity? In 
working out this answer, our fathers were illumined and cheered by 
the lessons of history speaking of brave deeds done by aliens to the 
nations in whose pages their heroism is recorded. 

One of the most obvious facts in our nation's life is the remarka- 
ble increase of its inhabitants. We have no record of any country, 
in ancient or modern times, which has had such a growth. Let us 
notice our growth, in comparison with some modern European 
countries' prior to 1850. 



DIAGRAM XXIII. 

VALUATION OP CHURCH PROPERTY IN THE UNITED 

STATES. 
Total, $87,328,801. 



1850 %12H 
/mil'ns. 



I860 /$135. 038 300 



1870, 



$274,654,281. 



EVANGELICAL. 



1890 



$527,093,103 




Total, 8679,694,439. 



INCREASE OF POPULATION. 765 

Spain, in in years (1723-1834), increased in population j 6 ^ of 
one per cent, per annum. 

France, in 89 years (1762-185 1), increased -/q 2 q of one per cent, 
per annum. 

Austria, in 59 years (1792-185 1), increased y 9 ^- of one per cent, 
per annum. 

Great Britain, in 50 years (1801-1851), increased one and T 4 ^ per 
cent, per annum. 

Russia, in 67 years (1 783-1 850), increased one and y 8 ^ per cent, 
per annum. 

Turkey (European), in 43 years (1801-1843), increased one and 
'nnl P er cent - P er annum. 

Prussia, in 63 years (1786- 1849), increased two and -^^ per cent, 
per annum. 

The United States, in 60 years (1790-1850), increased eight and 
£fo per cent, per annum. 

The relative annual increase of the United States was nearly 
three times that of Prussia, notwithstanding the large addition to 
her population by the partition of Poland ; more than four times 
that of Russia ; five and a half times that of Great Britain ; nearly 
nine times that of Austria ; more than eleven times that of France ; 
and more than twelve times that of Spain. If these calculations 
were brought down to the present time, with proper allowances for 
the territorial changes that have taken place among European 
nations, particularly France, Germany and Austria, during the last 
twenty years, the results would doubtless be still more favorable to 
the United States; for our largest accessions from European emi- 
gration have come since 1850. 

As early as the year 1827, a gentleman from Ohio visiting New 
England said, "There is not a native-born citizen in our State that 
is as old as I am (forty-five years), and yet our population exceeds 
800,000; and, more than all, at the present time Ohio is the greatest 
emigrating State in the Union."* In 1790 the population beyond 
the Alleghanies amounted by actual enumeration to not far from 
100,000; in 1830 it was nearly 400,000 ; and in 1870, 21,000,000; in 
1890 it was over 36,000,000. In 1790 the center of the population 
of the United States was at York, Pennsylvania, 92 miles from 
Philadelphia, and 48 miles from Baltimore; in 1840 it had crossed 
the Alleghanies; in 1850 it moved beyond the " Pan-handle " of 
Virginia; in i860 it reached the Scioto River, and in 1870 it had 
reached the vicinity of Cincinnati ; in 1880 it had dropped a little 

* American Quarterly Register, 1827 and 1828, p. 13. 



766 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

to the southward — to a point eight miles west by south from Cincin- 
nati and about a mile from the south bank of the Ohio River, in Ken- 
tucky ; in 1890 it was in Indiana. 

Such a vast increase of population creates extraordinary moral 
and religious demands. Christianity is called upon to supply these 
multiplying millions with religious facilities, watchcare and instruc- 
tion ; and if it would be faithful to its professions and promises, and 
achieve its long-predicted triumphs, it must not only keep pace 
with the growth of the population, but gain upon it. Only a system 
of unusual vitality and indefinite expansiveness can accomplish such 
results. 

HETEROGENEOUS MASSES. 

Another element enters into the problem, enhancing its difficul- 
ties. If this extraordinary increase of the population were only 
natural and homogeneous, the work of religiously instructing and 
molding it would be much easier. But the major portion is ex- 
otic and heterogeneous — large composite foreign masses — bringing 
among us prejudices against the religion, the religious institutions, 
and the customs of their adopted country. 

According to Mr. O'Kane Murray, * of the total population of 
thirty-eight and a half millions in 1870, twenty-four and a half mill- 
ions were the products of immigration and the acquisition of new 
territory — the Roman Catholic territories South and West. 

One of the most noticeable features of our national life is the 
large commingling of diverse nationalities, and one of the pending 
problems is whether we can realize the grand ideal of our national 
motto, e pluribus unum, not merely civilly, but also morally and 
religiously. Upon an Anglo-Saxon foundation, the very best, we 
fancy, on which to build up a vigorous, independent, liberty-loving 
people, we are adding large composite layers from Ireland, Scotland, 
Germany, France. Holland, Italy, Scandinavia, Africa, Asia, and our 
own aboriginal inhabitants. Will the cement be strong enough to 
compact and hold them in working unity? Confessedly, this is a 
severe test of the civil, educational and working forces of the nation. 

In the last four decades the foreign-born population has quadru- 
pled, while the native-born has increased only 2\ fold.f The statistics 

* See pp. 619-621. f The United States Census furnishes the following statistics : 

Foreign-born. Native-born. 

1850 2,210,839 20,981,037 

i860 4,736,175 27,307,146 

1870 5067,220 32,991,151 

1880 6679,943 43,472.923 

1890..-. 9,249,347 53.372,703 



1790 1825, 35 Years. 
269,691 Immigrants. 



DIAGRAM XXIV. 



1825 1835. 

330,737 Immigrants. 



ILLUSTRATING THE GROWTH OP 
IMMIGRATION FROM 1790 TO 
1894. 




1885 1894." 5 5~6 381 Immigrants. 



To June 30, 1894. 



IMMIGRA TION. 



767 



of immigration are very impressive, but do not tell the whole story 
of the foreign increment. The offspring* of the foreign-born, of 
the first generation at least, should be added, and the accessions by 
the addition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia, almost all of whose inhabitants were Roman Catholics, The 
following table will show the 



Immigration. t 



PER10. s. 



year periods. I 10 year periods. 2j year periods. 



Divided at the 
year 1845. 



Inclusive. 



I79O-1799 

180O-1S09 

1810-1819 

1820-1824 

1825-1829 

1830-1834 

IS35-I839 

1840-1344 J 400.031 

18-15-1849 j 1,027,306 

1S5O-1854 : 1,917,527 

IS55-IS59 J 881,796 

1860-1864 I 696.687 

[865-1869$ , 1,347.539 



10 years. 
^50,000 
10 years. 
J 70,000 
10 years. 
4^114,000 

35.691 
100,295 
230,442 
307.739 



1870-187+. 
1875-1879. 
1880-18S4. 
1885-1889. 



1S9O-1894. 
I79O-1S94IJ. 



1,886,501 

855.634 

3.037,594 

2,341,501 

2,509,235 



17.809,570 



50,000 

70,000 

114,000 
5 years. 

35-69I 

330,737 

707,770 
2,944.833 
1,578,483 

3,234,090 
3,893,228 

4.850,736 



10 years. 
50,000 



184,000 

5 years 
35.691 



1,038,507 


;;;;;;; 

4.523,296 


7. 127.318 


10 years. 
4,850,736 



17,809,570 



17- 



)-570 



55 years. 
1,307,507 



49 years. 
16,502,000 



I7,f 



.570 



An inspection of the foregoing table shows that the immigra- 
tion came in larger waves after the year 1845, following the " potato 
famine" in Ireland and the failure of several attempted revolutions 
in Europe, from 1848-1852. From 1845 to 1854 inclusive, 2,944,833 
immigrants came, two and a fourth times as many as in the previous 
fifty-five years. During the financial stringency of 1857-8 and the 
late civil war, the number was reduced to 1,578,483 ; yet the ten 
years, 1855 to 1864, showed an excess over the fifty-five years just 
mentioned. From 1865 to 1874, the number went up to 3,234,090, 
and from 1875 to 1884, to 3,893,228; and in the little more than 

* Those one or both of whose parerts are foreign-born (including those actually born in for- 
eign lands) numbered 20,676,046 in 1890. 

f Prior to 1856 foreign visitors in the United States were not reckoned out, but were counted 
as immigrants. This, however, will not materially change the figures. 

% Estimated by government officials. 

§ From 1832 to 1866 the year ends with December 31 ; but since 1866 it ends June 30. 

I Down to June 30, 1894. 
50 



768 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



forty-nine years, from June 30, 1845 to l %94> 16,502,000 immigrants 
entered the United States, or almost 13 times as many as in the 
55 years from 1790 to 1844 inclusive. 

Had the population remained homogeneous, or as much so as 
from 1790 to 1845, the moral and religious task would have been 
much easier. The total population in 1845 was calculated at 
19,896,574, and in 1890 it was 62,622,250, an increase in 40 years of 
about 43,000,000, during which time the foreign contribution has 
been 16,532,000, or over one third of the total increase. The off- 
spring of these foreign-born are doubtless more than as many more. 

In his quarterly report for December 31, 1892, the Chief of the 
Bureau of Statistics, Washington, D. C, says: 

The number of immigrants arrived during the two decades from 1871 to 1890, 
inclusive, was 8,058,804, or 52.24 per cent, of the total arrivals from 1821 to 1890. 
These totals do not include arrivals from the British North American possessions 
and Mexico since July 1, 1885, of which there is no available record, there being 
no law providing for the collection of the statistics of immigration by land carriage. 

During the decade, from 1881 to 1890, there has been a remarkable increase 
in immigration, reaching the aggregate of 5,246,613, or a yearly average of 524,661. 
The recent very large increase in our foreign population will be better understood 
when it is staled that the volume of immigration during the decade ending with 
1890 was 34 per cent, of the entire arrivals in the United States during the period 
from 1820 to 1880. 

During the entire period from 1820 to 1892 the greater portion of this foreign 
population has come from Europe. The proportion has increased from 68.89 per 
cent, of the entire arrival of aliens in the decade from 1821 to 1830 to 89.99 per cent, 
in the decade from 1881 to 1890. 

In the early history of the immigration movement, while nearly all the countries 
of Europe were represented to- some extent, during the forty years from 1821 to 
i860, inclusive, over one half of the entire immigration to this country was from 
England and Ireland, and the greater portion from Ireland. From 1861 to 1890, 
inclusive, much the larger portion of the emigration from the United Kingdom has 
been from England, and the flow of population from Germany, Norway and Sweden. 
Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, and Poland has greatly increased. 

It will be interesting to note, in this connection, the proportion of each of the 
leading nationalities in the grand aggregate of 16,611,060 immigrants that came to 
the United States from 1821 to 1892, inclusive: 



Germany 4,748,440 

Ireland 3,592,247 

England 2,534,955 

Norway and Swe en. 1,032,188 
Ail other countries. 



Austria-Hungary 585,666 

Italy 526 749 

Russia and Poland . . . 517,507 

France 379, 6 37 



Scotland 347,900 

China 296,219 

Switzerland 185,4^8 

Denmark 163,769 

2,700.295 



The immigrati n during the last fourteen years was as follows 



r88i 669,431 

t882 788,992 

1883 603,322 

'884 5'8,592 

l88 5 ; 395,340 



1886. 
1887. 



334.203 
490,109 
546,889 
444,427 
455,302 



l8 9! 560.319 

1892 623,084 

J 893 497.936 

1894 3 ll A°4 



DIAGRAM XXV. 

RELATIVE IMMIGRATION FROM FOUR EUROPEAN 
COUNTRIES-ITS DRIFTS. 



1820-30 



1830-40 



1840-50 



1850-60 




1860-70 



1870-80 



1880-88 



NATIONALITY OF IMMIGRANTS. 769 

British Isles and Continental Europe sent vast multitudes; Africa 
and Asia, especially Eastern Asia, furnished a large contingent ; and 
the West Indies have done their part. Taking the figures of the 
whole immigration for a single year (1881), 720,045, the percentage 
from each of the foreign countries was — 



Per cent, of 
the whole. 

Great Britain 13. 10 

Ireland 9 . S4 

Total, British Isles 22 . 94 

Germany 34.66 

Norway and Sweden 11.50 

Total, Continental Europe 60.42 

China 2 . 86 

Total, Asia 2.83 

Africa 0.005 



Per cent, of 
the whole. 

British America. 13.22 

Mexico o . 034 

Central and South America 0.016 

West Indies o. 14 

Total, America 13-41 

Islands of Atlantic o . 1 79 

Islands of Pacific o. 126 

Not specified 0.02 



From 1820 to 1885, inclusive, 26.90 per cent, of the immigration 
came from Germany, and 18.63 P er cent, from Ireland. In two 
decades, 1840 to i860, the Irish ranged from 35.18 per cent, to 
45-57 P er cent, of the whole. Since i860 it has never exceeded 
18.51 per cent., and in 6 years it fell below 12 percent. For 28 
years, between 1840 and 1885, the German immigration ranged from 
30.89 per cent, to 36.62 per cent, of the whole. In 14 years it 
ranged between 20 and 30 per cent., and in only 3 years did it fall 
below 20 per cent, of the whole. " :f 

Prior to the Irish famine, 1846-47, probably the numerical 
majority of the Irish in the United States were Protestants from 
the North of Ireland, as were most of the Irishmen who figured in 
the Revolution, though Rev. Bishop England claimed f them as 
Roman Catholics. Prior to the potato famine the great bulk of 
the Irish immigrants to this country were u from the upper walks of 
life — younger sons of landlords, reduced proprietors and tenant 
farmers, and tradesmen of the more substantial sort." J But after 
this event, hundreds of thousands of the poorest and most ignorant 
classes crowded to our shores. Since 1845, probably seven eighths 
of the Irish immigrants have been Roman Catholics, so that the 
Papal Church in this country bears a decidedly Irish impress, and 
has come to be widely regarded as an Irish Church. Judged by 
their names, of the 76 archbishops and bishops in 1886, only 17 bear 
German names, 7 French, 5 Spanish, and only 6 indicate a native 
English-American extraction — a total of 35 against 41 of either 



* German newspapers are published in most of the States. Tobias Brother's German News- 
paper Directory has a list of So religious German newspapers. 

t In his great letter to the Lyons Propaganda. % Westminster Review, June. 18S7, p. 349. 



770 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Irish birth or blood. The proportion of the Irish communicants has 
been intelligently estimated as " doubtless much greater than this 
division of the episcopal honors would indicate." 

One of the threatening aspects of the case is the existence " in 
our great cities, and in large areas of the agricultural districts of 
great States, of vast agglomerations of men of one foreign nationality 
preserving almost entire their manners, language and traditions, and, 
by virtue of their numbers, making even the public schools in many 
places use a foreign tongue as the common vehicle of instruction, 
and producing the strange spectacle of native Americans of totally 
different stock actually taking on the speech and characteristics of 
other nationalities." Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn says : 

It has been avowed to me by a German clergyman of this city, who flattered 
himself that Great Britain and Ireland were almost exhausted as sources of emigra- 
tion, that Germany, with her 45,000,000, would continue year after year to pour 
hundreds of thousands of her people on our shores. This insane hope is cherished 
chiefly in Wisconsin and in the Valley of the Northern Mississippi. The ears of 
American boys born of German parents are boxed by the religious teacher in 
parochial schools in St. Louis, for the heinous offense of speaking the common 
language of America — the English —and a clerical superintendent, to reproach an 
American boy of German parents for manliness and independence, can find no 
better words to do justice to his reprobation than to say, " Du bist ein Amerikaner " 
(You are an American) ! There is a wide-spread and persistent effort, with scarcely 
any attempt to conceal it, to Germanize the Catholic Church in the North-west. 
The means toward the attainment of this is to multiply German church schools 
and German parishes, and to make the multiplication of the latter an excuse and 
a justification for the appointment, with the aid of German cardinals in Rome, of 
German-speaking bishops. — North American Review, Aug., 1887. 

A feeling of race discontent is working among the German Cath- 
olics, and a growing jealousy of the Irish, on account of their pre- 
ponderance in the Church. Not long ago complaint was made to 
Rome which called forth a decision from the Propaganda that the 
German Catholics must be treated as equal to the Irish. The peti- 
tion sent to Rome, among many other things, asked that all new- 
comers from Europe be assigned to churches of their own language; 
that the bishops and priests be instructed that they must not en- 
deavor to suppress or root out the language, manners, customs, ways 
and modes of worship of the Germans or other nationalities, etc. 
All such movements obstruct the hoped-for assimilation of our for- 
eign populations into a homogeneous mass. 

During the colonial era the accessions to the population were 
chiefly Protestant, and the social and civil foundations of the col- 
onies were laid upon the Bible, and the conscience quickened and 



IRISH AND GERMAN ROMANISTS. Ill 

enlightened by it. In this respect the United States have been 
different from other less stable American governments, in Mexico 
and Central and South America. But the large majority of those who 
have come in the last fifty years are of a different class. Not im- 
pelled by religious convictions to seek a friendly asylum, but actuated 
by secular motives, they are largely antagonizing forces, either in pur- 
pose or in fact, endangering the morals, the religion and the civil insti- 
tutions of the land. Coming in crowds, pouring into the large cities 
and Territories often like new and distinct nationalities, keeping up 
Old World customs, introducing their crude opinions into elections 
and often controlling them, they have set aside the American Sab- 
bath, opened Sunday theaters, beer-gardens, infidel clubs, and com- 
munistic societies, inaugurating mobocracy, and copiously filling up 
the ranks of the social outcasts. 

Such are the heterogeneous elements that have been entering 
into our population. How composite the mass American Chris- 
tianity has been called to mold and transform ! How diverse the 
civilizations, the religious ideas, the social customs, the culture and 
no-culture of these new-comers! Among them, viewed from a 
secular point of observation, are very valuable elements. Viewed 
from a high moral and religious stand-point there are many indi- 
viduals and some quite large classes who have proved desirable 
additions to our population. With liberal allowance for such, it will, 
nevertheless, not be denied that, as a whole, these heterogeneous 
masses with habits, sympathies, political and religious predilections, 
so unlike and largely antagonistic to those of the native population, 
have weighed heavily against us. Three fifths of the European 
immigrants have come from Roman Catholic, and many from infidel 
or Rationalistic and communistic, stock. 

The process of reaching these masses and assimilating them to 
evangelical truth is necessarily slow, and for a long period they 
must count against evangelical Christianity, in all numerical 
comparisons. The evangelical churches receive few accessions 
from these classes, but the Roman Catholic Church has been im- 
mensely re-enforced. How grievously have morals been de- 
bauched, pauperism, insanity and crime augmented, and moral 
progress retarded by these exotic masses! How materially have 
they changed the aspect of our cities and large villages, and what 
outlays of charitable offerings, and of religious faith, zeal and 
effort, have they made necessary ! The problem of city ameliora- 
tion and salvation has been inconceivably enhanced in difficulty, 
and its solution indefinitely postponed, by large and' continual ad- 



772 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ditions of these pauper and criminal classes, as too many of them 
have been. 

With low habits and ideas, retaining supreme allegiance to a 
foreign pontiff, or controlled by radical, rationalistic, materialistic, 
or communistic theories, two questions have been often anxiously 
asked, constituting practical problems in our national life — Can Old 
World subjects be transformed into Neiv World citizens ? Can relig- 
ion and morality endure the severe sirain, and the virtue and intel- 
ligence of the people be preserved? 

Is American Christianity equal to her part in this great task? 
Do the actual developments in the life of the nation indicate favor- 
able results ? We believe they do. Every-where outside of the 
slums of the large cities these adopted fellow-citizens have been 
steadily improving in character, in intelligence, and in social and 
temporal condition. Many of them already worthily occupy re- 
sponsible positions in the States and in the nation, and as a whole 
they are learning to appreciate the duties of American citizenship 
more rapidly than had been anticipated in the earlier stages of the 
solution of this problem. Dr. Dorner, of Germany, after a visit to 
this country, said : 

Out of the mixed people of America is growing a new homogeneous race, full of 
fire and energy, full of* youthful force and enterprise. Christianity has there con- 
quered a new land. 

Another writer has said : 

Colonizing races, nascent languages and periods of agitation, have been the 
favorites of Christianity. The New World, therefore, furnishes a fresh strategic 
position on which Christianity is destined to show, and is already showing, her mas- 
terly policy and power. 

If the struggles necessitated by the urgent and perilous condi- 
tions cited in the preceding paragraphs suggest to some minds, as 
to the mind of Hon. Edmund Burke, " a perilous and dancing bal- 
ance," and if to some our chances sometimes seem " dissolving 
chances," nevertheless, to high Christian faith our country is "the 
ridge of destiny," where Christianity has already won some of its 
greatest triumphs, and is destined to achieve still grander victories 
in the future. 

But an arduous task is still before us, calling for the best intel- 
ligence, stanch virtue, ceaseless vigilance, heroic faith and action. 

Closely connected with this problem is another which has been 
thrust upon us, partly by the spirit of the times and partly as an 
infection from European thought, through European literature and 
immigration. 



THE SPIRIT OF FREE INQUIRY. 773 

THE SPIRIT OF FREE INQUIRY. 

This influence has operated by more subtle but not less potent 
processes. It has been in the atmosphere of the times ; and among 
the American people, every-where yielding to the supremacy of 
public opinion, it has devolved peculiar responsibilities upon Chris- 
tianity, subjecting it to severe tests. 

A strong tendency to unlimited inquiry has pre-eminently 
characterized modern times. " The most stupendous thought ever 
conceived by man," says Bancroft, " such as had never been dared 
by Socrates or the Academy, by Aristotle or the Stoics, took pos- 
session of Descartes on a November night, in his meditations on 
the banks of the Danube. His own mind separated itself from 
every thing besides, and in the consciousness of its own freedom 
stood over against all tradition, all received opinion, all knowledge, 
all existence except itself, thus asserting the principle of individu- 
ality as the keynote of all coming philosophy and political institu- 
tions. Nothing was to be received by man which did not convince 
his own reason. Luther opened up a new world, in which every 
man was his own priest, his own intercessor; Descartes opened a 
new world, in which every man was his own philosopher." * 

Luther preceded Descartes one hundred years, inaugurating the 
revolt against despotism and furnishing the inspiration for later 
and more advanced movements. Both were bold reformers — the 
one against the despotism of an absolute hierarchy, and the other 
against the despotism of scholasticism. And yet there were radical 
differences in the two revolts. " The one was the method of con- 
tinuity and gradual reform, the other of an instantaneous, complete 
and thorough revolution. The principle of Luther waked up a 
superstitious world, " asleep in the lap of legends old," but did not 
renounce all external authority. It used drags and anchors to 
check too rapid a progress and to secure its moorings. So it 
escaped premature conflicts. By the principle of Descartes the 
individual man, at once and altogether, stood aloof from king, 
Church, universities, public opinion, traditional science, all external 
authority and all other beings, and, turning every intruder out of 
the inner temple of the mind, kept guard at its portals, to bar the 
entry of every belief that had not first obtained a passport from 
himself.'* f 

In the history of Protestantism this new spirit has been marked 
by hesitation, circumspection, moderation and gradual progress; 

* History of the United States. By Hon. George Bancroft. Boston. Little & Brown. 
Vol. IX, p. 500. t Ibid. 



774 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

elsewhere it has been reckless and defiant. In France free thought 
became "speculative, skeptical, and impassioned. This modern 
Prometheus, as it broke its chains, started up with revenge against 
the ecclesiastical terrorism which for centuries had sequestered the 
rights of mind."* Henceforth it every-where actively assailed 
Christianity and invaded all departments of science, politics, morals 
and religion. 

By some persons the spirit of free inquiry has been regarded as 
an unmitigated evil, in its inception and in all its tendencies. But 
such is not the verdict of history. It sprang out of the root prin- 
ciples of the Reformation, partaking of its spirit and aims. The 
leading principles in both movements were germane, and in their 
legitimate, unperverted operations each seems to have been intended 
by Providence to supplement the other — the one a protest against 
hierarchical assumptions and intolerance, and the other against the 
not less rigid intolerance of mediaeval scholasticism in theoLogy, 
science, and general inquiry. As revolts against the enslavement 
of the religious and intellectual powers, their mission was one of 
universal emancipation. Each had its legitimate sphere. 

Descartes, the powerful promoter of the purely rational system, 
recognized an act of faith at the basis of all processes of the intel- 
lect, and proclaimed, " God, the first, the most certain, and the 
best of all truths," claiming that " if God is not, the most regular 
exercise of thought may deceive us, and that our reason can afford 
us no guaranty." He confessed that " all the force of proof depends 
on a belief in God which precedes it, and that without this belief 
man is doomed to irremediable doubt." 

The spirit of free inquiry, then, in its origin was not irreverent 
and reckless, not discarding faith in God. But it was a revolt 
against the intellectual intolerance engendered amid the damps 
and darkness of the Middle Ages. This is the mission upon which 
it was sent forth by " Him who is the head over all things unto 
his Church," to deliver his truth from the curse of dogmatism, to 
dissolve the rigid and perverted forms into which it had been 
wrought by the iron logic of mediaeval schoolmen, and to restore it 
to the simple, practical, and vital forms in which the Great Teacher 
and his apostles originally presented it. This is still its mission, 
and none the less because it has been perverted in the interest of 
unbelief. But even as an opposing force, many incidental benefits 
have accrued to the cause of truth, under the wise overrulings of 



* History of the United States. By Hon. George Bancroft. Boston. Little & Brown. 
Vol. IX, p. 500. 



FREE INQUIRY ASSAILED. 775 

Him who is the supreme source of truth. The emancipation of 
mind from intolerance and old-time superstitions is now a rapid 
world-wide tendency, in which many forces, both of faith and 
unbelief, wittingly or unwittingly, are participating. 

The spirit of free inquiry was gradually developed in Europe 
during our colonial era, and assailed the American mind with 
terrible force, and in most radical forms, at the time when our 
nation entered upon its organized existence. Liberty was the 
favorite national motto, and in some of its phases a mad passion,. 
A spirit of reckless independence and boldness prevailed, of which 
we have now faint conception, that did not hesitate to break away 
from all old ideas and methods, and to venture upon any experi- 
ments, however rash, in the direction of freedom. Under such pre- 
disposing circumstances, the contagion took and widely spread, 
dominating large sections of the country and large classes of edu- 
cated minds. This desolating wave was measurably turned back 
by the great revival of religion pervading the land from 1800 to 
1803. It came again, in two successive waves of socialism, in 1826 
and 1842 ; and since then it has repeated itself, in the varying forms 
of rationalism, spiritism, communism, materialism, and agnosticism. 

How far can the spirit of free inquiry be carried, without sacri- 
ficing true Christianity and impairing the life of the American 
Republic? From the palpable indications of the situation, it seems 
that the solution of this problem is assigned under Providence as a 
special task to the American people. Here, more fully than else- 
where, exist the conditions, necessary to its solution. We have no 
arbitrary institutions; no hierarchical absolutism interferes; no old 
conservative institutions hinder or bias ; every thing is voluntary ; 
the new is held in special favor; the intelligence of the popular mind 
affords an opportunity nowhere else found ; and the intense vitality 
and deep spirituality of American piety — the best conservator of 
truth and of national life — favor a satisfactory solution. 

It is an occasion for thanksgiving that American Christianity, in 
a very good degree, is conscious of her responsibility in this matter, 
and the perils attending the solution of the problem. She has girded 
herself for the task; has grown, deepened, expanded, and become 
more spiritual in the midst of the ordeal, and is already rejoicing in 
that freedom into which Providence has mysteriously led her. 

Moreover, right out of the camps of free thought, modern phi- 
losophy and science, manifold convergent currents* have flowed, 
bearing upon their bosom not only implied and incidental, but even 

* See chapter on Convergent Currents, pp. 651-674. 



77 6 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

strong formal confirmations and attestations of the great funda- 
mental principles and facts of the Christian system. 

Another problem stands closely related to the preceding. 

MODERN REVOLUTIONIZING TENDENCIES. 

During the past century an immense impulse has been given to 
the human intellect, and it has exhibited a force and boldness 
unknown before. So constant and wonderful has been the progress 
that we now talk freely of "the march of mind." It is an age of 
sublime energy in thought and action. " Onward " is the universal 
motto, all along the vast lines of human inquiry and enterprise. 
The great revolutions in America, Mexico, France, Italy, and Spain ; 
the vast campaigns and achievements of the first Napoleon, of 
the American civil war, and the Franco-Prussian contest ; military, 
civil, and political affairs conducted on grander scales ; the discovery 
of electricity, steam and their manifold applications; the progress of 
the sciences ; the freedom of the press ; the new facilities for travel 
and exploration ; the great Emancipation Acts in the West Indies, 
Russia, the United States, and Brazil; the throwing open of our 
broad and fertile domain to the cramped-up and impoverished mill- 
ions of Europe ; the extension of education to the masses, and the 
formation and new functions of public opinion, are some of the 
marked events — both evidences and factors of extraordinary progress. 

While this spirit has been abroad, we have seen a steady decline 
in reverence for whatever of tradition or precedent or institution 
has come down to us from the past. Questions long regarded as 
settled have been re-examined, and nothing is now tolerated simply 
because hallowed in other days. There is a growing disbelief in 
the supernatural. The former ages trembled with superstitious awe 
at the sight of an eclipse, and regarded earthquakes as tokens of 
divine vengeance or as presaging the overthrow of kingdoms. But 
now mathematicians handle eclipses with a surprising familiarity, 
accurately calculating their periods; and earthquakes are regarded 
as only the effects of certain natural laws. Every thing, however 
spiritual, is subjected to natural tests. The revolutionary spirit has 
entered every department of thought and action, boldly assailing 
long-accepted theories of law and government, political economy, 
art, science, agriculture, theology, biblical interpretation, and eccle- 
siastical polity. Many principles, usages, and institutions, once 
sacred and venerable, are discarded and obsolete. Thought is in- 
tense and bold, projecting changes and movements vaster and more 
radical than ever before dreamed. 



XXVI. CHART. 



FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



OF FOREIGN' BIRTH, 1890. 



Aggregate 
Population. 



(»2,022.25O 



Total For- 
eign-born. 



9,249-547 



Per 

Cent. 



M-77 



182,719 

1,301 
1 .65; - - 

- J 

323, SoS 

45.76i 

345.5o6 

1.20^,130 

5.997.853 
2,238,943 

132,159 
59,620 
2,00; - 3 

746,253 
3,826.351 

1,444-933 
60,705 

S4.3S5 

349-390 

1,91 [,896 

1,053,940 

412.193 

5.253,014 

3,672.316 

313,767 

376,530 

332.422 

1,427,096 

2,679,184 

1.042,390 

661, o36 

2,192,404 

230,392 

16S.493 

153-593 

2,235.523 

i,n3,537 

61,834 

391.422, 

1,858,635 

762,794 

1,128,179 

1,767,518 

1,655,980 

1,513,017! 

1,289,600 

1,837,353 

1,151,149 

1,617,947 



81,461 
467.356 

519, x 99 

53,064 

9^.055 

14.706 

106,305 

366,309, 

1,571,050 

657,i37 ; 

43.096 

13,795 

543,880 

183,601 

S42.347 

328.975 

14.913 

17.456 

90,005 

324,069 

202,542 

83,990 

845.720 

459.2Q3 

57,31 

72,340 

44,088 

147,838 

234,869 

94,296 

78,9611 

146.205 

18,770! 

13,161 

11,259 
152,956 
49,747 
2,740 | 
22,932! 
59.356J 
18,883! 
14,264 
20.029 

is, 374; 

14,777 

7952 

12.137 

6,270 

3.702 



33 • 72 
35.90 

30.78 
25-51 
33-72 
32. iS 

30-77 
30.32 
26.19 

29-35 
32.64 

31-54 
25-97 
24.61 
22.02 
22.77 
24-44 
20.77 
25-79 
16.94 

I9-I3 
20.33 
16. oS 
12.50 

7 13.25 

19.21 

13.28 
10.36 
3-77 
9-°5 
11.95 
6.67 
8.13 
7.81 
7-35 
6.84 
4 

4.42 
5-86 

3-19 
2.48 
1.28 
1. 14 
1 .11 



•99 
.62 

.66 

•55 
.2 



OF FOREIGN PARENTAGE. 



[890. 



Total in United State; 
Per cent, of total pop. 



20,676,046 14,922,744 
33-02 29.75 



1870. 



10,892,015 
28.35 



By States, in Order of Highest Foreign Percentage. 



North Dakota 

Minnesota 

Wisconsin 

Utah 

South Dakota 

Nevada 

Rhode Island 

California 

New York 

Massachusetts 

Montana 

Arizona 

Michigan 

Connecticut 

Illinois 

New Jersey 

Wyoming 

Idaho 

Washington 

Iowa 

Nebraska 

Colorado 

Pennsylvania 

Ohio.' 

Oregon , 

New Hampshire 

Vermont , 

Kansas , 

Missouri 

Maryland 

Maine 

Indiana 

District of Columbia 

Delaware 

New Mexico 

Texas 

Louisiana , 

Oklahoma 

Florida 

Kentucky 

West Virginia 

Arkansas 

Tennessee 

Virginia : . . 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Georgia 

South Carolina 

North Carolina 



78 


1 
98 


75 


42 


73 


69 


66 


28 


60 


61 


59 


03 


58 


02 


56 


72 


56 


65 


56 


24 


55 


74 


55 


05 



54 72 
50 32 
49.06 
48.32 
4S.29 
45-6i 
44.69 
43-58 
42.48 
39-52 
36.28 
33 96 
33-87 
32.21 

31-43 
26.78 
24.98 
24.02 
22.87 
20.40 
20.37 
18.22 
15-44 
15-13 
13-34 
11.69 
IO-37 
9.87 
7.82 

3-37 
3 02 
2.63 
2.50 
2.00 
1.78 
1-53 
•70 



51.61 

64 93 
68.06 
6S.01 

59-H 
43-75 
57-74 
50.78 
42.97 
49-75 
70.06 

41.23 

37.89 
3S.82 
38.66 

54.84 
62.04 

34-99 
34.85 
40 67 
26.86 
32.69 
31-88 

22.77 
14.01 
25 30 
23-93 
27.02 
23.22 
14.62 
20.29 
25.90 
16.29 
9.44 
13. 11 
18.16 

4 95 

10.80 

10.45 

2. 19 

2.89 

2.51 
2. 19 
2.27 
2.01 

2-33 
.60 



UX TRAMMELED THOUGHT, 111 

One feature of this tendency is entirely new. It is popular and 
experimental. Great and sacred questions have been brought into 
the arena of public investigation. Never before were the people 
expected to have an independent opinion about such matters. The 
common soil of humanity, for the first time in all the ages, has 
been surveyed and plowed and sown." The problem now pending 
is whether more of wheat or of tares will be harvested; whether in 
the end it will be productive of faith or of doubt, of genuine piety 
or of ungodliness. 

In the United States, unlike the old countries, there are no 
conserving forces in the constitution of society, holding men to the 
old faiths. Here are no old institutions, hereditary nobilities, State 
Churches, etc., but every thing is new — communities, governments, 
and institutions, and any number of new projects, trial schemes, 
and prophecies of newer and stranger things to come. All things 
stimulate to theorizing. The new is held at a high premium, and 
the old at a heavy depreciation. 

In such times men find it easy to break away from the old faiths, 
and a supernatural system like Christianity is subjected to searching 
examination. Under our peculiar circumstances American Chris- 
tianity has experienced severer tests than European Christianity, 
with its old conserving institutions environing and sustaining it. 
Here the conflict is purely between truth and spiritual vitality, on 
the one hand, and the most insidious forms of modern doubt on 
the other. 

How is the conflict progressing and what are the indications? 
There are reasons for thanksgiving; for truth is coming to be seen 
in its simplicity and purity. It is being divested f of the husks of 
scholasticism and delivered from the spirit of dogmatism ; it is 
steadily gaining, and becoming more beautiful and attractive; the 
unity of Christian faith and the moral unity of the Churches are 
increasing, and spiritual vitality;}; is deepening and strengthening 
The spirituality of the American churches is many fold greater 
than one hundred years ago. 

But the problem is still our appointed task, and waits fuller 
solution. 

Thus far we have considered three elements, all of them largely 
extrinsic — assailing and testing our national life from without', the 
successive heterogeneous foreign layers with wmich its population 
has been built up ; the spirit of unlimited free inquiry, which during 

* Christianity and Mode?-n Thought. American Unitarian Association. Boston, 1872. 
Lecture by Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D. P. 17. fSee pp. 668-672. % See p;>. 696-699. 



778 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

more than a century has engendered distrust of the old safeguards 
of government, morals and religion ; and the kindred spirit of revo- 
lution, which has made men eager and rash in casting away these 
safeguards, even though without adequate provisional substitutes. 

Each of these elements, in themselves unsolved problems, and, 
therefore, experimental, has entered into our national life chiefly 
from without. 

It remains to examine the internal situation ; some intrinsic 
problems, vitally affecting the nation from within. Some of these 
conditions have been experimental to a large degree. We have 
been testing the purely voluntary principle. This has been incident- 
ally alluded to already, but it demands more extended notice. It 
is as yet an unsolved problem whether a nation can set itself up, 
poise itself, and maintain its self-poise, throwing its citizens upon 
purely voluntary conditions, in religion, morals and citizenship, and 
at the same time permanently conserve itself and the public good. 

Never before has the voluntary principle had such free, unlimited 
scope in all departments of life as among us. Those small Italian 
republics, so often cited, which have lived long enough to claim 
some degree of success, have been indeed organically free in civil 
affairs; yet in social, public and religious life they have been domi- 
nated by old established nobilities and the papal priesthood. But 
among us these arbitrary conditions of absolutism are wanting, and 
we are thrown out upon the purely voluntary principle in religion, 
in social and public life, and in civil economy. Let us notice the 
practical difficulties attending each. 

A radical aspect of the voluntary principle presents itself in the 
social and public life of the American people, We dwell in a coun- 
try which every-where yields to the supremacy of public opinion. 

THE NEW FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC OPINION 
constitute a problem of social and public life — a problem because it 
belongs to recent times, and has been only imperfectly tested. The 
world has been rapidly passing from under the tutelage of authority ; 
and a force hitherto but little known has risen up and exercised the 
functions of empire. Almost by a single leap it has come to the 
throne. Even monarchical rulers feel its power, consult and bow 
down to it, while in this country it has seized the helm and directs 
the ship of state. One hundred years ago this young nation, impul- 
sive, frisky, venturesome, with its vast and complicated interests, 
started out upon its career,under the supremedominionof public opin- 
ion. Nothing is more irresponsible, or liable to be more capricious 



INDEPENDENCE OF THOUGHT. 719 

or destructive ; and yet in such untried hands were to be held the 
election of rulers, and the enactment and enforcement of laws upon 
which the social and political welfare depends. 

The inevitable concomitants of such a condition of society are 
independence of thought and tenacity of sentiment. In such a land, 
there can be no supreme individual power, in either the Church or 
the State. The transfer of such high prerogatives, from an author- 
itative individual head, into the hands of irresponsible popular ma- 
jorities, must be, at first, experimental, and always attended with 
peril. Many wise men still regard it an unsolved problem, or at 
least a problem whose solution they fear will bring results of doubt- 
ful desirability. It is patent that its success must depend upon two 
cardinal elements widely diffused among the people— intelligence 
and virtue. 

We have reason for thanksgiving that, on the whole, the indi- 
cations are hopeful. We have had some popular outbreaks, some 
tumultuous mobs, some wild demonstrations; but nothing in the 
last two decades like those of the first decades after the national 
government was formed, when organized rebellions occurred ; one, 
Exeter, X. H. ; another, the Shay Rebellion, in Massachusetts ; 
the Hartford Convention revolt, in Connecticut, and several whiskey 
rebellions in Pennsylvania — none of them among rabbles of low for- 
eigners, but in the ranks of intelligent citizens. Self-poise is one of 
the best tests of moral progress. How much greater the self-control 
of the American people now than from seventy to one hundred years 
ago ! A standing army is now little better than a mockery, for men 
with elevated ideas need no overawing forces to restrain them. 
Squads of Bohemians and Anarchists from other shores are not 
types of American citizens. 

And what great moral reforms have been effected in this cent- 
ury, in the United States, under the operation of the new functions 
of public opinion, greater than in any of the previous Christian cent- 
uries! Slavery, untouched through all the ages and existing almost 
every-where a century ago, thoroughly domesticated and intrenched 
in the United States by statutory and constitutional guaranties, and 
politically dominating* the entire land, has been abolished. Duel- 
ing, an old-time custom of Anglo-Saxon people, prevalent all over 
the North as well as the South when this century opened, has almost 
wholly disappeared. Intemperance, until long after this century 
began the universal American vice even among clergymen, deacons, 
the best citizens and statesmen, and impairing no man's social stand- 

* See pp. 562-570. 



7SO CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

ing, has been greatly reduced in the breadth of its sway and in 
its virulence. It has been brought under the ban of popular con- 
demnation, and the use of alcohol as a beverage, for the first time in 
all the ages, has received a staggering blow from the verdict of the 
best and most advanced science— a verdict which can never be set 
aside or reversed, because founded upon the base lines of irrefraga- 
ble scientific facts. The total exclusion of intoxicating beverages 
from large classes of people, and the reduction of the per capita con- 
sumption of alcohol (calculating the liquors of sixty years ago and 
those also of the present time on the basis of the pure alcohol con- 
tained in themi to about one third the amount consumed sixty 
years * ago, is a great moral gain. Not to speak of other re- 
forms, or of the oscillating movements in some reforms, these 
three mammoth evils, which none of the previous ages perceptibly 
touched, which came down to the people of this century venerable 
and hoary with antiquity, intrenched in custom, avarice, lust, and 
also largely among us in law, and before which the virtues and relig- 
ion of previous centuries only feebly protested and then succumbed, 
have been boldly encountered in our day, two of them wholly abol- 
ished, and the other crippled as never before, and made the princi- 
pal radiating point of the mightiest reform forces ever enlisted. All 
these things have been accomplished by voluntary moral agencies, 
operating under the regimen of public opinion. 

The other aspect of the voluntary principle is seen in our civil 
polity, and may be denominated 

THE CIVIL PROBLEM. 

Can Christianity effectually conserve the moral and religious in- 
terests of a State which is not merely organically separated from 
the Church, but which is without religious ideas in its constitution — 
a merely man-made compact? Chief Justice Story said, " It yet 
remains a problem to be solved in human affairs whether any free 
government can be permanent where the public worship of God and 
the support of religion constitute no part of the policy or duty of 
the State in any assignable shape." 

In the organization of our federal Constitution two distinct yet 
in a certain superficial sense agreeing elements united, f The his- 
toric element, represented by the religious mind, recognized politi- 
cal equality in the State, but held that the State was for the gov- 
erned, and, like the Church, God's ordinance — the major vote 



See pp. 571-575. t See Dr. Bushnell's Sermon on the disaster at Bull Run. 



ADVANCE IN SENTIMENT. 781 

designating rulers, but not conferring authority, God being the only 
spring of authority. The other element, following Rousseau's the- 
ory which finds the foundation of all government in "a social com- 
pact " no higher than man, supposed that somehow man could 
create authority over man ; that the consent of the governed would 
oblige obedience; and overlooked the fact that an obligation implies 
a moral nature related to a throne of law and order above the range 
of mere humanity. These two parties agreed in many things but 
said them always in a different sense— the one in the religious, the 
other in the atheistic. Agreeing in the letter of the Constitution, 
nevertheless they have ever since struggled in the womb of the 
nation. 

Our national history has been a series of experiments with com- 
pacts, reserved rights, the sovereignty of the States, etc. Our civil 
war grew out of these things, Slavery being the proximate cause; 
but questions of State rights constituted the root trouble, and the 
nation was nearly overwhelmed in " a swamp of godless political 
platitudes" in trying to maintain a government without moral ideas, 
and to rally a loyal feeling around institutions which, in the view of 
some, are only human compacts without Divine authority. 

One thing was fortunate. While the nation stood organically 
before the world in this atheistical attitude, there was all along, in 
the latent convictions of the people, a deep sense of morally bind- 
ing authority and a practical recognition of God and Christianity, 
in proclamations, chaplaincies, etc., which has, in some measure, 
sanctified and preserved the nation. The national heart has been 
wiser, deeper, and nearer to" God than the letter of the Constitution. 
Could this condition be maintained, what is wanting in the letter 
being made up in the spirit, it might be hoped that the nation would 
be preserved and accomplish its high destiny, the hope being based 
upon the religious substratum of the popular heart. 

The question, then, to be solved, was whether these religious ele- 
ments, which supplemented those omissions in the letter of the civil 
Constitution would gradually wear away, letting down the nation to 
the level of the atheistical doctrines recognized by the frame rs of 
the Constitution. Should such a moral deterioration of the popular 
heart take place, the inevitable effect must be latitudinarianism, law- 
lessness, and ruin. 

The condition of the country at the beginning of the late civil 

war is still fresh in adult minds. The imbecile and treacherous plea 

against "coercion," in a message of the Chief Magistrate, and the 

strong party echoing their applauding responses in the North as 

51 



782 CHRIS TIA XI TV IN THE U XI TED STATES. 

well as in the South, were legitimate practical sequences of the doc- 
trine that all authority is derived from the " social compact," and 
nearly proved the nation's ruin. Convictions of moral obligation 
and loyalty, which no political platitudes could ever have inspired, 
rallied and saved the nation. 

Measures have sometimes been attempted in Congress which 
have awakened in some minds fears in regard to the perpetu- 
ity of the Republic ; but in a little while we have heard from the 
the people and learned the state of the popular heart — that the peo- 
ple propose to maintain an orderly self-government, public justice 
and a reign of law which exalteth a nation. The life of the nation 
flows from deeper and purer fountains than the hearts of dema- 
gogues. The foundations of our institutions are deeper and more 
stable than written compacts. They are in the hearts of the people. 

The solution of this problem in the future will evidently be deter- 
mined by the condition of the people. If public virtue loses its 
sanctity and force, law and government will lose their authority and 
power. There is nothing in the political theory of the federal Con- 
stitution alone that can save the nation. Its hope is in the under- 
lying moral and religious life and intelligence of the people. 

How long it will take to fully solve this problem of a civil gov- 
ernment depending upon the voluntary action of the people, with 
none of the conserving absolutism which, in some measure, has 
existed in almost all preceding governments back to the beginning of 
time, we cannot tell ; nor can we anticipate what new and severe 
tests of our strength we may yet be subjected to ; but thus far we 
have exceeded the expectations of the founders of the government, 
who often, during the decade following the adoption of the Con- 
stitution, expressed the gravest apprehension of speedy ruin ; and 
we have also disappointed the frequent predictions of disaster by 
European monarchists who have had no confidence in the durability 
of our political institutions. 

This brings us to consider 

THE PROBLEM OF PROTESTANTISM. 

This form of Christianity constitutes the largest and the chief mold- 
ing religious force of the country, and in the fullest sense of the term 
is a voluntary religion. Protestantism has been on trial from two 
causes — imperfections which it brought with it out of Romanism. 
and peculiarities belonging to itself, never before so fully tested. 

As to the imperfections which it brought out of Romanism, it 
is fully admitted that Protestantism never claimed to be a perfect 



THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. 783 

system, much less a finality. Some kind of sifting, modification, 
and restatement, has ever been felt to be a necessity, to relieve it 
from the relics of popery and from unreasonable and unscriptural 
features, that true apostolic Christianity, so long lost out of the life 
of the Church, may be brought back, and the Church be more fully 
adapted to control the popular mind. Relics of popery appear less 
in the churches of the United States than in European communions ; 
but even here they manifest themselves somewhat, in excessive ritu- 
alism, in an undue spirit of ecclesiasticism, and in certain dogmatic 
tendencies which widen the breach between Christianity and the 
public mind. Protestantism is yet in process of development. As 
a reformation, a revolt against old errors, it was not wholly purged 
at the outset, and therefore still has its reactions and incidental 
evils. Doubts, experiments, and possibly disorders, are inevitable 
in such a process. The work of modification and restatement, 
which has been gradually going on in connection with the spirit 
of free inquiry and the advancement of general intelligence, has 
been a task of the most delicate and difficult character, testing her 
stability, the wisdom and piety of her adherents, and her hold upon 
the confidence and respect of the masses. 

We have seen Protestantism in our country wholly divorced 
from the State, receiving from fluctuating outward sources only vol- 
untary support, losing thereby the prestige, aid and influence which 
the State imparts, and liable, therefore, to detach from itself large 
masses of people. The question arises whether purely spiritual 
voluntary churches can maintain their public influence and perpetu- 
ate themselves. Protestant divines and statesmen in Europe, ac- 
customed to the conserving influence of the State, and pressed with 
the question of" Disestablishment," study with deepest interest the 
progress of American Christianity in its purely voluntary conditions. 

But there is another aspect of the voluntary principle besides 
the outward support — the vital feature of Protestantism is its in- 
ternal spiritual exercises, between the individual soul and its God, 
with no priestly or hierarchical dependence. Under Romanism 
religion is chiefly dependent upon priestly functions. Under Prot- 
estantism it is a purely personal thing. It passes from under 
the exclusive control of priestly functions and prerogatives into 
irrepressible conflicts with individual lusts and worldly influences. 
Instead of pompous rituals, each individual soul is thrown upon its 
God and the deep realities of its inner life. The scourge of the 
hierarchy disappears, but the struggle with sense and self goes on. 
Still recognizing the Church as divine, and a necessity as a brother- 



784 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

hood and a guide, Protestantism at the same time presses with pow- 
erful intensity upon each individual the fact of his personal responsi- 
bility : that he must bear the burden of his own guilt to the foot of 
the cross, that he must seek for himself access to God through the 
Great High Priest that hath " passed into the heavens," and in the 
spirit of adoption, begotten in his heart by the Holy Ghost, find 
a satisfaction sweeter, higher, and more abiding than can be imparted 
by priestly absolution or benediction, 

Until the rise of Protestantism, religion under such conditions 
had been unknown since the times of the earlier Christianity, except 
among small classes of persons. What was to be the effect of these 
purely voluntary religious conditions among large masses of people ? 
It was predicted that, dependent upon the fluctuations of individual 
affections and vacillating individual wills, religion would be charac- 
terized by inconstancy and alternations, until its influence would be 
utterly wasted. In Europe, Protestantism has been tested only 
under the latter conditions — the voluntary spiritual action, this 
being supplemented by the union of the Church and State. Such, 
too, was the situation of American Protestantism during the colonial 
era ; but after the Revolution the bonds were sundered, and, exter- 
nally and internally, it adjusted itself to wholly voluntary conditions, 
and has had to undergo both the trial of the transition and the 
operation of the voluntary principle in all its relations. 

This problem is still in course of solution. What are the indi- 
cations? From a careful study of the history of American Prot- 
estantism, we have risen up to declare the conviction that the purely 
voluntary are the best, the purest, and most favorable conditions 
for the religious life of any people, and that in no other land and 
in no other age has Christianity made such real and extensive 
progress as in the United States during the past ninety-four years. 

As evidence of this we cite the existence of 158,695 church organ- 
izations of the evangelical denominations, with 114,823 ministers and 
48,207 local preachers, and 15,217,948 communicants, where there 
were only 3,030 churches, 2,651 ministers, and 364,872 communi- 
cants in 1800 — an increase of 155,665 churches, 112,172 ministers, and 
14,853,076 members in ninety-four years, or a 38 fold increase of 
communicants, while the population increased about 12 fold. The 
erection of church edifices to the value of five hundred and seventy- 
two millions of dollars, the support of public worship in which 
1 14,000 ministers of the Gospel participate, the corresponding number 
of Sunday-schools, the expenditure of $170,000,000 in religious publi- 
cations, $135,872,025 for home missions, and over $103,000,000 for 



THE MISSION OF AMERICA. 785 

foreign missions, all within the century, and three fourths of it 
within the last forty years, and these entire amounts, raised by purely 
voluntary methods, are monumental evidences of the success of 
the voluntary principle. Besides this, the founding, of our colleges, 
370 in number, with 33,000 students pursuing the collegiate course 
of study for the degree of A.B., and 79 per cent, of them in denom- 
inational colleges, is one more of many other evidences of the suc- 
cessful working of Christianity, wholly independent of the State. 
Dr. Dorner, after visiting this country in 1873, said: 

Columbus was encouraged by the hope that the new land would serve the honor 
of our Redeemer. That is not accomplished in the sense of Columbus — through 
the conversion of heathen — but in a far higher sense. The discovery of America 
has a connection in time and spirit with the Reformation, for, as it were, a new land 
arose from out the sea to serve as a bulwark and a reserve for the Church of the 
Reformation. The Americans feel already that they have a special mission, namely, 
to march in their fresh, earnest way, into the fight against the skeptical and the 
superstitious, at the same time showing Christianity in a new light, as a living force, 
which needs no outward human aid in order to make itself respected, but which 
free spirits most need. 

It is a ground for thanksgiving that in every great emergency 
the popular heart has instinctively apprehended the necessities of 
the nation and faithfully responded. Demagogues have never been 
able to lead the people far astray, and the prospect for the future 
constancy and devotion of the people to right is better than in 
any former periods. It certainly will be so, if Christians and good 
citizens faithfully exert their influence to maintain morals, religion 
and intelligence — the impregnable foundations of all enduring insti- 
tutions. Living and doing thus, we shall prove that the six prob- 
lems noticed will be satisfactorily solved, and we shall find that they 
represent six working factors of the highest and most glorious devel- 
opment of national life and character this world has hitherto seen. 

May we not believe that the composite character of our popula- 
tion, in which so many bloods mingle, will be the means of build- 
ing up a superior type of physical development and strength ; that 
building our young institutions and our fresh intellectual life with 
materials which have endured the rigid scrutiny of free inquiry, 
and the sifting and winnowing of the revolutionary spirit of the 
times, we shall exhibit an advanced type of national life ; that our 
religion and virtue, as purely voluntary products, entirely uncon- 
strained and unhampered, the only true conditions of genuine good- 
ness, will develop into the highest type of character ; that the new 
functions of public opinion, controlling and directing social and 



786 CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

public life, will prove the providential opening through which God's 
kingdom, will gain a willing ascendency in all hearts and over all 
institutions; and that our nation, without the formal recognition of 
Deity in the letter of its civil Constitution, but with more than the 
letter — the love of God and the love of virtue — in the hearts of the 
people, shall be found to be indeed builded upon the deepest, the 
best and the most enduring of all foundations? 

Such are some of the conditions under which these United 
States have entered upon their career. They have been of the 
most grave and solemn character, new in history, and, as a whole, 
unknown in national life. Never before was there such a battle field 
for humanity. Never were the elements of good and evil set forth 
against each other in a grander arena. Thrown upon conditions 
purely experimental, entirely voluntary, free from either the tram- 
mels or conserving force of old institutions, from the nature of the 
case the conflict must be mighty, exciting, at times, alarm; but, 
when successful, the loftiest exultations of triumph. Over the 
boundless fields of this country the majestic unfoldings of Prov- 
idence are witnessed, forecasting the future developments of the race, 
in those higher conditions toward which humanity is here surely ad- 
vancing. This nation is the happy heir of modern history. The 
current of our national life broadens, deepens, and speeds on with in- 
creasing swiftness. Check it we would not, master it we cannot, but 
guide it we may. And who will think it less noble because it has 
some sediment at the bottom, or bears some wrecks on its surface, 
or leave some ruins on its shores? 

Let us thank God that we are permitted to live in such an 
age of achievement and progress. Let us consecrate our best 
powers and resources to the carrying forward of these grand move- 
ments. Good people, one and all, and always, should march at the 
head of the advancing column and direct its course. To modestly 
retire to the rear or follow at a distance is not a mark of humility, 
but of recreancy to our high calling. 

Disappointment and despondency are abroad, and there are sad 
bodings over some movements. Many fear that certain valued 
results of the late civil war are fatally imperilled, if not irrecover- 
ably lost ; but the auguries teach that a rising public sentiment, is 
steadily advancing to the demand that the freedmen shall enjoy all 
their rights under the Constitution, and that, town by town, county 
by county, State by State, they will yet be lifted into the full priv- 
ileges and immunities of citizenship. Thus by profounder, more 
subtle, but not less certain processes, ends will be reached which 



" THE MORNING COMETH!" 787 

mere proclamations, armies and constitutions could never make 
actual. Others lament the corruption and lawlessness of the large 
cities, forgetting that aggregates of humanity have always exhibited 
hideous concentrations of vice; that in our days cities have become 
what they never were before — intense centers of moral and religious 
force, and that never until the present century were there such 
agencies for good as city missions, now organized in manifold forms. 
Others, seeing Mormonism lifting her beastly, defiant head, are 
alarmed, forgetting that it is, after all, only a local ulcer; that the 
advancing sentiment of the world's civilization is every-where focus- 
ing against polygamy; that this old vice has already disappeared 
from vast areas where it prevailed when this century opened, and 
that with such a broad, dense environment Mormonism can have no 
sure lease of the future. The specter of Romanism flits continually 
before the vision of others, causing grave fears ; but they forget that 
Romanism in playing her best card by transferring her adherents 
from other lands has lost more than she has gained ; that Roman- 
ism has already lost much of her hideous character ; that it is not a 
question of choice on her part, but an inevitable necessity, that she 
must be still more radically modified and improved, and that all 
such changes will bring her nearer to the likeness of apostolic Chris- 
tianity. 

Let us not forget that God's kingdom is fostered by a beneficent 
Providence whose scope is too vast for finite thought ; whose strategy 
is too profound for us to fathom, and too broad to be measured by 
a nation or a decade ; whose movements are sometimes by mighty 
armies, sometimes by great migrations, and sometimes by the silent 
sifting of ideas ; whose deadly foes are often made unwitting but 
effective servants ; whose skies may be overcast with clouds, but 
whose darkest clouds are always under a brightly shining sun. If 
there are any grounds for grave apprehensions, there certainly 
should be no trailing of banners nor folding of arms. The Prov- 
idence under whom we work helps those who toil in faith. To the 
front, then, Christian men and virtuous citizens, in every good work. 
March and toil in the fore-gleams of brighter days, shouting back 
to the advancing multitudes: 

-THE MORNING COMETH!" 



DIAGRAM XXVIII. 

CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1890. 

See Appendix, pages 793 and 794. 



ALL OTHERS. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC, 



EVANGELICAL, 



Evangelical, ■ • 151,172 
Roman Catholic, 10,231 
All Others, ■ ■ 3,894 



Total, 



165,297 






APPENDIX. 



Church Organizations. Edifices, Sittings, and Valuation, in the United 
States, 1850, i860, 1870, 1890. 

(From United States Census, 1890. Classified by the author of this volume.) 



Section I. — Church Organizations. 1 



Denominations. 



Evangelical. 

Adventists, all kinds 

Baptists,-' ail kinds 

Brethren, Plymouth 

Brethren, River 

Catholic, Apostolic 

Catholic, Reformed 

Christadelphians 

Christians 3 

Christian Missionary Association 

Christian Union 

Church of God (Winebrennarians) 4 

Congregationalists 

Di-ciples 3 

Dunkers, 4 all kind.-. 

Episcopal, Protestant (including Reform* 

Episcopal, Arminian 

Evangelical Association 

Friends, three bodies 

Friends of the Temple 

German Evangelical Synod 

Lutherans, all kinds 

Mennonite, 4 all kinds 

Methodists, all kinds 

Moravians 

Presbyterians, all kinds 

Reformed, all kinds 

Salvation Army 

Schwenkfelders 

Social Brethren 

United Brethren, all kinds 

Independent Congregations 



d). 



Total 



Non-Evangelical. 

Church of the New Jerusalem 

Friends (Hicksite) 

German Evangelical Protestant 

Christian Scientists 

Church Triumphant 

Communistic Societies 

Latter-Day Saints 

Spiritualists 

Unitarians 

Universalists 



Total 



1870. 


1890. 


225 


1,757 


15,829 


43,029 




3M 




in 




10 




8 




63 


3,578 


1,424 




13 




294 




479 


2,887 


4,868 




7,246 




984 


2,S 3 5 


5,102 




6 


815 


2,310 


692 


855 




4 




870 


3,032 


8,595 




550 


25,278 


5L4S9 


72 


94 


7,764 


13,476 


1,727 


2,lSl 




329 




4 




20 


L445 


4,526 


462 


156 



66,701 



90 


154 




201 




52 




221 




12 


18 


32 


189 


856 


95 


334 


33i 


421 


7i9 


956 



1,44; 



151.172 



3,239 



■90 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Section I. — Church Organizations — Continued. 



Denominations. 



Non- Christian. 

Chinese Temples 

Ethical Culturists 

Jews , 

Theosophists 



Total 



Catholic 



Roman Catholic 

Greek Catholic 

Russian Catholic, Orthodox. 

Greek Orthodox 

Old Catholic 



Total Catholic 
Asm'ecate 




72.459 



165,297 



1 Church organizations never reported in Census of United States until 1870, and omitted 
in 18S0. 2 Very incomplete in 1870. 3 Christians and Discipl-s combined in 1870. 4 Com- 
bined with the Baptists in 1870. 

Section IT. — Church Edifices. 



Denominations. 



Evangelical. 

Adventists, all 

Baptists, all -. 

Brethren, Plymouth 

Brethren, River. 

Catholic, Apostolic 

Catholic, Reformed 

Christadelphians 

Christians (and Disciples until 1870).. 

Christian Missionary Association 

Christian Union 

Church of God (Winebrennarians) 

Congregationalists 

Disciples (wit! 



Dunkers 

Episcopal, Protestant, all. . . 

Episcopal, Arminian 

Evangelical Association. . . , 

Friends, three bodies 

Friends of the Temple 

German Evangelical Synod. 

Lutherans, all 

Mennonites 

Methodists, all 

Moravians 

Presbyterians, all 

Reformed, all 

Salvation Army 

Schwenkfelders 

Social Brethren 



United Brethren 

Independent Congregations 

Total 



1053. 


i860. 


1870. 


1890. 


2 5 


70 


140 


774 


9-563 


12,150 

. . . . 


13.962 

:::: 
:::: 


37,789 
halls 

70 

3 

halls 

4 


, 875 


2,o6S 


2,822 


1,098 

TI 

184 


(reported 


with 


Baptists) 


33S 


1-725 


2,234 


2,7*5 


4,736 


(with 


Bap- 


tists) 


5.324 


(with 


Bap, 


tists) 


I,Ol6 


1-459 


2,145 


2,601 


5.103 


39 





641 


L899 


726 

:::: 


726 


662 


782 

5 
785 


1,231 


2,128 


2,776 


6,701 


(with 


Bap- 


tists) 


406 


13,302 


19.883 


21,337 


46,138 


34 


49 


67 


114 


4,85s 


6,406 


7.071 


12.469 


676 



1,116 
.... 
.... 


1,613 


2,080 

27 

6 

n 


14 




937 


3405 


J, 143 


I.36S 


596 


IT2 


35/J70 


50,343 


57,940 


131,400 



APPENDIX. 
Section II. — Church Edifices — Continued. 



791 



Denominations. 



A T on - Evl i ngt • lie a I. 
Church of the New Jerusalem. . . 

Friends (Hicksite) 

German Evangelical Protestant. 

Christian Scientists 

Church Triumphant 

Communistic Societies 

I ,atter-Day .Saints 

Spiritualists 

Unitarians 

Universalists 



(with 



i860. 



[870. 



21 


58 


61 






other 


Friends) 




I 


12 


"18 




6 


24 


171 






17 


22 


245 


264 


310 


530 


664 


602 



Total 



Non-Christian. 

Chinese Temples 

Ethical Culturists 

Jews 

Theosophists 



Total 



Catholic. 



Roman Catholic. . 
Greek Catholic. . . 
Russian Catholic. 
Greek Orthodox.. 
Old Catholic 



Total Catholic. 
Aggregate 



1,222 

'37.751 



.0391 



77 



77i 
j 

2,55ol 



2.550 



1,184 

152 

152 

3,8o6 



t,8o6 



54.009 



63,082 



[890. 



halls 



213 

52 
7 

40 

3S8 

30 

424 

832 



2,074 



47 

301 

1 



349 



5,776 
13 
23 



816 



142,639 



An error in census for 1850. 



Section III. — Seating Capacity of Churches. 



Denominations. 



Evangelical. 

Adventists, all 

Baptists, all 

Brethren, Plymouth 

Brethren, River 

Catholic, Apostolic 

Catholic, Reformed 

Christadelphians 

Christians 

Christian Missionary Association 

Christian Union 

Ch. of God (Winebrennarians). . . 

Congregation alists 

Disciples 

Dunkers 

Episcopal, Protestant, all 

Evangelical Association 

Friends, three bodies 

Friends of the Temple 



3,307 



303 



250! 



7S0 



17 
4,044 



681 



(combined - 

8o7,335| 
(combined ! 
(combined 

643,598 
15,479, 

286,323 



218 



016 



with Baptists 

956,354 
with Chr'ns 
with Baptists 

847,296 

269,084 



[890. 



34,555 


190,748 


4.360,135 


11,599,534 




21,163 




22,105 




750 




3,6oo 




950 


865,602 


347,697 




3.300 




68,000 


before 1890) 


H5,530 


1,117,212 


1,553,080 


before 1890) 


1,609 452 


before 1890) 


414,036 


991,051 


1,360,877 


193,796 
224,664 


479-335 


229,650 




1,150 



792 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Section III. — Seating Capacity of Churches — Continued. 



Denominate n; 



[850. 



German Evangelical Synod. 

Lutherans, all 

Mennonites 

Methodists, all 

Moravians 

Presbyterians, all 

Reformed, all 

Salvation Army 

Schwenkfelders 

Social Brethren 

United Brethren 

Independent Congregations 



539-701 757-637 977o32 

(combined with Baptists before iSgo; 

4.345.519 6,259,799 6,528,209 

; H4.9$S 20,316 25,700 

2.0S9.954 2,565.949 2,698.244 

343, 6i5 4S4.765 653.923 



4,650 

>6,373 



265,025 
372,549 172,062 



Total 



Non-Evangelical. 
Church of the New Jerusalem. . 

Friends (Hicksite) 

German Evangelical Protestant 

Christian Scientists 

Church Triumphant 

Communistic Societies 

Latter-Day Saints 

Spiritualists 

Unitarians 

Universalists 



I 3- I 73-779 17,276,103 19. 112. 513 



Total. 



5,6oo! 

(with 



5,150 

io.SSo 

i 5 8",oo7 

215. 115 

374,8i2 



15-395 iS,755 

other Friends) 



200 
;oo 



21 



235,219 



8,8qo 
87,S 3 8; 

6.970 

I55.47I 
210,884 



Non- Ch ristia n . 

Chinese Temples 

Ethical Culturists 

Tews 

Theosophists 



413,802 



Total 



18,371 34,412 




488.768; 



73,26; 



Catholic 
Roman Catholic. . . 

Greek Catholic 

Russian Catholic 
Greek Orthodox 
Old Catholic 

Total 

Aggregate 

Average sittings to the population. 

Per cent, of the whole sittings in 

the Evangelical Churches. . . . 



18,371 34.412 73,265 

667,363 1,404,437 1,990,514. 




1890. 



245,781 

2,205,635 

129,340 

12,863,178 

3i,6i5 

4,038,650 
825,931 

12,055 

U925 
8,700 

991,13s 
39-345 

39,414.250 



20,810 
72,568 

35,175 

1,500 

100 

10.050 

122, S92 

20.450 

165.090 

244,615 

693.250 



139,234 
200 

139-434 



3-365,754 

5,228 

3.150 

75 

700 

3,374.907 

43,621,841 

6 9 2 

9i 



! Error in census for 1850. 



Section IV. — Valuation of Church Property, 



Denominations. 



Adventists, all 

Baptists, all 

Brethren, Plymouth 
Brethren, River. . . 



r86o. 



1800. 



$II,IOO SlOI,I70 $306,240 81,236,345 

II » I 73-97° 21,079,114 41.608,19s 82,392.423 

.... .... .... 1.465 

I 81,350 



APPENDIX. 



7S3 



Section IV. — Vai.uk of Church Property — Continued. 



Denominations. 



i85o. 



1870. 



[890. 



Catholic, Apostolic 

Christ adelphians 

Christians (see Section II ) 

Christian Missionary Association. 

Christian Union 

Church of God(Winebrennarians). 

Congregationalists 

I )isciples 

Dunkers 

Episcopal, Protestant, all 

Evangelical Association 

Friends, three bodies : 

Friends of the Temple 

German Evangelical Synod 

Lutherans, all 

Mennonites 

Methodists, all 

Moravians (see Section III) 

Presbyterians, all 

Reformed, all 

Salvation Army 

Schwenkfelder> 

Social Brethren 

United Brethren 

Independent Congregations 



853.3*6 



8,001,995 

(see 

(see 
[i,375,oiO 

118,250 
1,713,767 



2,909,711 

(see 
14,825,070' 
444,i67i 
I4.57i.339! 

5, no, 060 



18,600 
1,228,500 



5) 

2,518,045^ 



13. 327. 5ii 
Section 
Section 
21,665,698 



. 



2,544,507 



5.3»5,i79 ! 
Section 

33.093.37i 

227.450 

26,840,525 

6,876,520 





1,374,210 



5>. ... . 

6,425.137 



25,069,698 
III) 
III) 

36,514,549 
2,301,650 
3.939,560 



14.917.747 

III) 

69,854,121 

709,100 

53,265,256 

16,134,470 



1,819,810 
1.788,745 



Total S72. 354,925 Si35.033.300 $274,654,281 8527,093. 103 



866,050 

2,700 

1,775,202 

3,900 

234,450 

643,185 

43,335,437 

12,206,038 

1,362,631 

82,835,418 

4,785,680 

2,879,484 

15,300 

4,614,490 

35,060,354 

643,800 

132,140,179 

681,250 

94,869,097 

18,744,242 

38,150 

12,200 

8,700 

4,937,5S3 
1,486,000 



Non- Evangelical. 

Church of the New Jerusalem. , 

Friends (Hicksite) 

German Evangelical Protestant. 

Christian Scientists 

Church Triumphant 

Communistic Societies 

Latter-Day Saints 

Spiritualists 

Unitarians 

Universalists 



§115,100 
(with 



39,500 
84,780 

3,280,822 
1.778,316 



Total ; $5,298,518 



Non-Christian. 

Chinese Temples 

Ethical Culturists 

Jews 

Theosoph sts 



418,600 



Total. 



Catholic 
Roman Catholic. . . . 

Greek Catholic 

Russian Catholic. . . 
Greek Orthodox.. . . 
Old Catholic 



Total .... 
Aggregate. 



$321,200 
other 



41,000 

891,100 

7,5O0 

4,338,3i6 

2,856,095 



$8,455,211 



$869,700 
Friends) 



86,900 

656,750 

1^0,150 

6,282,675 

5,692,325 

$13,688,500 



$. 



i,i35,300i $5,155,234 



8418,600 $1,135,300} $5,155,234 



$9,256,758 



$26,774,119^ $60,985,566 



),256,758 826,774.119 



.887,328,801 8171, 397. 932 



$60,985,566 



$354,483,581 



$1,386,455 

1,661,850 

1,187,450 

40,666 

15,000 

106,800 

1,051,791 

573-650 

10,335,100 

8,054.333 



$24,413,095 



$62,000 

9-754.275 
600 



$9,816,875 



$118,069,746 

63,300 

220,000 

5,000 

13.320 



$118,371,366 
$679-694,439 



794 



CHRIS TIA XI TV IX THE U XI TED STATES. 



TABLE II. 

Arrivals, by Nationalities and ey Decades, of Alien Passengers and Immi- 
grants [Alien Passengers from October i, 1S20. to December 31. ::.-. - 
Immigrants from January : 1868, to June 30, 1892]. (See footnote.) 



Cc OUTKIES 

Whence 
Arrived. 


1E21 
to 
: 8 3 : . 


1831 

to 

1840. 


1841 

: 


:: = : : : 

E ec. ::. 

i86o 


::::. :: 

j 2 r. e - : . 

7,80c 

- 734 

: "' : '-- 

787,468 
11,728 

: . : : 2 

:: .22 : 
4,53* 

--:-: 

5 B ::: 

■; - 1 

435,778 


years 
1;-: :: 

:££•:. 

-2.-A2 
7,221 
31,771 
72,206 
718,182 
55,755 
16,541 

2 -.-. ,245 

52^54 

9,893 

46c ,479 

436,871 


? - :-. Fiscal 
Aears years 
:-I: :: 1121 ar £ 

-.12,2. ll22. 


T::al. 


Austria-Hungary . 

Belgium 

Denmark 

France 

Germany 

Italy...' 

Netherlands 

N rway and Swe- 
den 

Russia and Poland 
Spain and Portugal 
Switzerland 






::; ----- 

::.: -7 

'-'- -1- 

SC _ _ 

i.i=2 -: 

= "•;=■; 

53,701 

5 • -- 

. : -- . : : 

I:.:I3 


151.178 

- ;-: 
21,252 

: : : : : 
244 :; 
: - : : . : 

12,466 

107,157 

: ; 2 . n 5 

5,657 
14^10 


5:5 : ■ - 

"3 : ^ 
1,032,188 

r;- r - 

_: 2:- 

: : -- . ; 


169 

* - - 
- i 
40J 

1,078 

yi 

9* 

z,::. 


22 
----': 

45,575 

- - 454 

- 253 
1. 412 

1.221 
646 

2,954 
4,821 


5,074 
53? 

-- : : 
_ | - 

'-■-:'- 

2,759 
4, 44 


4,738 
3,749 

:c.-i: 

20,931 
1,621 

- .5: 
25,011 


United Kingdom : 

England a 

Scotland 

Ireland 


: _ : ■ - 
2,912 
50,724 


73,143 
2,667 

207,381 


263,332 

3,7 - 


385,643 


f5-.il: "4.5-f 
ia2.i6 :_.:-- 
: 5 f.,;: rir.z-5 


2,534055 

: 5 - :_- 


Total United 
Kingdom. . . 


75,8o3 


283,191 


1,047,763 


;.;-:; 


1 :_: -_ 


;,,:. 


1,462,83c 15: Iif 


f.-f.r:- 


All other countries 
of Europe 


43 


96 


~ :: 




;:: 


: 5 f 


::.::: i.i-j. 


:=.: 


Total Europe. 

British N. Ameri- 
can Possessions. 


08,816 

2,277 

4,817 

105 

S3 1 

3,834 


495,688 

13,624 

6,593 

44 

ly. 

12.301 


597,502 

_: -:: 
3,271 

■■:- 

■-:■ r-- 


45= :" 

5:.::.: 

3, 78 

44CJ 

1,224 

: : : ! : 


2,064,407 

153,871' 
2,193 

'-■ 
1,3 :: 

; H3 


2.221.2,2a 
;-Et.26: 

5 : - - 
::: 
928 

13.95- 


4,721,602 

i,9i3 

462 

2,304 

29/142 


11,152,457 
576 

« ■;-- 


1 :_:' E75 


Central Amer:;.\ 
South America . . . 
West Indies 


2,3 10 

12,162 


T >tal Amen : a 


11,564 


33,424 


fia^og 


74,72a 


166,597 


_:;-:: 


426,523 -.5:5 


: :- -:: 


IsTsof theAtlai I : 


352 


103 


337 


3,00c 


3vM6 


10,056 


:f -:i 2,484 


35 




: 


40 


35 
47 


4*,397 


'--■:-- 


123,201 


::.-:: 5.57"^ 




All other countries 








Total Asia. . . 


ID 


48 


1 2 


41 _ 5 : 


_ 5 ■ 


123,823 


68,38c 16^90 


514 : 




:-" 


52 


:: 


210 


y-- 


22Q 


,.», -; - 


1,693 






3.S62 


Isl's of the Pacific. 

All other countries 

and islands 


32,679 


::.ln 


29 
52,777 


158 

25 J21 


2;: 

15 232 
2,314 S24 


I.5JIO 

2/i:i.ll 


1,299 




Aggregate 


143*439 


: - :- : 


1,713,251 


2,598,214 


5 : _ ■ : : r , 183,403 





a Includes Wales and Great Britain not specified 

-- ^s and 5 from Greenland. 

c Immigrants from British North Americar Possess re not included since JuJy 

Note. — The immigrants for yea-- [820-1892 irted at 16,611,060 

The . _ . - ending June 30, 1893. have teen reported at. 497,936 

The immigrants for year ending June 30, 1894, have been reported at. 311,404 

:- ._:: .ai>: 
■ ■ :- ;:_ .:■;• 

- - - ' ■ " :-. 






INDEX. 



'93 



INDEX 



Abbott, Rev. Abiel, D.D.,210. 
Rev. F. E., 638, 
Rev. Lyman, D.D., quoted, 646. 

Abenakis, The, 52, etc. 

Abolition gradual in Pennsylvania, 356. 

Religious origin 1 F, 

Society, Early, 35 -. 

Society of New York, 355. 
Abolitionist, TAe, 468. 

Convention. 
Abolitionists, Early list of, 355. 

censured the churches, . 
Abstinence, Total, reached, 446. 
Academies, The first, 2 ,9. 
Acadia, Destruction 
Act of Toleration in Maryland, 327. 

of Uniformity, The, 121. 
Adams, Hon. John, 551. 

Hon. John, quoted, 205, 207. 

Hon. "John Quincy, on Roger Williams, 113. 

Hon. John Quincy, I. !..!>., 263,471 . 

Rev. Nehemiah, D.H., 497. 

Samuel, 207. 
Addison, 138. 

Additions to Churches, 712. 

Addresses, The " Mr. and Mr-." discarded, 3 i- 
Adolphus, Gustavus, 27. 32. 
Advance, The, quoted, 648. 
Adventism, 51S, 520. 
Ad\ enlists. Materialistic, \ 
Advertiser, The, quoted, 4I 7. 
Africa, Missions in, 705. 
African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2S6. 
Africans, 764. 

Agassiz, Professor, quoted, 655. 
Age of Achievement, 786. 

0/ Reason ,315, 320, 524. 
Agencies inaugurated, 365. 
Agitations and the Revolution, 260. 
Aikan. Robert, 350, 419. 
Alabama, History of, 387. 
Albright, Rev. Jacob, 2S6, 470. 
Alcott, William A., quoted, 655. 
Alexander, Rev. Archibald, D.D., 370. 

Dr. Charles. 238. 
Algonquins, The, 52, 69. 
Alleghanies, Over the, 289. 
Allen, Rev. Richard, 286, 477. 
Allison, Rev. Patrick, D.D., 2S1. 
Allouez, Claudius, 70, 72. 
Almanac, Catholic Metropolitan, 557,55s. 
Ambiguities of the Constitution. 563. 
American and Foreign Antislavery .Society, 468. 

and Foreign Christian Union. 405, 575. 

and French Alliance, 333. 

Baptist Missionary Union, 4T3. 

Bible Society, 420. 

Biblical Repository, 424. 

Board C. F. M.,411, etc., 701, 703, etc. 

Christianity, Respectability of. 775. 

Cyclopedia, Old, 448. 

Jews' Annual, 624. 

Missionary Association, 403, 406, 407. 

Newspaper Directory, 719. 

Protestant Society, 405. 

Protestant, The. quoted, 594. 

Quarterly Temperance Magazine, 35T. 



American Quarterly Register, quoted, 30, 38, 12T. 
130, x 47, T 83, 253, 255. 287, 294, 2;8, 371, 377, 37S, 
39°, 39 2 > 395, 425, 429, 431, 436, 437, 439, 549, 730, 
733, 765- 

Sunday School Union, 423, 691. 

Theology, 668. 

Tract Society, 441, 477. 
Amherst College founded, 500. 

Revivals in, 377. 
Anarchism, 645, 683, 684, etc. 
Anarchists, 77,1. 
Andover Manual, The, 218. 
Andrew, Rev. Bishop James O., 465, 481. 
Andrews, Hon. John A., 572. 

Seminary, 438. 

Sir Edmund, 36. 

Stephen Pearl, 534. 

Rev. William, 187. 
Anglo-Saxon Leagues, 156. 

Population, 766. 
Anglo-Saxons, 620. 
A una Is 0/ Yale College, 339. 

of t lie Propagation of the Faith, 5 48. 
Anthropoid Apes, 657. 
Antim imianism, 203. 
Antinomians, 114. 
Antislavery in the Colonies, 225. 

in the Churches, 448, 473. 

Martyrs, 470. 

Reform, 365. 

Seed-Sowing, 355. etc. 

Sentiments, Original, 566. 

Societies. 455. 

Standard-bearers, 450, etc. 
Anti-Synodalia, 200. 
Appeal and Counter Appeal, 463. 
Appendix, 7S9. 

Appleton. Rev. Nathaniel, D.D., 207. 
Appleton s Cyclopedia, quoted, 197, 506, 531, 541. 
Aqua Vitce, 440. 
Arcadia, N. Y.,641. 
Arcana Celestia, 311. 
Ardent Spirits. Effect of, 353, 442. 
Argall, Captain, 90. 
Arian defection, 145. 
Arianism, 366. 

among English Clergy, 197. 

early in Europe, 196. 

traced to Italy, 196. 
Arians and Semi-Arians, 207. 
Arkansas River reached, 74. 
Arminian Theology, 669. 
Arminianism. 203, 204. 
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 666. 
Artillery, Election Services, 262. 
Asbury, Rev. Bishop Francis, 42, 268. 352, 426. 
Asia, Missions in, 704. 

Associate Presbyterian Church after the Revolution, 
282. 

Reformed Church, 282, 490. 

Reformed Synod of the South, 678. 

Synod of North America, 678. 
Association, Genealogical, of Massachusetts, 1S3. 

Unitarian, 635. 
Asylums, Roman Catholic, 609. 
Athanasian Creed, called a riddle, 205. 
Atheism and Naturalism, 313, etc. 

and Theism, 651. 
Atlantic Monthly, quoted, 598, 640. 



796 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Atonement, Ballou on, 510. 
Aurea Chersonesus, 15. 
Aurora, The, quoted, 340. 
Austria, Population of, 765. 
Awakening, The Great, 141. 
Ayer's Nezvspaper A nnual, 719. 
Aztecs Overthrown, 17. 



Babcock, Rev. Rufus, D.D., 38, 147, 283, 733. 
Backus, Rev. Ariel, D.D., 146. 

History of Baptists, no, in, 251. 
Bacon, Benjamin C., 455. 

Lord, 28. _ 

Rev. David, 401. 

Rev. Leonard, D.D., 116, 151, 401, 434. 
Badger, Rev. Joseph, 249, 298, 382. 
Baird, Rev. Robert, D.D., 3, 255, 324, 405, 447, 487, 

733, 747, 759- 
Balboa, 14, 117. 
Balch, Rev. Hezekiah, 294. 

Rev. James, 294. 
Baldwin, Hon. Judge Ebenezer, 339, 360. 
Balfour, Rev. Walter, 510. 
Balloting only by church members, 101. 
Ballou, Rev. Adin, 307, 514, 536. 

Rev. Hosea, 211, 510, 529, 626. 
Ballou's favorite dogma, 627. 
Baltimore, Lord, 35, 67, etc. 

Roman Catholics in, 328. 
Bampton Lectures, 640. 

Bancroft, Hon. George, LL.D., quoted, 23, 31, 46,51, 
56,57,64, 78,81, 85, 88, 100, 101, 103, 256, -275, 
277, 302, 773. 
Bangs, Rev. Nathan, D.D., 349, 382, 386, 399, 464. 

History of Methodism, quoted, 382. 
Banishment, Laws for, 104. 
Banner of Light, 641. 
Baptism of Children, 151, 163. 
Baptist Churches, 139, 373. 

Abolition in, 465. 

Church and Slavery, 465. 

Church, Early Universalists in, 211. 

Church in Lynn, Mass., no. 

Church in Maine, no. 

Church in Newport, R. I., no. 

Church in Swansea, Mass.. in. 

Churches after the Revolution, 283. 

Clergy, 254, 283, 285. 

Colored Churches, 677. 

Education Society, 432. 

Educational Institutes, 728. 

Home Missionary Society, 406. 

Missionary Union, 413, etc. 

Publication Board, 422, 685. 

Southern Missionary Society, 414. 

Statistics in Illinois, 294. 

Tract Society, 419. 

]'ear Book, 728. 

Young People's Union. 6Sg. 
Baptists, Anti-Mission, 48;. 

early in Tennessee and Kentucky, 293. 

first in Illinois, 294. 

Free-Will, 483. 

German Seventh-day, 42. 

History of, by Benedict, 93, no. 

how treated in Virginia, 117. 

in the Revolution, 283. 

in the West, 293, 294, 383, 758. 

in Virginia, in, 147. 

Influence of, 501. 

Law against, 114. 

Persecution of, 38, 117. 

Regular, Origin of in America, 37, etc. 

Schism in, 482, etc. 

Seventh-dav, 38, 483. 

Six Principle, 38. 

Southern, 677. 

The, and Unitarianism, 500,502. 

The, early in Massachusetts, no. 

The Free Communion, 483. 

The General, 483. 
Baptizo and the Bible Society, 421. 



Barclay, Rev. Thomas, 187. 
Bargrave, Rev. Mr., 230. 
Barnard, Rev. Thomas, D.D., 492. 
Barnes, Rev. David, D.D., 492. 

Rev. Thomas, 210. 
Barrow, Dr., 27. 

Barrows, Rev. S. J., D.D.,27, 28. 
Barry, Commodore, 326. 
Bartlet, William, 412, 439. 
Bartol, Rev. C. A., D.D., 505. 
Bascom, Rev. Bishop H. B., D.D., LL.D., 725. 
Battelle, Colonel E., 297. 
Baxter, Rev. Dr. G. A., 370. 
Bayards, The, 33. 
Bayler, Dr., 546. 
Bayley, Rev. Bishop, 176. 
Beecher, Catherine, 433. 

Rev. Edward, D.D., 434. 

Rev. H. W., 472, 660. 

Rev. Lyman, D.D. ,23, 442, 444, 474, 496. 
Beer consumption, 572. 

gardens, 643. 

invasion, 572. 
Beers, Hon. S. P., 354. 
Belcher's Religions Denominations, 483. 
Belden, Rev. Joseph, 252. 
Belief, Religious, 94. 

Belknap, Rev. Jeremy, D.D., 306, 353, 356. 
Bell, Jonathan, 165. 

Bellamy, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 213, 251, 669. 
Bellows, Rev. H. W.,D.D., quoted, 630, 777. 
Bells on church, 159, 160. 
Belsham, Rev. James, 494. 
Benedict's History of Baptists, 93, 117, 120. 
Beneficence, Systematic, 714, etc. 
Benevolence, Test of, 714. 
lenevolent organizations, 398, 440. 
Benezet, Anthony, 227, 228. 
Benneville, Dr. George, 209. 
Benton, Hon. Thomas H., quoted, 566. 
Berkeley, Sir William, 92, 231. 
Bethlehem Church, The, 213. 
Bible and science, 658, 660. 

and slavery, 456. 

appealed to, 103. 

Christians, 676. 

denounced, 467. 

Eliot's Indian, printed, 131. 177, 180. 

English, 28. 

first printed in America, 180, 350, 419. 

in schools, 600. 

New, Societies, 364. 

rare and expensive, 350. 

readers, 690. 

rejected from schools, 553, etc., 599. 

Societies, 364, 417, 419. 

Societies, British and French. 419. 

Societies, Naval and Military, 417. 

The, vindicated, 658. 
Biblical Repository, 424. 
Bihliotheca Sacra, 134. 
Biddle, Rev. John, 196. 
Bigot, Rev, James, 55, 56. 

Rev. Vincent, 55, 56. 
Bill of Rights, Massachusetts, 157. 
Bills of Sale of Slaves, 223. 
Biloxi Bay, 76. 
Birney, Hon. James G., 451. 
Bishop of London, 97, 134-136. 
Bishops, Non-juring, 134. 

opposed by Puritans, 88. 
Bitterness, A period of, 340. 
Black Hole in Calcutta, 344. 
Blackburn, Rev. Dr. Gideon. 294. 
Blackstone's Commentaries in America, 262. 
Blair, Rev. James, D.D., 92, 134, 242. 
Blind Palmer, 525. 

Blue Laws in Connecticut, 115, 116, 265. 
Foard of Education of Massachusetts, 235. 
Bockholdt, John, 115. 
Boehm, Revs. Philip and John, 41, 286. 
Bogardus, Rev. Everardus, 38. 
Boiling Prisoners, 124. 
Bolingbroke, Lord, 195. 



IXDEX. 



Bonaparte, Napoleon, 364. 

II md-maics, 222. 

1! ok Concerns, The Methodist, 421, 723. 

of Mormon, The, 540. 

given to Harvard College, ^42. 
Boone, Daniel, 202. 
15 >ston. Baptists in, in. 

City Missionary Society, 400. 4. 

City Missions, 682. 

First church in, 129. 

Huguenots in, 33. 

Journal, quoted, 540, 5S1, 

Latin School, 233. 

Memorial History, 109, 175, 176, 170. ; , 3. 

News Letter, T/'ir. - 

Recorder, quoted. 44 S. 

Romanism in, 333. 

Snow's History of, 232. 

when settled, 27. 
Boudinot, Hon. Elias, 33, 309, 420. 
Bourdon, Sieur, 64. 
B.ourne, Rev. George, 453. 

Rev. Richard. 181. 
Bowditch, Dr. Henry I., 572. 
Bowdoins, The, 33, 207. 
Bowen, Professor, 659. 
Bowles, Rev. Lucius, 502. 
Bowman, Rev. Elisha B., 381, 3 8 7- 
15 iwne, Rev. Prof. Borden P.. D.D., LL.D., 652. 
Boyle, Hon. Robert, 177. 243. 
Bovlston, Mass., 219. 
Brace. Rev. Joab, D.D., 2 ,2. 

Rev. Joseph. D.D., 232. 
Braddock, General, 290. 
Bradford. Allen, LL.D., 36, 205, 207, 2c8, j 2. 

Gamaliel, M.D., 444. 
Brainerd, Rev. John. 146, 187. 

Rev. David, 144. 184, 187, 251. 
Branding convicts, 346. 
Brandt, the Mohawk chief, 189. 
Brattle Street Church, Boston, 165, 203, 303. 
Brebeuf. Rev. Fr. Jean de, 47. 50, etc. 
Breckenridge, Rev. Robert, D.D., 461, 54). 
Brent, Robert, 95. 
Bressani, Joseph, 63. 
Brewster, Margaret, 114. 

-" < 448. 
Brisbane, Albert, 535. 
Bristol Academy, 239. 
Bristow, Rev. Dr., 247. 
British Scientific Association, 658. 
F.ritt, Rev. Pliny, 478. 
Broad Church, 630. 
Bronson, Orestes A., LL.D., 505, 535. 
Brook Farm Community, 535, 629. 
Brooks, Hon. Erastus, 597. 

Rev. E. G., 513. 
Brotherhoods, Orders of, 605. 
Brown, Rev. J. I., D.D., 134. 

J ^hn, 470. 

Nicholas, 249. 

University, 249. 
Brownlee, Rev. Bishop T. C, D.D., LL.D., 445. 

Rev. William C, D.D., LL.D., 405. 
Brownlow, Parson, 471. 
Brum, Moses, 439. 
Brunot, Hen. Felix R., 318. 
Brunson, Rev. Alfred, 389, 392, 394. 
Brutality, 344. 345. 
Bryanites, Theodore, 676. 
Bryant, Rev. Lemuel, 205. 

William C, quoted, 16. 19, 24. 
Buck's History of Virginia, 89, 90, 117. 126, 128, 24; 
Buckingham, Lord, 27. 
Buckland, Richard, 92. 

Buckminster, Rev. Joseph S. , 277, 493, 629. 
Buckner, Rev. J. Conrad, 270. 
Buddin^ton, Rev. Dr., 150. 
Buell, Rev. David, 354. 

Rev. Samuel, D.D., 146, 2C2. 
Buffun, Arnold, 455. 
Bundling, Custom of, 218. 
Burder. Rev. George, 417. 
Burgess, Rev. Bishop, 194, 198, 206, 301. 

52 



Burgher and Anti- Burgher Synods, 40. 
Burke, Hon. Edmund, 262, 523, 717, 772. 
Burling, William, 226. 
Burnett, Rev. Bishop, 114. 
Burr, Hon. Aaron, 342. 

Rev. Aaron, 246. 
Burton, Rev. Asa, D.D., 67, 251, 670. 

Robert, 28. 
Bushnell, Rev. Dr. Horace, 780, etc. 
Button cut from Eliot's coat, 178. 
Byrne, Rev. Stephen, 619. 



Cabet, Etienne, 644. 
Cabinet Tricks, 641. 
Cabots, The, 14, 24. 
I Cabrilla, 22. 
Cahokia, 289. 
Caldwell, Dr., 530. 

Calhoun, Hon. John C, quoted, 448, 566. 568. 
Calibosa, 390. 
California Missions, 22, 79. 
Calverts, The, 67. 
Calvin and Loyola meet, 57. 
Calvin's Catechism, 167. 
Calvinism, High, 209. 

Fading, 204. 

Improved, 204, 210, 300, 307, 669. 
Calvinistic Creed, 31. 

Methodists, 211. 

Reaction, 670. 

Theology, 669. 
Cambridge, Mass., The Synod, 130, 131. 
Camp, Hon. L)avid X.. 234, 235. 
Campbell, Rev. Alexander, 486. 

Sir George, 658. 

Rev. Thomas. 485. 
Campbellites, The, 485. 
Campus Marti us, 297. 
Canada ceded, 44, 58. 

a wilderness empire, 49. 
Cancer, Father Louis, 19. 
Canterbury, The Archbishop of, 97. 
Cap of Liberty, 321, 322. 
Capital offenses, 104, 122, 345. 
Cardenas, Bishop of, 334. 
Carey. Matthew, 335. 
Carlyle, Thomas, 509, 663. 
Carmelites. The, 18. 335. 
Carnival of Crime, 695. 
Carolinas, Education in, 23T. 
Caron, Le, 50. 
Carroll. Charles, 326, 328. 

Daniel, 119, 328. 

H. K., LL.D.. 625,753. 

Rev. Bishop John, 58. 95, 119, 326-328, 544. 
Cartier, Jacques, 14, 17, 44, 45. 
Cartwrighl, Rev. Peter. 299, 348. 
I Case, Rev. William, 387. 
I Catechism, Calvin's, 167. 

Luther's Smaller, 133. 

The, 31, go. 133. 164, 167, 171, 196, 204. 

The Heidelberg, 232. 

The New England, 167. 
Cathay, The fair, 15, 16. 
Catholic Bible, 335. 

Bishops, Lives of, 9-, 338. 

Church in Maryland, 119. 

Education, 613. 

First Synod. 3^0. 

Hierarchy in United States, 327, 328. 

Indians, 322, 323. 

Metropolitan Almanac, 615. 

Mirror, The, 621. 

Missions, 621. 

Priests in United States in 1776, 81. 

Protectory, 603. 

ReT-iezu, quoted, 603. 

Roman, Almanac, 615, 616. 

Roman, Almanac. Hoffman's, 757. 

Roman, History, by Murray, 616. 

Statistics, 556-558, 585-623, 751-755- 

Telegraph, 616. 



798 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Catholic Union, 616. 

Vote, 602. 

Worlds 615, 616. 
Catholics and Quakers, 121. 

and the Revolution, 81, 326. 

Backslidden, 615. 

in Maryland, 68, 119. 

in the West, 336. 
Cavaliers, The, 764. 
Celts and Saxons, 619, etc. 
Celts, The, 618, 619. 
Census of United States, 739. 
Centennial of Temperance Reform, 574. 
( entnry, quoted, 221, 222. 
Chamberlain, Dea., 165. 
Champlain, Samuel de, 17, 44, 47, 49. 
Change of heart, 203. 
Charming, Rev. W. E., LL.D., 444, 494, 535. 630, 661. 

Rev. W. H., 505, 507, 535. 
Chapels, Wesleyan, 747. 
Chapin, Rev. Calvin, D.D., 252, 412, 445. 
Charitable Institutions of Roman Catholics, 610. 
Charity, Daughters of, 546, 607. 
Charles I. of England, 27. 

II. of England, 32, 33, 107, 138, 177. 

III. of Spain, 33. 
Charles River, 178. 

Charlestown, Mass., First Church, 150. 
Charlevoix, 53, 55. 57, 78. 
Charter Governments, 85. 

of Maryland, 68. 
Charters lost, 85. 
Chase, Hon. Samuel P., 328, 460. 
Chastity and Divorce, 578. 
Chaudiere, Falls of St., 54. 
Chauncy, Rev. Charles, D.D., 205-207, 209, 24^ 263, 

306. 
Chautauqua Assembly, 602. 
Cheever, Rev. Ezekiel, 240. 

Rev. G. B., D.D., 447, 469. 
Cherokees, The, 401. 404. 
Cheverus, Rev. Bishop, 329, 333. 
Chicatabut, the Indian chief, 176. 
Chickering, Rev. J. W., D.D.. 443. 
Chief of Bureau of Statistics, 768. 
Child, Dr., how treated, 105. 

Hon. Linus, 572. 
Children baptized. 151, 152. 
Chimneys in churches, 158. 
Chippeways, The, 69-71. 
Choctaw converts, 404. 
Christ discarded and honored, 508. 661, 662. 

Parker's, Theodore, Views of, 637. 

The historic, 632. _ 
Christ's kingdom spiritual, 82. 
Christian Advocate, The, 425, 591. 

Alliance, 406. 

beginnings in the West, 3S3. 

Commission, The, 687, 695. 

Disciple, The, 424, 494. 

Endeavor, 752. 

Examiner, The, 424, 494, 503, 654. 662. 

Freeman, The, 511. 

ideas expanding, 674. 

Indians, 59. 

Intelligencer, The, 425, 453. 

Register, The, 508, 634. 

Retrospect and Register, The, 420. 

Spectator, The, 374. 375, 424. 

Union Churches, 676. 

Union, The, 455, 618. 

Witness. The, 678. 

World, The, 595. 
Christianity, American, tested. 777. 

and Intellectual Culture, 435. 

and Modern Thought, quoted, 777. 

defined, 667. 

Orowth of, 731, 742. 747. 

in Actual Life, 3. 

Phenomena of, 3. 

Rehabilitated, 663. 

to be Overthrown, 324. 
Christians, Statistics of, for 1844, -17. 

The, 285, 515, 517, 678. 



' Chri-tlieb, Professor, 640. 
Christmas discarded in New England, 130. 
Christo in Ecclesia, 242, 435. 
Chubb, 195. 

Church Accommodations. 761, 762, 791. 
and State, 82, 100, 182, 600. 
Attendance Enforced, 93. 

Bells, 159, 160. 

Discipline Rigid, 102. 

Edifices, 761, 762, 790. 

Exercises, 163. 

Expenses before and after the Revolution, 277. 

Membership, Test of, 201. 

of God, The, 484. 

Organizations, 761, 789. 

Property, 761, 762, 792. 

Property, Legislation in, 597. 

Property, Roman Catholic, 597, 598. 

Statistics between 1800 and 1830, 373. 

Statistics of Colonial Period, 253. 

Statistics of Mississippi Valley in 1830, 392. 

Statistics of New Vork City in 1793, 286. 

Statistics of the West from 1830 to 1850, 395. 

Statistics, Recapitulation of, 746, 747. 

Tenure, Roman Catholic, 12, 595. 

The, and Suffrage. 101. 
Churches after the Revolution, 278, etc. 

censured, 458. 

each two ministers, 102. 

embarrassed, 200, etc. 

enter into the Revolution, 264, etc. 

Evangelical and Liberal, 756. 

Growth of, 732, 755. 

in Cities, 747. 

in Massachusetts in 1776, 417. 

in Mississippi Valley. 380. 

in New York, 254, 255. 

in Utah, 649. 

Increase of. 1800 to 1830, 373. 

Increase of, 760. 

Independent, 83. 

Liberal, 751. 

of New England. 105. 

Organic changes in, 478, 4gr. 

Organized, 35, 43. 

Protestant and Roman Catholic. 756. 

speak for the Sabbath. 474. 
Churchmen, High, 83. 
Cibola, Seven Cities of, 16. 
Cider consumed, 448. 
Cincinnati, Board of Education, 599. 

founded, 295. 

Presbyterians in, 295. 
Circuit System, The, 403. 
Cities, Fifty Principal. 748, 750. 

Large, and Churches, 748. 

Lawlessness of, 787. 

Nationalities in, 750. 

One hundred and twenty-four largest, 753. 

Romanism in, 621, 623. 
Citizenship of Church Members. 101. 
City Churches, Growth of, 752. 

Missions, 408. 410, 682, 747. 

Population, 623, 743, 748, 751. 
Civil Power of the Churches, 95. 

Problem, The, 780. 

Trammels Sundered, 275, etc. 

War, Distractions of, 571. 

War in England. 67. 

War, Unfavorable Effects of, 694. 
Civilta Cattcdica, 602. 
Clapp, Rev. Thomas. 166, 245. 
Clark. General George R., 291, 294. 

Rev. James Freeman. D.D., 470, 471. 

Rev. John, no, 303. 

Rev. Joseph, D.D., quoted, 278, 499. 73;. 

Rev. Laban, D.D., 539. 

Rev. Philip, 209. 

Rev. Samuel, D.D., 202. 
Clarkson. Hon. Thomas, 227. 
Classis of Amsterdam, 87, 97, 120. 
Clayborne, 67. 
Cleveland, Diocese of, 607. 
Clergy and the Revolution, 264. 265. 



IXDEX. 



79P 



Clergy, Episcopalian, in New York, 97. 

Hireling, 134. 

in England, 121. 

in New England, 472. 

in New England in 1760, 254. 

Legislation for, 91, 134. 

Patriotism of, 261. 

Scandalous. 135. 149. 
Climate of Canada, 46, 48. 
Cobb, Rev. Sylvan us, D.D., 211, 511, 514. 
Cobbett, Rev. Thomas, 163, 212. 
Codding, Ichabod, 460. 
Codman, Rev. John, 494. 
Coercion, Outcry against, 569, 781. 
Coetus formed, 41. 
Coffin, Joshua, 455. 
Coke, Rev. Thomas, LL.D., 284, 352. 
Cold Water Army, 447. 
Colfax, Hon. Schuyler, 648. 
College, Columbia, 246. 

Curriculum, 249, 250. 

1 )artmouth, 248. 

Graduates in Colonial Period, 250. 

H.unpden Sidney, 249. 

Harvard, 234. 

Harvard, Early History of, 240. 

Harvard, Early Presidents of, 241. 

Kind's. 246. 

of William and Mary founded, 135, : 

Princeton, 245. 

Rutgcr 

Students Pious, 730. 

Studies in Colonial Period, 249. 

Vale, 2^4, 244. 

Yale, Eirst Pre.-idents of, 245. 
Colleges and the Churches, 435. 

Early resources of, 437. 

in the Colonies, 240-250. 

Jesuit, 611. 

of United States in 1830, 436. 

of United States in 1S34, 725. 

Revivals in, 376-378. 

Roman Catbolic, 612, 725. 

Sectarian, 725. 

Statistics of, 250, 435, 437, 611, 724. -2;. 
Colonial Constitutions, 84. 

Rights, 260. 
Colonists, Character of, 34, 35, 127. 
Colony, Russo-Jewish, 624. 
Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Churjh, 676. 

Methndist Churches, 676. 

Population, 710, 711. 
Colportage, 683, etc. 

Summaries of, 711, etc. 
Columbia College, 246, 247. 
Columbian Star, 422. 
Columbus, 13, 14, 23. 

Successes of, 23. 
Combe, 509, 530. 
Comeouter Part}', The, 467. 
Comeouters and the Sabbath, 467, 529. 
Commentaries, Story's, 84. 
Commissioners of United Colonies of New England, 

Common Schools, 230, 551, 599, 603. 
Communicants and Inhabitants, 755. 

Statistics of, 733, 755. 
Communistic Societies, 625. 
Compact, 85, 98. 
Company, London, 85, 90, 91, 127. 

Mississippi, 291. 

Ohio, 291. 

Royal African, 223. 

Transylvania, 291. 

Virginia, 128. 

West India, 87, 97, 133. 
Comte no Atheist, 654. 
Conception River, 74. 
Conditions in 1800 Unfavorable, 364. 
Conestogues, The, 67. 
Confederacy, Southern, 568. 

The Iroquois, 58, 59. 
Confederation, The Old, 565. 
Confiscation Bill, The, 569. 



Conflicts Sharp in the Nation, 561, 785. 
Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, 499. 

Churches in the Revolution, 267, 278. 

Evattgelical Magazine, 401. 

Ministers, 278. 

Mission, Early, in Virginia, 116. 

Publication Society, 423. 

Quarterly , quoted, 103, 113, 114, 131, 155, 251, 232, 
424, 460, 466. 
Congregationalism, 36, 139, 253, 256. 

Growth of, 373. 

in New Jersey, 37. 
Congregationalist, The, quoted, 123, 124, 377. 
Congregationalists and Antislavery, 359, 360, 459, 
460. 

Character of, 160. 

first in Ohio, 297, 298. 

in Michigan, 384. 

in the West, 297, 298, 384. 
Congress and Bibles, 350, 419. 

and liquors, 347. 

and Toleration, 326. 

Prayer in, 266. 

Resolutions of Continental, 347. 
Connecticut Colonial Government, 85, 102, 103. 

Ecclesiastical History of, 234. 

Evangelical Magazine, 411, 424. 

Gazette, 223. 

Home Missions, Very Early, 400. 
Cock, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 263. 
Cooke, Rev. Parsons, U.D., 500. 
Cooper, quoted, 647. 

Rev. Ezekiel, 421. 

Rev. Myles, 247. 

Thomas, 319, 320, 523, 524. 
Conscience and Liberty, 87, etc., 94, 97, etc. 
Conserving Elements, 564. 
Constitution, Debates on History of, 317. 

of Early Colonies, 83-86. 

of United States, 272, 467, 563. 

Skeptical framers of, 317. 
Constitutional liberty in North America, 260. 
■Consumption of Liquors, 447. 
Conventicle Act, The, 121. 
Convergent Currents, 651-676. 
Conversion of Indians by Jesuits, 77, 174. 
Convert, The First in Quebec, 47. 
Converts, 606. 

Corlair, an Indian sachem, 184. 

Cornelius, Rev. Elias, CD., 376, 384, 399, 431, 435. 
Coronado, 16, 21. 
Cortez, Fernando de, 17. 

Cosmopolitan Character of the United States, 700. 
Cost of Living, 344. 
Cotton, Rev. Cotton, and John Eliot, 177, 181, 199. 

Gin and Slavery, 448. 

Rev. Roland, 181. 
Council, Plenary, 586, 601, 602, 605. 

First Provincial, 550. 
Councils of Virginia, 126, 129. 

Roman Catholic, Seven, 554-556. 
Counter Appeal, 463. 
Courcey, De, quoted, 94. 
Covenanter Presbyterians, 40, 138. 
Cox, Rev. S. H., D.D., 402. 
Craighead, Rev. John, 265. 

Rev. Thomas B., 295, 368. 
Crawford, Rev. James, 295. 
Creeds Observed, 205. 
Crime, 580. 

Increase of, 581. 

Little exact data for, 580. 

Sensational Accounts of, 584. 
Criticism, Skeptical, 94. 

Venomous, 314. 
Crocker, Rev. John, 480. 
Cromwell, 27, 94, 177. 
Crooks, Rev. Dr., 282. 
Cuban Filibustering Scheme, 567. 
Culmination of Intemperance, 440. 
Culture and Christianity, 434. 
Cumberland Presbyterians, 368, 404, 481. 
Cummings, Rev. Charles, 294. 

Rev- Bishop George B., D.D., 676. 



- : 



CHRISTIAXITY IX THE CXI TED STATES. 



i nmmings Rev. Henry, D.D.. 492. 

i:.i.~. A: ^er 31;. 
7 iinic n7um College in Colonial Period, 249. 
f Stud] ! : 3 

_ :.-:. z~i 

-:.- re;:;el::i:::: ■_ 
Hon. George \\\. 570. 
Rev. Richard, _ 
Cushing, Rev. Christopher, t J .. 670. 

".:.;•;■. ii-. 
! ..-"- — in. R er: :-- 

-: ~.s : _ . n:s7 I :mes. :;:. 
>.■=.:_: ■ :-. : 73 
Sutler, Rev. Manasseh, LL.D., 2 ::, 392, 297. 
Rev. Timothy. s_: 
- 

D 

.2 3 e Frs.nl:. :f. 
F srr. Rev. J. L.. L/.J 

7 i::e::. :.-:•' li::.:^.:. 1 .1 . ;_- . r.5. 
i s.e. 5_:r i h —S-S.ic.12_-. 
Dana, Professor James D., LL.D.. :'_:. 

sr.e. H n N -:..-::. .^3. 
7 2r.:;r:h. Rev ^sn.nel. :j- :;:. 

... Re 1 : . ,: An:h;ny. s.-. 
Darien discovered, 17. 

Dark period in history of United States, 341, 348. 
Dartmouth College, 144, 19a, 248, 249, 287, 3 7 - 

L:ri. ::;. 22F 
. ■.:■ in. ;u::ei f 3: 

Daugbaday, Rev. George. 426. 
Davenport, Rev. James, 143. 
Rev. John. 202, 244. 
ithaniel, Esq.. 21 3 
Davidson, Rev. Robert, 264, 

ies, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 11S. is'. 147, 225 zzf 

2-7. 3::. 

is. Anirew Js,c«^:n. :_: . f^x. :3s. 
Rev. Dr. Emerson, 433, 474. 
Rev. F ah __: 

■•:?..?. - 

Stephen, 131. 
1 . - — : . — : _ - _ " - 
D'E^iisnr. C.sr.i. ;-:. 
D'Holback, 661. 
7 FhervFFe. ---. 2lj 
r wrcey's History of Roman Catholic Church, 
68, 94, 95, "9» 336, 550, 609. 
De Harbe s Catechism, 613. 

.331- 
i e Runs. __ : :. I r7s:an. : :. 
F e M .2: s. 45, 

e Sotc 14.15, 17, 2:. 
DeWette, -2: 661. 

. lomas, D.D.. 146. 
jiles - - :■::..:'. 447. 
easinesses, fir: e::. 
*" Dead - ; : 

Re -.3:2. 

. -2- : m v 

' ;- 
e s: 2 z er. - 12: 123. 

. _ j . . 
:._.-. e r. : :' c r . 344 . 

. eet [« 

- _ 5 : . 

I 

:.- 

- 

■ "-- 
Delav. 
Luther 

- - 

** De. '50. 

_ • 477. 
Demagogues 



Demarest. Rev. M., 512. 

I :n: :.-.-.:/ :r. Ihursh 2: • . 2 :.. :oj. 

7 ens ::rs.:i: S;c:e::es. 2-3. 

It".:;:.-.. Rev . "■ X. 

L er._r27nsFons7 7e:.: . .:.-..- -_i. 



Der_ 

7 err- 



lliam,643. 
iemy, 239. 

Dvier.sr -. 2:3 
" Fes:Fs7 7 F7 e. ::_. 

Descartes, quoted, 28, 194, 773. --_. 

: c r. 1 e r. : ; - . - 7 : 

i e ;r : : . "- 1 : . : i 2 : : 2 , : : _ 

Devil Complimented, The, 20. 

Dexter, Re.. Henry M.. D.D.. 123. 124, 472. 

_F7:r. SsnnueF 2:-. ^3. 

_:.:.. . it. ■■ -■_-. 37 :i_. 

Dickens, Ch ar les, 416. 
Rev. John, 421. 

Dickey. Rev. James . _ 7 : . 

Dickinson, Rev. Jonathan. 207. 2_ 3. 

7 .:::: : 5 - . 

Digging for Money, 220. 

Dike, Rev. S. W..D.D., 579. 

_ ::-:-ses. :.__n nr. _ . :i: =_: =_-. 3-:. . 2 -. 

Directory, The Laity's. ^47- 

- -:F.e- 77 he. -7 

Discipline, History of, at 7Ne»- Haven, 1 id- 
les on, 352. 

Discoverers, Early. 13-15, 26. 
Motives of, 15, 26. 

Diseased appedtes, 347. 

L :■:■ si.-n- en:. 77, -• ;. 

L • is : r i er s: Ore: n s : : : ns. ;-:. 

Dissent in Xew York Colony, 97. 98. 

Dissenters in Virginia, 93, 117. 118. 

77 -.-::. ti F^:n::;. _^: 

L isFilervn i es.:c : 77:. e.- - _.- 
I Divergent ; Currents, 194-211.30--;::. _. e 
eic. 

. . :: :.:-_■ :: _:.:.-:. 2:3. 
5 Divorce, 5^5, 578. etc. 

7 .::. Rev? "J r. :7. :-. 
|Doak,Rev. F 77 224 

Rev. Samuel, 294. 
j Dobbin, Rev. Dr^ 417. 

Doche, Rev. Jacob, 311. 

7 :;:r:r.27 7e- : :::me.:: :-: -:. 

7 . ~ ■_■ : . : - 7 " . : . .-. . : F 
! Doddridge. Rev. Dr . 135. 

7 : 1st. ••■ : F:.n E . :-F" 

7 g-r.s:: : re;u77s Fies. :'o:. 

F ^ms:F~ L'isssrned. --- 

7 : 2. : :F : s :. s . 2 2. e . : : . 

7 — n: e . 7 2 e . : - _ 



7 c.::::,R,-..::s:7:. 


^3- 


: ;rt. C 5vr.:'d\ r f. ^"^ 




; ys :.F-::27.F- : . 




Rampant in • extern Europe. 194. 




. r.ree, 7:3 . 




. A.. _-_. 


7 ■". '"':- -""F.r, v.'." 




7 - ■■--. ■'.: - : .\ev. _ 22. 7 


Ti.D., 520. 


7 : •-■■-. •■;-.:: i e - ser :v. 


7 : . 


7 .- ■ ■ e - ■ - 7 -.. ..- :_ 




7 .--:7 .-: ::2:F7n. 


72. 567. 


Drew, Rev. T. A., ^ 




7:7-.: ,e F:::-::s.. 




- '■ -■ z'-l- 




7 r.-.'k 22 77.F- ::- :r. :r 


i C:F n:es : ::— 2:4. 


Druelleties, Re 


rid - :. :_ r: 


7 . :-. :.:■■-. 7 - 7 


ohn, 329, 549, 551. 


Dubourg, Rev. Bishop 


- 


Duche, Rev. Jacob, D 


.D., 266, 311. 


. ■:-:... 2. --s.2 --:. 


7 .7 :_ . ::F 


Dunmer Academy, 23 




■ 




'•nrke-s. ^ he. ^:. :I: 




D-2nster. Rev. Henrv. 


D.D.. . 


Durbin. Rev. John P. 


D.D..-2 


7 _ ..;>:.:. 7 . r:. _R. 





IXDEX. 



SO 



Dutch Church, 31, 38. 87, 96, 136, 139, 146, 285, 486. 

Language in New York Colony, 278. 

Republic, The, 27. 

Ship in Boston Harbor, 215. 

The, and the Indians, 186. 
Dwight, Rev. Timothy, D.D., LL.D., 196, 201, 244, 
245, 3M. S^.S 1 ^ etc., 418. 



Earthquake in New England, 139. 
East, Route to the, 15. 
Kastburn, Rev. Joseph, 415. 
Eaton, General John, 612, 730. 

Rev. Peter, D.D., 493. 
Ecclesiastical and Civil Situation in the Colonies, 
83, etc. 

History of New England, 206. 

Polity Peculiar, 206. 
Eckley, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 306. 

Rev. Samuel, D.D., 40C. 
Eclipses, 776. 

Ecumenical Council, Papal, 590. 
Eddy, Rev. D. C, D.D., 500, 502. 
Edgar, Henry, 534. 
Education, Agencies of, 426, etc., 429, etc., 432, etc. 

American Society, 431, 433. 

and Protestantism, 231. 

and Romanism, 611, etc. 

Board of, in Cincinnati. 599. 

Board of, in Massachusetts, 235-239. 

Higher, 724. 

in Middle Ages, 229. 

in Mississippi Valley, 395-397. 

in the Colonies, 229-252. 

in United States, 724, etc. 

in Western Europe, 229. 

of the Ministry, 250, etc., 430. 

Progress of, in United States, 435. 
Edward III. proclaims thanksgiving, 171. 
Edwardean Revival, The, 144, 203, 300. 660. 
Edwards, Rev. Bela Bates, D.D., 431, 435. 

Rev. Jonathan, 140, 185, 201, 204, 215, 217, 218, 246, 
251, 306, 360, 665. 

Rev. Justin, D.D., 371, 399, 444, 476, 477, 575. 

on the Will, 670. 

works, quoted, 14T. 
F.gan, Hon. Patrick, 617. 

Eggleston, Rev. Edward, D.D., 221, 222, 692. 
Elder, Rev. John. 281. 
* v Elder's Ruling," 102. 
Eldorado, 23. 

Election Sermons, etc., 262, etc. 
Eliot, George, 663, 664. 

Rev. John, 54, 131, 174-183, 193, 225, 492. 

Indian successor of, 180, 

starts a Sunday school, 426. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 27, 28. 

Elliott, Rev. Charles, D.D., LL.D., 358,481. 
Ellis, Rev. George E., D.D., 178. 
Ellsworth, Hon. Oliver, 251. 

Hon. William L., LL.D., 434. 
Emancipation, 452, 455, 562-570, 769. 

of Mind, 775. 
Emancipator, The , 457, 469. 
Embassy to Canada, 328. 

Embury, Rev. Philip, 43, 639. « 

Emelyn's Inquiry, 205. 
Emerson's History of First Church, Boston, 129, 132. 

Ralph Waldo, 504-506, 509, 535, 629, 639, 655. 
Emigration, 543. 

Early Anglo-American, 147, 291. 
Emmons, Rev. Nathaniel, D.D., 251, 402, 669, 670. 
Emory, Rev. Bishop John, D.D., 463. 
Encyclopedia Metropolitan, 483. 
England, Rev. Bishop John, D.D., 81, 121, 327, 548, 

etc., 550, 615, 618, 769. 
English Church, 91. 

Clergy. 107. 

Emancipation, 455. 

Enter Florida, 78. 

Enterprise Slow, 24. 

Voyages to America, 24, 25. 
Entablatures, Fantastic, 70. 



Episcopal Church after the Revolution, 279. 

and the Indians, 187. 

and the Revolution, 267, etc. 

Board of Missions, 404, 413. 

Church and Slavery, 461. 

Church Temperance Society, 573. 

Church, The Reformed, 676. 

Education Society, 431, etc. 

in Maryland, History of, 94. 

in New England, 36. 

in New England, Opposition to, 103. 

in Virginia, History of, 35, 90, 135, 267, 432. 

Record, 279. 
Episcopalians in the Colonies, 253. 
Epworth Leagues, 689, 752. 
Erasmus and Education, 229. 
'"Erastian Settlement," The, 40. 
" Error," condemned by the Pope, 601. 
Espijo, Don Antonio de, 22. 
Espionage in Early Quebec, 48. 
Essayist, English, The, 195. 
" Establishment," The Question, 83. 
Estimates, Roman Catholics, 615, etc. 
Ethics, 663, 664. 
Europe, Missions in, from the United States, 705. 

Upheavals in, 24. 
Evangelical Alliance Volume, 530, 640, 650. 

Association, The, 286,479. 

Knowledge Society, 423. 
Evangelizing Agencies, 398, etc., 700, etc. 

the Mississippi Valley, 292, etc. 
Evarts, Jeremiah, Esq., 399, 418, 442, 444. 
Everett, Hon. Edward, 302, 444, 458, 472, 493, 501. 
Evil, The Radical, 659. 
Evolution, 656, 657. 
Ewer, Rev. F. C, D.D.,651. 
Ewing, Rev. John, 280. 
Excise Moneys, 661. 
Exeter Hall Lectures, 686. 
Exhibit of Labors of Colporteurs, C84. 
Exhibition, The World's, 686. 
Exiled Churches, The, 499. 

French Clergy, 329, 330. 
Exploit, Bold, 70. 



1 Fabricus, Rev. Jacob, D.D., 42. 

Faith, Extended, 674. 
j The Old, 659. 
Falls of St. Mary, 70. 
Family, The, 341. 
Faneuils, The, 33. 
Fast Days, 130, 171. 349, etc. 
Federal Herald, The, 354. 
Fee, Rev. J. G., 471. 
Felt, Joseph B., 199. 
Fetichism, 224. 
Fichte, 661. 
Fifty Cities, 748, etc. 
Financial Panic of 1836, 376. 
Finley, Rev. J. B., D.D., 295. 

Rev. Robert, D.D., 371. 

Rev. Samuel, D.D.,143, 246. 
Finney, Rev. Charles C, D.D., 374, 460. 
Fisher, Rev. Professor, LL.D., 199. 
Fisk, Rev. Ezra, 384. 

Professor John, LL.D., 629, 651, 653, 6s5, 

Rev. John, 169, 681. 

Rev. Wilbur, D.D., 445, 462. 
Fitch, Rev. Charles, 519. 

Hon. James, 244. 
Fitzpatrick, Rev. Bishop, 598. 
Five Nations. The, 58. 
Flaget, Rev. Bishop, 329, 335, 554. 
Flagg, Rev. Ebenezer, 155. 
Fletcher, Colonel Benjamin, 35,98. 
Florida, 15, 18, etc., 78, 291. 
Food very poor, 344. 
root Stoves, 139. 
Forbes, Rev. Eli, D.D., 188. 

General, 292. 
Forecasts, 786. 
Foreign Born People, 256, 750, etc., 766, etc 



802 



CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES. 



-708. 



Foreign Evangelical Society, 405. 

Mission Receipts, 708. 

Mission Societies, 410, etc. 

Missions of Churches of United States, 703- 
Foreigners, Assimilation of, 770. 

Roman Catholics, 771. 
Forest, Rev. Nathan, 269. 
Foster, Stephen S., 460. 
Founders of North Carolina, 30. 
Four Days' Meetings, 375. 
Fourierism, 366, 534, etc. 
Fouseca, Bishop of, 16. 

Fowler, Rev. Bishop Charles H., D.D., LL.D., 581. 
Fox, George, 39. 

Girls, The, 641. 

River reached, 70. 
Framers of the Constitution, 317. 
France Aids the Colonies, 326, 327. 

Cedes Canada to England, 260. 

Growth of Population in, 765. 

in the Heart of the Continent, 71. 
Franchise, The, in the Colonies, 199. 
Franciscans, The, 19-21, etc., 46, 50, 79. 
Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 256, 317, 326, 328, 351. 
Free American, The, 469. 

Conscience, Problem of, 259. 

Inquiry, 194, 205, 313, 529, 772, 774. 

Religion, 509, 631, 635-639. 

Soil Party, 472. 

Will Baptists, The, 211, 285, 404, 414, 461, 483. 
Freedmen, 710, etc. 
Freedom in Religion, 68, 83, 96,97. 
Freeman, Rev. Bernardus, 186. 

Rev. James, D.D., 301, 303, 493, 494. 
Free7?ia7i's Journal, The, 600, 602. 
French and Indian Wars, 77, 145, 172, 195. 

Association, The, 405. 

Civilization, 764. 

Colonists in Canada, 44. 

Emigrants from Canada, 620. 

Infidelity, 313, etc. 

Kingdom in Canada, 44, 48, 49, 68. 

Skeptics and Tracts, 417. 

The, in Mississippi Valley, 764. 
Friends, The, 39, 228, 285, 351, 681, 253. 

of the Temple, 677. 

Orthodox, 625. 

Progressive, The, 517, 625. 

The, and Slavery, 225, 226,459. 
Frobisher, Martin, 25. 

Frothingham, Rev. Octavius B., 524, 630, 632, 638, 665. 
Froude, James Anthony, 651. 
Fugitive Slave Bill, 472, 561,567. 
Fuller, Miss Margaret, 505, 535. 

Thomas, 27. 
Fulton Street Prayer-Meetings, 694. 
Funds, Roman Catholic, 556, 557. 
Funeral Customs, 212, 214. 
Fur Trade, 69, 76, etc. 



Gaden, Rev. William, 263. 

Gall, Mr. O., 531. 

Gallipolis, Ohio, 348. 

Gannett, William C., 204. 

Garnishing, 346. 

(iarrettson. Rev. Freeborn, 269. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 450, 451, 452, 45 

470, 529, etc. 
Cay, Rev. Dr. Ebenezer, 197, 205, 206. 
Gazette, The Boston, 280. 
( ienealogical Dictionarj', 256. 
(leneral Assembly Missions, 414. 

Court of Massachusetts ordered. 174. 
Genesis and Geology, 642. 
Genet, M., 273, 321, 323. 
Genius of Universal Emancipation, 450. 
Geology and Genesis, 642. 
Georgetown College, 329, 608. 
Georgia, Education in, 231. 

Settled, 139. 
German Catholics, 81, 615, 61 

Kvangelical Synod, 677. 



456, 4 6 5, 



763. 



j German Newspapers, 762,769. 

Population in New York City, 575. 

Reformed Church, 41, 269, 270, 28.5. 

Seventh-day Baptists, 42, 285. 
Gibbon, Edward, 195. 
Gibbons, Rev. Archbishop, 587. 
Gibson, Rev. Tobias, 296, 387. 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 25. 

Rev. Michael, 295. 
Gillett's, Rev. Dr. E. H., 520, 524, 675, etc., 676. 

History of Presbyterian Church, 39, 120, 136, T37, 
J 44i x 47i 3 2 3i 372, 382, etc., 462, 522. 
Gilmour, Rev. Bishop, 598, 602. 
Girls, Education of, 234. 
Given, Rev. A. F.. D.D., 677. 
Gladstone, Hon. William E.,658. 
Glen, Rev. James, 310,311. 
Gloria in Excels is, 14. 
Gnadenhiitten founded, 293. 
God, in the Constitution, 781. 

Personality of, 506, etc. 

Recognition of, in United States Courts, 563, 564. 
Godwin, Parke, 536. 
Golden Bible, The, 539. 
Goldsmith, 138. 
Gomez, Stephen, 16. 
Goodell, Rev. William, 445, 451, 452. 
Goodrich, Rpv. Dr. Chauncey, 377. 

Rev. Dr. Elihu, 277. 
Gookin, Daniel, 179. 
Gough, John B., 446,447. 
Governments, Colonial, 83-87. 

Unstable, 771. 
Graduates of Colleges, 250. 
Graham, Isabella, 427. 

Rev. William, 265. 
Graham's History of United States, no. 
Grammar, Indian, 67. 

Schools, 233. 
Granby Prison, 345. 
Grand Orient, The, 318. 
Great Britain, Population of, 758. 

Population, Growth of, 765. 
Greek Catholics, 677. 
Green, Rev. Dr. Archibald, 374. 

Rev. Dr. Ashbel, 265, 287, 374. 

Rev, Beriah, 457. 

Rev. Jacob, 282. 

Rev. Jacob and slavery, 449. 
Greenwood's History of King s Chapel, 302. 
Grier, Rev. James, 281. 

Griffin, Rev. E. D., D.D., 371, 374, 378, 408, 497. 
Griffith's Annals, 95, 145. 
Grillet, Rev. Stephen, 524. 
Gross, Rev. J. D., 41. 
Growth of Churches, 732-755. 
Gruber, Rev. Jacob, 449. 
Gutzlaff, 364. 
Guyot, Professor A., LL.D., 642. 

H 

Hackluyt, quoted, 25. 
Haeckel, quoted, 657. 
Half Century, The, 474. 
Tribute, 433. 
i Half-way Covenant, The, 108, 138, 140, 150, 198-200, 
201, 300, 378. 
Hall, Gordon, 411, 412. 

Rev. Dr. James, 265, 288, 384. 
Halley, Rev. Dr., 522. 
Hallock, Rev. Dr. William A. .418, 445. 
Hamilton,_Hon. Alexander, 246, 247, 317. 

Sir William, 699. 
Hampden, John, 27. 

and Sidney College, 249. 
Hampton, Rev. John, 120. 
Hancock, Hon. John, 207, 342. 
Harbinger, The, 537, 555, 629. 
i Hardy, Sir Charles, 247. 
I Harmer, General, 291. 
j Harris, Rev. T. M., D.D., 493. 

Dr., prize essay, 714. 
; Harrison. Frederick, 666. 



INDEX. 



803 



Harper, Hon. James, 445. 
Hart, Rev. Dr. Levi, 251. 

Rev. Luther, 374. 
Hartford, South Church, 151. 
Hartley, David, 197. 
Hartmann, Professor, 654, 657, 659, 665. 
Harvard College, 177, 234, 242, 500. 

and Yale Colleges against Whitelield, 203. 

Early History of, 240. 

Early Presidents of, 241. 

founded, 131. 
Harvard, Rev. John, 131, 241. 
Hatch, Rev. J. L., 632. 
Haven, Hon. Samuel, 444. 
Hawkins, Dexter A., 591. 

John, 446. 
Hawks, Rev. F. L., D.D., 68, 90-95, 116-118, 127, 

128, 135, 136, 145, 148, 217, 267,431, 432. 
Hawley, Dr. Gideon, 188. 
Hazard's State Papers, 126, 189. 
Hebrew College, 624. 

Theocracy, 82. 
Heck, Paul and P>arbara,43. 
Hecker. Rev. J. T., 615, 616. 
Hecks, Elias, and Slavery, 449. 
Hedding, Rev. Bishop Elijah, D.D., 463. 
Hedge, Rev. Dr. F. H., 535. 

Rev. Dr. Moses, 370. 
Hegel, quoted, 661. 
Heidelberg Catechism, 31, 232. 
Heinholtz, quoted, 655. 
Hell Fire, Literal, 210. 
Helvetius, 667. 

Henderson, Rev. Dr. Robert, 294. 
Henning's Laws 0/ Virginia, quoted, 231. 
Henry IV., 45. 

Patrick, 117, 147, 316. 
Herald of Gospel Liberty, 517. 



Herbert, 195. 

Herrick, Miss Elizabeth. 452 



8L 

Herring, Elizabeth, burned, 124. 

Herschell, Sir John, 658. 

Heterogeneous People, 759, 766, 771. 

Hewett, Rev. Nathaniel, 445. 

Hicks, Rev. Elias, 449,625. 

Hicksites, 517. 

Hierarchy, 82, 89. 

Higginson, T. W., 317. 

Hildreth's History, quoted, 100, 102-104, 106, 131, 

275, 297. 
Hill, Hamilton Andrews, in Andover Review, 177. 

Rev. William, 311. 
Hinchman, Daniel, 495. 
Hines. J. V., 519. 
Historical School, 632, 633. 
History of First Dutch Church, etc., 186. 

of the Adoption of Constitution, etc., 84. 
Hitchcock, Rev. Gad, D.D., 492. 
Hitzer, 196. 

Hoar, Rev. Leonard, 241. 
Hobbes, 28, 195. 

Hoffman's Catholic Almanac, 614, 617, 757. 
Holley, Rev. Dr., 522. 
Hollis Professorship, 495. 

Thomas, 242, 438, 495. 
Holmes, Obadiah, no. 
Holyoke, Rev. Edward, 241. 
" Holy tone," Decline of, 698. 

Home Missions, 49, 280, 395, 396, 399, 400, 401, 403, 
406, 407, 711, 713. 

and Foreign Missions, 696. 
Homoousianity, 206, 662. 
Hooker, Rev. Asahel, D.D., 251. 
Hopedale and Northampton Communities, 535. 
Hopkins, Governor Edward, 234. 

Rev. Dr. Samuel, 205, 228, 251, 359, 452, 669. 

Schools, 240. 
Horribile decretum, 670. 
Horton, Rev. Jotham, 464, 480. 
Hospitals, Roman Catholic, 594, 609. 

The First in Quebec, 47. 
Hour-glass, 161. 
Houston, Hon. Samuel, 472. 
Howe, Mr. D. D.,641. 



Hubbard, Hon. Samuel, 38, 445. 

Hudson, Henry, 31. 

Hughes, Archbishop John, 548, 549, 551, 552, 554, 

5871 595-597, 599* 615-618. 
Huguenots, 19, 20, 32, 33, 39, 45, 117, 231, 764. 
Hull, Rev. Hope, 288. 
Humanity, Battle Field for, 786. 
Hume, David, 195. 

Humphrey, Rev. Dr. H., 377, 378, 442. 
Hunt, Rev. Thomas P., 445, 447. 
Huntington, Rev. J., 210, 317, 408. 

Lady, 211. 
Hurons, The, 49-52, 59. 

Massacre of the, 51. 
Hurst, Rev. Bishop John F., LL.D.,668. 
Hutchinson, Ann, 112, 114, 131. 

Governor, of Massachusetts, 227. 

Papers, 114. 
Huxley, Professor, 653. 
Hyde, Rev. Dr. Alvan, 377. 

Orson, 541. 
Hymns, The first Catholic, in America, 14. 

and Tunes, 164, 165. 



Iconoclasts, 29. 
Illinois Indians, 69. 

River crossed, 74. 
Illuminati, The, 318, 320. 
Immaculate Conception, 72, 73, 555, 556, 588. 
Immigration, 543, 571, 583-585, 620, 643, 710, 760-762. 
Imprisonment for Debt, 344. 
In Gloriam Christi, 242. 
Incredulity, 194. 
Indentured Servitude, 764. 
Independent, The, 472, 593, 652. 
Index, The, 317, 639. 
Indian Affairs, Commissioner of, 185. 

Alarms, 299. 

Bible and Tracts printed, 131. 

Bible completed, 131, 177, 180. 

Church constituted, 179, 181. 

Communities in Massachusetts, 179, 185. 

Converts, 53, 77, 182, 186, 187, 193, 293, 327. 

Education, 128, 179, 185, 191, 192. 

Emigration West, 185, 193. 

Evangelization, 183. 

Friends in England, 192. 

Government constituted, 179. 

Industry, 50. 

Justice, 180. 

Language, 180, 185. 

Literature, 67. 

Magistrate, A shrewd, 180. 

Massacres, 20, 56, 80, 91, 120, 121, 128, 364. 

Missions, 21, 68, 184, 190, 192, 193, 414. 

Polygamy abandoned. 179. 

Powwows, etc., Sad Influence of, 178. 

Preachers, 193. 

Questions to Eliot, 176. 

Races, A strange Fatality over, 193. 

School, 20, 47. 

Settlements, Early, 178, 179. 

Sunday School, 179. 

Testament, 177. 

Tracts printed, 177. 

Tribes, 335. 

Wars, 193. 

Words, Length of, 180. 

Youth, Teachers of, 177. 
Indians and the Sabbath, 215. 

at French Court, 44. 

Christian, in Virginia, 126. 

Cleanliness among, 179. 

Condition of, 174. 

converted, 18. 

converted by Moravians, 187, 293. 

decimated, 193. 

Earliest Funds for Civilizing, 180. 

Education of, 128, 177, 191, etc. 

English Society for Education of, 176. 

eulogize the Devil, 20. 

First Protestant Missionaries to, 1^1. 



804 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Indians, Friends of the, 183. 

in Albany Church, 186. 

in France, 44. 

in Maine, 332. 

in New England, 172. 

in New England in Colonial Era, 256. 

in New York, 185. 

in Virginia, 189. 

Migration of, 185. 

Missionaries among, 133, 134, 172, 706. 

Number of, in Massachusetts, 181-183. 

on the Susquehanna, 187. 

Pagan, 400. 

pay church Taxes, 186. 

Praying, 178, 181, 183. 

Taught Farming by Eliot, 178 

The Housatonnoc, 183. 

The Iroquois, 58, etc. 

The Marshapee, 188. 

The Montauk, 183. 

The Narragansett, 182, 183. 

The Oneida, 187, 188. 

The Pequot, 183. 

The Shawanoo, 185. 

The Six Nations, 187, 188. 

The Stockbridge, 183, etc. 

to be evangelized, 45. 

Western, 292. 
Infallibility, Papal, 589. 
Infatuation under French Influence, 322. 
Infidel Book, The first in Virginia, 315. 

Gang in New York, 525, 526. 

Literature, 315. 

Organizations, 318, etc. 
Infidelity, 273, 287, 299, 313-324, 339-341, 349, 393* 

394, 521, 525, 5?6, 529,564. 
Infidels numerous in Virginia, 316. 
Inhumanity of Seventeenth Century, 124. 
Inimicus Libellus, 92. 
Inspirationists, 645. 
Instrumental Music, 165. 
Insubordination, Civil, 339, 340. 
Intemperance, 347, 441,572, etc., 772, 779. 

and Immigration, 571. 
Interdenominational Test, The, 755. 
Interior, The, 690. 
Intolerance, Religious, 108, etc. 

in Maryland, 95, 119. 

in New York, 119. 

in Virginia, 116. 
Investigator, 529, 643. 
Iowa, First Churches in, 395. 
Irish Catholics in Pennsylvania, 81. 

World, The, 619. 
Iroquois, The, 58, 65, 66, 69, 188. 
Isabella, Queen, 13, 14. 
Italian Republics, 771. 
Iverson, Hon. Mr., 562. 
Ives, Rev. Dr., 600. 



Jackson's Centenary of Methodism, 417. 

Jacobin Clubs, 321. 

Jacobinism in America, 321. 

Jacobins, The, 273, 321-323. 

Jacobs, B. F., 692. 

James I. of England, 27. 

Jamestown, Founding of, 27, 28. 

Jarratt, Rev. Devereux, 140, 148,267, 348. 

Jay, Rev. James, D.D., 247. 

Hon. John, LL.D., 33, 321-323, 331. 
Jayme, Rev. Fr. Louis, 80. 
Jefferson, Hon. Thomas, 243, 302, 316, 320, 322, 339, 

34o, 356, 3 82 , 523- 
Jeffreys, George, 221. 
Jenks, Rev. William, D.D., 444. 
Jerks, The, 369. 
Jesuit Bishops, 608. 

College, First in America, 544. 

Colleges, 611. 

Martyrs, 51, 52. 

Missions, 76-78, 80, 190, etc. 

Property confiscated, 81. 



Jesuit Scope of Field, 46. 

Self-sacrifice, 48. 
Jesuits, The, 18, 20, 47, 544, 588, 608. 

among the Indians, 336. 

and ex- Jesuits in Maryland, 328. 

captured by Indians, 60. 

Character of, 72. 

Education and, 230. 

excluded from Massachusetts, 106. 

Hostility to, in Europe, 81. 

in Maryland, 66, 119. 

in New York, 52, 58. 

in Nova Scotia, 45. 

participate in Massacres, 56. 

scheming, 609. 

seized the Arteries of the North American Cont 
nent, 72. 

Statistics of, 545. 

Treatment of, by Iroquois, 61. 

visit Boston, 53. 
Jewish Synagogue, first built in Rhode Island. ^3. 
Jews, The, 43, 286, 416, 624. 

Annual, 624. 

came to America, 43, 286. 

in Colonies, 255. 

Russian, 624. 

Society for, 416. 
Joaquina, Maria, condemned to death, 321. 
Jocelyn, Rev. S. S., 460. 
Jogues, Father Isaac, 53, 60, 63-65, 70, 186. 
Johnson, Oliver, 455, 456, 469, 470. 
Johnston, Sir William and the Indians, 188. 
Joliet, Louis, 73, 74. 
Jones, Rev. Abner, 516. 

Rev. Samuel P., 696. 

Farm, 535. 
Jonson, Ben, 28. 

Hon. Richard M., 474. 

Rev. Samuel, D.D., 246. 
Journal of Commerce, 599. 

of Education, 646. 

of the Times, 454. 

Boston, The, 581. 
Juarez, Father, 19. 

Jubilee Volume of American Tract Society, 419. 
Judgment, The Future, 305, etc. 
Judson, Rev. Adoniram, 411-413. 
Justification by Faith, 125. 



K 



Kansas-Nebraska Trouble, 472, 567. 

Kant, quoted, 653, 654, 659, 661. 

Kaskaskia, 383. 

Kehoe, quoted, 616. 

Keith, Mr. George, 226. 

Kelley, Rev. James, 304. 

Kendall, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 493. 

Kent, Chancellor, 323. 

Kentucky, Early Catholic Missions in, 329. 

Morals, Religion, etc., 323, 334, 348, 382. 
Ketchum, Hon. Hiram, 552. 
Kidd, Captain, 219. 
Kidder, Rev. D. P., 428, 541. 
Kidnapping in England, 221. 

Rev. J. C, 662. 
Kimball, Heber C, 541. 
King Philip and Eliot, 178. 

Rev. D. S., 428. 
King's Chapel, 36, 301. 

College, 246. 

Mountain Affair, 272. 
Kingly Authority discarded, 161, 162. 
Kirby, Ephraim, 354. 
Kirkland, Rev. Dr. J. T., 444, 493. 

Rev. Samuel, 188. 
Kiskakons, The, 335. 
Kittery, Baptists in, in. 
Kitto^s Journal, 417. 
Knapp, Isaac, 455. 

Rev. Jacob, 374, 446. 
Kneeland, Abner, 211, 459, 528. 
Know-Nothings, 553, 555, 586, 596. 



INDEX. 



SO* 



Kobler, Rev. James, 296. 
Kosciusko, 331. 
Kublai Khan, 15. 
Kurtz, 653. 



La Clercq's opinion of Indian converts 77- 

La Marck, 657. 

La Salle, 74, 75, 289. 

La War, Lord de, 126. 

Lafayette, General, 331, 475. 

Laidlie, Rev. Archibald, D.D., 146, 241, 263. 

Laity's Directory, 547. 

Lake Superior, 70. 

Lakes Commercial Importance of the, 70. 

l.and Companies in the West, 291. 

Lane Seminary and Slavery, 434, 460. 

Langdon, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 241, 263. 

Lanphere, J. C, 693. 

Las Casas, 19. 

Lathrop, Rev. Joshua, D.D., 205, 492. 

Latin School, The Boston, 233. 

Laud, Archbishop, and Prelacy, 27. 

Law and Order Leagues, 573. 

Laws of Connecticut, 106. 

of Massachusetts Colony, 106. 
Penal, of Virginia, 89. 
Laxity of Belief and Morals, 201. 
Lay Activity, 680, etc. 
Preaching, 689, etc. 
Trustee Contest, 550, etc. 
Le Caron, 50. 

Le Moyne. Rev. Fr. Simon, 186. 
Leavitt, Rev. Joshua, D.D., 44s, 457, 46). 
Lectures on Revivals, Sprague's, 371, 374. 
Lee, Ann, 312, 650. 
General Charles, 316. 
Rev. Jesse, 358, 426, 458, 515. 
Leeser, Isaac, 624. 
Legares, The, 33. 

Legislation, Early, on Religion, 89-108. 
Leicester Academy, 239. 
Leighton, Alexander, 123. 
Lens, The, of History, 3. 
Leo XIII. created Pope, 5SS. 
Lessing, 509. 
Lewd Songs, 342. 

Lewis, Professor Tayler, LL.D., 658. 
Liberal Christian, The, 507, 627, 632, 633. 
>l Liberal Christianity," 198, 204, 303, 507. 
Liberator, The, 450, 454, 529. 
Liberty Hall School, Philadelphia, 239, 467. 
of Conscience, 87-89. 
Religious, 93, 94, 120, 121, 274. 
" The Cap of," 321, 322. 
License System, Revulsion against, 445, etc. 
Lieber, Hon. Francis, LL.D., 601. 

Life, The Religious, in tbe Colonies, 125-152. 

Light, The : Is it Waning? 667. 
" Lilies of France, The," 77. 

Limitations of early Charters, 86, etc. 

Lincoln, Hon. Abraham, 561, 568, 694. 
Hon. Solomon, 206. 

Lindsay, Rev. John, 463. 

Lindsay's Vindication, 301, 302. 

Linsley, Rev. J. H.. 434. 

Liquor Problem in All Ages, 447, 573, 

Liquors and the Revolutionary Army, 347. 
at Funerals, 212, 213. 
Consumption of, 447, 571-573, 575, 773. 
Distilled, Origin of, 440. 

Litch, Rev. Josiah, 519. 

Litchfield Consociation, 218. 
Inquirer, The, 354. 

Literature, Infidel, 315. 

Liturgy of Dutch Church in Indian Language, 186. 

Lives of Roman Catholic Bishops, 524. 

Livingston, Rev. John H., D.D., 39, 146, 438- 

Local Preachers, 689, 744, 745. 

Lock, John, 121. 

*' Log College, The," 143, etc., 245. 

Logan County, Kentucky, 348. 

London, Bishop of, 134, 135. 

London Company, 85, 90, 91, 127. 



London Repository, The, 520. 

Londonderry, N. H., 32, 40, 213. 

Longfellow, Rev. Samuel, 632. 

Long Sermons and Prayers, 165-167. 

Lopez, Rev. Father Francis, 21, 22. 

Lord, Rev. John, 374, 375. 

Lord's Supper, to whom administered, 108, 201. 

Lordship of Christ, 638. 

Losses of Romanism in United States, 618-621. 

Lotteries in the Colonies, 218, 219. 

Lotze, Professor H., 652. 

Louis XIV., 71, 75. 

Louisiana founded, 75. 

Moral Condition of, 381, 543. 

sold to United States, 291. 
Lovejoy, Rev. E. P., 470. 
Low, Rev. Benjamin, 383. 
" Low Countries," The Laws of, 90- 
Loyola, The Army of, 47. 
Lumpkin, Hon. John H., 445. 
Lundy, Benjamin, 449. 
Lunt, Bishop, 647. 
Lusson, Sir Daumont de, 71. 
Luther, Martin, 194, 209, 229, 773, 774. 
Lutherans, The, 32, 34, etc., 41, 42, 119, 120, 133, 134, 
254-256, 285, 414, 491. 

Statistics of (See General Tables for 1800, 1850). 
Lyman, Rev. Joseph, D.D., 412. 
Lyons Propaganda, The, 121, 327. 
Lysanias, 652. 

M 

Madison, Hon. James, 273, 317. 

Rev. Bishop, 316. 
Magee, Rev. James, 368. 

Rev. John, 296, 368. 
Magellan, 14, 17. 
Magoun, Rev. Dr., 239, 240, 250. 
Maguire, Hon. J. F., 615. 
Mail Carriers untrustworthy, 342. 

Carrying and Slavery, 473. 

The, and the Sabbath, 473, 474. 
Maine and Massachusetts under one Charter, 85. 

Early Lutherans in, 42. 

Jesuits in, 52. 

Laws of, 446, 561, 572. 
Makensie, Rev. Francis, 39, 120, 136. 
Malcolm, Rev. Howard, 418, 423. 
Mammon, Essay on, 714. 
Mandarin Grandeur, 69. 
Manhattan Island, 31. 
Manito, A, 69. 
Mann, Hon. J. W., 562. 
Manning, James, 249. 
Maple Sugar, 184. 
Marco Polo, 15. 
Marechal, Rev. Ambrose, 329. 
Marietta College, Ohio, 434. 

settled, 297. 
Marquette, Rev. Father James, S. J., 71, 72, etc., 

289. 
Marriages, 163, 174, 570, 580. 

by Magistrates, 154. 
Marshal], Chief Justice, 359. 
Martha's Vineyard, 180. 
Martial Spirit, 264, etc. 
Martyrs, Antislavery, 470. 

Jesuit, 51, 65. 
Maryland settled, etc., 35, 60, etc., 84, 93, 94, 96, 119, 

I3S. i39i M5i 231, 609. 
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 29, 85, 88, 100, 101, 103, 
104, 177, 232. 241. 

Historical Society Collection, 58, 113, 121, 336. 

Home Missionary Society, 400, 402, 410. 

in 1636, 232. 

in the Revolution, 261. 

Missionary Magazine, 402, 411, 424. 

Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, 443. 

Sunday School Society, 424. 
Mason, Hon. Jeremiah, 251. 

Rev. John M., D.D., 282, 438, 490. 

Hon. R. M., of Virginia, 472. 562. 
Massacre of Hurons by Iroquois, 51. 



S06 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE U XI TED STATES. 



Massacre of Indian? by Whites, 293. 

of Whites by Indians, 55. e:c. 
Ma->e, Rev. Father Edward. 47. 
.'..t.v.'.z Medica. 443. 

and Alcohol, 571. 
Materialism, 53c 654. etc. 
Materialistic Adventists. 520. 

Mather, Rev. Cotton, D.D., 131, 135. 17c. z-S-ziz. 
201, 202. 225. 

Increase. D.D.. 133. 137, 133, 231, 241. 
Mather's Magnolia, 233. 
Matrimony cursed, 644. 
Maude. Daniel. 233. 240. 

Maverick and Chili. Messrs., how treated, 105. 
May, Rev. Samuel J.. D.D., 451, 452. 
Mayflower, In Cabin of, c8. 
Mayhews, The, 177, 1S2, 1S3. 

Rev. Experience, 207. 

Rev. lonathan. D.D., 197, 205,2119,210, 242. 253, 263. 
Mayo, Rev. A. D.. D.D.,'030. 
McCalla, Rev. W. L.. D.DT. 486. 
McClintock, Rev. Tohn. D.D., LL.D.. 420. 
MtCFskv. Rev. Arthiishrc Tor.::, D.D.. = 13. 
McElmore, Hugh P., 617. 
M ;'li=e, Revs. John and William. 368. 
MtGlynn, Rev. Dr. Edward. = :z. :'■::. 7:3. 7-0. 
McKendree. Rev. Bishop William, 369. 
McLeod, Rev. Dr. Norman, 649. 
McMaster's History 0/ United States, quoted, 238, 

2 -3- 3<>4, 323. 343-34 6 - 
McQuaid, Rev. Bishop, 602, 616. 
Mclveire. Rev. Btshtv. L'.L 1 .. 45. 29-. 
McWhorter, Rev. A.. D.D.. 431." 
Meacham, Joseph, 312. 
Meade. Rev. Bishop William, D.D., 33, 92, 128, 134. 

148, 149, 233. 217, 307, 316, 404. 423, 521. 
Medici. Mary, 45, 
Meehan, John S., 422. 
Meeting-houses. Early, 156-153. 
Meg polensis, Rev. Joannes. 185. 
Meiar.ohthir. and Educati n. 3;;. 
Melendes, Pedro, 19. 
Membership, Church, 100. 
Memorial History cf E loston, 178. 
Memorial Volume of the Roman Catholic Plenary 

Council. 587, 
Mennonites. The, 32, 34, 42, 139. 2S5. 
Menominees. The, 60, 73. 
Merrick, Judge William M., 617. 
Merritr. Rev. Timothy. 445, 5:4. 
v ' Messipi, The," 71. 
Me::.: itsrr. and A: '.::: n, 351. 45-, 4:3. e. 

Bang's History of. 349, 369. 

History of, by Bishop McTyeire. 43. 

in America, 43. 43. 

in Cincinnati, 296. 

in St. Louis, 300,391. 

in the West, 295, etc.. 38c. etc., 758. 

Lee's Short History of the, 515. 

Secessions in, 478, etc. 

Stevens's History of, quoted, 387, 41? . 421, 481. 
cdist. The, quoted, 592. 

and the Puritan, 480. 

Book Concern, 421, etc., -23, etc. 

Book Concern. South, 424. 

Economy, 403. 

F ideational Institutions. 728. 

Episcopal African Church, 478. 

1 piscopal African Zion Church. 478 

Episcopal Church formed, 284. 

Episcopal Church, South, 414, 4S1. 

r i.--t College, \ - 

H me Missi ns, 403. 
c-.izine, fa, 424. 

M -i nary Foreign Missions, 404, 414, 703-708. 

Primitive Church, 480. 

Protestant Church, 479. 

Quarterly Review, 424. 53E, 52S, 688, 691- 

Republican, 214. 576. 

kule against Tippling, 352. 

Sc ism. The First, 284. 

^.etc. 

Statistics in 1846, 482. 

3 istics, Latest, 733-746. 



Methodist Year Book, 721, 725. 

Methodists and the Kevtiatioh, 268, etc., zSg. 

The Independent, 676. 

The Reformed, 47S. 
Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 557, 614. 615. 
Metternich, Prince, 562. 
Mexican War, The, 361. 

Mexico aids the Catholic Church in New York city 
33 1 - 
1 discovered, 17, etc. 
, Miami Association. The, 234. 
j Michaelus, Rev. Jonas, 38. 
Michigan, first settled, 336, 381, etc. 
Microcosmus, 652. 
; Middle Ages, The, 774. 
Midnight Cry, The, 519. 
Milburn, Rev. W. H.TD.D., 203. 
Milky Way, The. 633. 
Millard. Rev. David. 517. 
Milledoler. Rev. Philip. D.D.. 41. 282. 
Miller, Rev. Samuel. D.D., 286. 370, 399, 401, 494. 

Rev. William, 518. 
Mi.ierism, 517-520, 693. 

Materialistic. 520. 
Mills, Rev. Jedediah. 251. 

Rev. Samuel J., 205. 377, 382, 441. 

Rev. Thornton. D.D., 434. 
Milner, Rev. James, D.D., 418. 
Ministers and Antislavery, 470. 

called "Parsons," "Dominies," etc., 154. 

Demand for, 430, 437. 

Dress, 153. 

Early Education of. 253-252. 429, etc. 

Early Influence of, 155. 156. 

Early in New England, 129, 132. 

Early Leaders. 154. 

Early Length cf Pastorates, 155. etc. 

Early Salaries of, 154. 

Early Spiritual, 130. 

Early Statistics of, 733-746. 

Two to each Church, 102. 
Minuit, Peter, 41. 
Mischievous Tendencies, 697. 
Missions, Baptist, 415. 



cert: 



Q, 3O3. 



C; . :■: ::'.: cf, 415. 

Episcopal, 414. 

Foreign, 410, etc., 700-709. 

Free-Will Baptist, 414. 

Home, 710-714. 

in Asia, 704, 705. 

in Europe. 703. 

in India, 172-133. 414. 

in Mississippi Valley, :::'. 

in North America, 700, etc. 

in Polynesia, 705. 

in South America. 707. 

in the World, 414, 415. 

Lutheran, 414. 

Methodist, 414. 

Mexican, 706. 

Papa!, in America, 44. 

Spanish, 17, etc. 

The Policy of, 18. 
Missionaries, English, early in Ar 

Female, 6S9, 701. 

Massacred, 20. 

Papal, 45. etc. 

Societies, 364. 

" Missionary Age, The," 700. 

Ker.z'.d. The. 42^. 731. 

Magazine, 411. 

Woman's. Societies, 701, etc. 
Mississippi Area of, 81, 2S9-543. 

Company, 290, 231. 

The, 71, 74, 77. 

■\ al;ey surrendered to England. 7- 
Missouri Compromise, 448, etc., 567 
Mitchell, Rev. Jonathan, 131. 
Mivart, 658. 

Mobs and Abolitionism, 457. 
Modifications in Religion, 698. 
Mohican Dialect, 177. 
Molyneaux, Rev. Robert, 544. 



enca. 114, 255. 410. 



JXDEX. 



807 



Monarchies founded, S2. 

Monasteries, 606. 

Montagnis, The, 52. 

Montauks, The, 1S3. 

Monteith, Rev. Mr., 382. 

Monterey, first visited. 2-2. 

Montezumas, Land of the, 17. 

Montgomery, Dr., 656. 

Monthly Anthology, The, 494. 

Montreal, 46-49. 

Monts, De. 45- 

Moody, Rev. D. L., 690-695. 

Moor. Joshua, 1 t i. 

Moore, Rev. Thoroughgood, 187. 

Rev. Thomas, 281. 
Moorfields. The, 142. 

Moor's Indian Charity School, 192, 239, 248. 
Moot Meetings, 156. 
Morals, 72, 128, 132, 13S. 140, 141, 212, 228, 337-350, 

381, etc., 392, etc., 561-584. 
Moravians, 32, 34, etc., 187, 19-j, 255,256,285,292. 29;, 

681. 
Morgan, Morgan, 148. 

Mormonism. 510, 538, 540-542, 646-649. 787. 
Morning Star, The,!?*,. 
Morris Hon. Gouverneur, 524. 

Hon. Robert, 524. 

Rev. Bishop Thomas A., D.D., 391. 
Morrison, 363. 

Morse. Rev. Jedediah, D.D., 205, 417, 431. 494. 
Morton, Hon. Marcus, 445. 
Mosheim's Church History, 115. 
Motives of Discovery, 15, 23, 24, 31. 
Motley. Rev. Joseph, 493. 
Mount Holyoke Seminary, 731. 
Mudge. Rev. Enoch, 309. 
Muhlenberg, Rev. H. M., D.D., 42. 
MuMen, Rev. Robert, D.D., 618. 
Mumford, Mr. Stephen, 38. 
Murray and Winchester, 307, etc. 

J. O'Kane. 604, 609, 616, 618, 766. 

Rev. John, 209, 304-309, 510, 512, 650. 

Joseph, 247. 

Letters of, 308. 
Murphy and Reynolds Movement, 573. 

Francis, and Son, 696. 

Hon. Michael C, 603. 
Music, Instrumental, in Churches, 157, 164, 165. 
Mutual Rights, 479. 
'• Mystery Hid /rout Ages" 209, 306. 
Mystic Center of the Continent, The, 73. 

N 

Namby-pamby Talk, 697. 

Names, Religious, given the first American Lands 

discovered, 14. 
Nantes, Edict of, revoked, 33. 
Napoleon and Louisiana, 291. 
Narragansetts, The, 182, 183. 
Narvaez, Pamphilo de, 16, 18. 
Nassau Hall, 246. 
Natchez, The. 76. 

First Church in, 387. 
Natick, Mass., Indian Church in, 103. 

settled, 178, 181. 
National Conference, 631. 

Era, The, 471. 

Temperance Society, 573. 
Native American Movement. 553. 
Natural Religion, 195, 197. 

Science, Errors in, 194. 
Naturalism, 530. 

Nature, by R. W. Emerson. 505. 
Nauvoo, 542. 
Navigation, 363. 

Neale, Rev. Bishop Leonard, 330, etc., 544. 
Neale's History of the Puritans, 121, 122. 
Negative Ethics, 663. etc. 
Negroes, Condition of, 570. 
Neo-Platonism, 194. 
Netherlands Missionary Society, 364. 

send colonists, 31. 
Nettleton, Rev. Asahel, 374. 



Nevins, Rev. William, D.D.,376. 

New Divinity, 369. 

New England, Clergy in, in 1760, 254. 

Decline of Education in, 232. 

Decline of Piety in, 137, 138. 

Founders of, 29. 

Historical Society, 353. 

Indians, 172, etc. 

Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of, 194, 
199, 301. 

Palfrey's History of, 113. 

Population, 583. 

Primer, 169, etc. 

Puritan, The, 425. 

Religion and Morals in, 129, 75^, 754. 

Romanism in, 332, etc., 754, 757. 

Rum, 440. 

Sabbath Services, 129. 

settled, 129. 

Statistics of, 753, 754, 759. 
New England's First Fruits, 131, 234. 
New Englander, quoted, 239, 242, 250, 557. 
Xew Hampshire Colony, 84. 
New Harmony, 531, 532. 
Xew Haven Colony, 103. 
New Jersey Colony, 31, 84, 96. 

Congregational Churches in, 37. 
New Jerusalem Church, 310, 311, 518, C26. 
New Life, Expanding, 363, 380, etc. 

Reformatory, 440, 477. 
New Lights, The, 213. 
New Measures, 374, 37 = . 
New Mexico, Cotton Mantles in, 21. 

Missions in, 79. 
New Netherlands, 31. 

ceded to England, 120. 
New Orleans, 76, 289. 
New Rochelle, settled by Huguenots, 33. 
New Route to the East, 13. 
New Spiritual Movements, 374. 
New West Education Commission, 649. 
New World an Asylum, The, 30. 

Citizens, 772. 
New York City Churches, 261, 288. 

City Missions, 401, 409, 410, 682. 

City Records, 43. 

Education in, 231. 

Evangelist, The, 425. 

Herald, 719. 

Historical Society Collections, 97. 

Intolerance in, 119, etc. 

Jesuits in, 58, 66. 

Legislation in, 596. 

Morals in, 133. 

Observer , The, 425, 690, 694, 722. 

settled, 30. 

Statistics, 254, 575. 

Sunday School Society, 427. 

Times, 616, 719. 

Tribune, The, 536, 719. 

Western, 349. 
Newark, Diocese of, 607. 
Newcomb, Stillman J., 455. 
Newcomb" s Cyclopedia of Missions, 411. 413. 
Newell, Samuel, 412. 
Newgate Prison, 345. 
Newport, R. I., a Slave Mart, 228, 359. 
Newspapers, 238, 340, 425, 717, etc. 
Nichollet, Jean, 69, 72. 
Nisbet, Rev. Charles, D.D., 281. 
Noah, Judge Mordecai, 624. 
Nonantum Hill, 175. 
Normandy, The Mariners of, 44. 
Norridgewock, Me., 53. 

North American Review, 167, 593. 603, 609, 629, 653. 
North Carolina, Sects in, 96. 
Northampton. Mass., 140. 
Northwest, Early History of, 207. 
Norton, Rev. Andrews, 493, 498. 

Mrs. Mary, 212. 
Not unto us, O Lord, etc., 747. 
Notre Dame, Sisters of, 606-608. 
Noyes's History of Socialism , 536. 
Nuns, Orders of, 601, 605. 



308 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



O 

O'Connor, Rev. Bishop. 615. 

O'Kelley, Rev. James, 284, 480, 515. 

Oakes, Rev. Urian. 241. 

Observations on Man, 197. 

Observer , New York, The, 163, 165, 722. 

Occum, Rev. Samuel, 189, 191, 192. 

Odd Phases, 643. 

Oglethorpe, Governor, 30, 139. 

Ohio Company, The, 291. 

Ohio, Growth of the Population in, 765. 

Ojeda, Alonzo de, 16. 

Ojibways, The, 69. 

Old Families, Ministers, and Churches in Virginia, 

33, 92, 209. 
Old School and New School, 670. 
" Old Side and New Side," 144. 
Old South Church, Boston, 36, 200. 
Old-Town Stories, 219. 
Old World Institutions, 125. 

Subjects, 772. 
Olmos, Rev. Father de, 22. 
One Absolute Subject, 654. 
Oneidas, Mission to, 188. 
<>phir, 15. 

Opinion, Public, 778, 779. 
Orders of Monks and Nuns, 18, 335, 604, 609. 
Ordinations, 88, 157. 

Organic Relations of Churches, 675, etc. 
Original Antislavery Sentiment, 566. 
Orthodox Friends, The, 518. 
Osgood, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 494. 
Otheman, Rev. Bartholomew, 463. 
Otis, James, 207. 
Ottawas, The, 69. 
Otterbein, Rev. William, 38, 286. 
Outward Religion, 151. 
Owen, Robert, 486, 527, etc., 530, 578, 641. 

Robert Dale, 641. 
Oxensteirn, 32. 



Padilla, Rev. Father, killed, 21. 

Paganism and the State, 82. 

Page, Mr. Harlan, 682. 

Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New 

England, 194, 199, etc. 
Paine, Thomas, 317, 320, 323, 341, 349, 523, 525, 650. 

Memorial Hall, 643. 

Robert Treat. 207. 
Palatines, The, 34, etc. 
Palfrey's History of New England, 113. 
Palisades, The, 157. 
Palmer, Blind, 525. 
Palos, 14. 

Panoplist, The, 420, 424, 442, 494, 498. 
Pantarchy, 534. 
Pantheism declining, 654. 
Papac> , Dread of, 08. 
Papal Explorers in the Mississippi Valley, 289. 

Funds, 18. 

Infallibility, 589. etc. 

Mission Results in Colonial Era, 81. 

Mission Summary of Colonial Era, 78, 80. 

Power broken, 364. 
Parish in New England, The, 157. 

System, Rights, etc., 102, 108, 499. 
Park Street Church, Boston, 408, 497, 681. 
Parker, Chief Justice, 498. 

Hon. Isaac, 443. 

Rev. Nathan, D D., 493. 

Theodore, 212, etc., 470, 505, 507, 509, 629, etc., 
636, etc., 661. 
Parkman, Francis, quoted, 47, 53, 54, 63, 64, 72, 77. 

493- 
Parliament, The Long, 177. 
Parochial Schools, 600, 604. 
Parsons, 153. 

Parsons, Chief Justice, 356. 
Parties during the Revolution, 357. 
Parton, James, 598. 
Pastorates, Long, 155, 252. 
Patriotism of the Clergy, 261, etc. 



, Paxton, Rev. Philip, D.D., 263. 

' Payson, Rev. Seth, D.D., 521. 

Peabody, Miss Elizabeth, 505. 

Rev. Oliver, 180. etc. 
Pearson on Infidelity, 640. 

Rev. Eliphalet, D.D., 431. 
Pedicord, Rev. Caleb, 269. 
Pelagianism, 204. 

Penal Inflictions in Colonial Period, 104, 121, 122, 
344, etc. 
Laws, 89, 90, 123, 345, 346. 
Penn, William, 32, 39, 221, 224, 249. 
I Pennsylvania an Asylum for Roman Catholics, 325. 
Education in, 231. 

Moral and Religious Condition of, 136. 
Settlers in, 32. 
University, 249. 
Pensacola Bay, 19, 21, 290. 
, Pequots, The, 173, etc., 183. 
; Per capita Wealth of United States, 715, etc. 
1 Perez, 13, 14. 

I Period of 1800 surveyed, 363. 
! Periodicals, Religious, 424, etc., 717, 720. 
I Criticism on, 718. 
1 Permanent Sabbath Documents, 477. 
i Persecution, Victims of, 31, 390. 
i Personality of God, 506. 
J Pessimism, 674. 
! Peters, Hugh, 177. 
I Hon. J. S.,M.D., LL.D., 116, 226. 
Rev. S. A., 115,265. 
Pews, Old Style of, 159. 
Piialanx, The, 536, 537. 
Phelps, Rev. Austin A., D.D., 460, 470, 577, 673, 

699. 
Philaiithropist, The, 450. 
Philip II., 19. 

III., 3 r. 
Philip's War, King, 182. 
Phillips Academy, 239. 
Rev. George, 130. 
John, 439. 
Wendell, 505. 
Philosophical Dictionary, The, 315. 

Miscellanies, 505. 
Phrenology, 509, 530, 650. 
Physical Condition, 343, etc. 
Physicians, 154, 155. 
Pictures of Slavery, 453. 
Pierpont, Rev. James, 140. 

Rev. John, 445, 447. 
Pierson, Rev. Abram, 244. 
Pierson's Essays, 640. 
Piety, Decline of, 137. 
Rootless, 697. 

The Practice of, translated into the Indian tongue, 
178. 
Pillory Punishments, 123. 
Pillsbury, Parker, 461. 
Pilot, The, bob. 
Pioneer Preachers, Privations of, 298, 299. 

Trials of, 388. 
Pitch-pipes voted, 157. 
Pittsburg, Diocese of, 607. 
Pizarro, 16. 
Plan of Pacification, 464. 

of this Book, 4. 
" Plan of Union," The, 386. 
Plenary Council, 586, 587, 601, 602. 
Plymouth Colony, 85, 98. 
Pocahontas, 128, 189. 
Poles, Protestant, settle, 34. 
Political Action of Romanism, 592, 593. 

Justice of Godwin, 315. 
Politico-Religious Sermons, 262. 
Polygamy renounced, 67. 

Suppression of, 649. 
Ponce de Leon, 14, 16. 
Pond, Rev. Enoch, D.D., 520. 
Pope Gregory XVI. , 406, 556. 

Bull against Bibles, 554. 
Pope Pius IX.. 556. 
Popery, Relics of, 783. 
Popish Riots, 553. 



IXDEX. 



S09 



Population, Center of, 765. 

Colonial, 81, 256. 

Composite Character of, 785. 

Foreign-born, in Massachusetts, 751. 

Foreign-born, in United Slates, 766. 

Growth of, in European Countries and in America, 
76s. 

in Mississippi Valley, 380. 

in New Kngland, 583. 

in new Western States, 292. 

Problem of, 764, etc. 

Roman Catholic, 614, 622. 

Roman Catholic, in New England, 759. 

Rural, 744. 
Pormont, Philemon, 232, 237. 
Porter, Rev. Ebenezer, D.D., 251, 371, 373, 418, 

4 j_>. 
Post Bellutu Periods, 337, etc., 572, 695. 
Post, New York Evening, 665. 
Post, Rev. Frederick, 292. 

Rev. Noah, D.D., B52. 
Postmaster-General, The, and the Sabbath, 475. 
Pottawattomies, The, 71. 
Potter, Rev. William J., 632, 639. 
Powder, Kegs of, furnished by a Church, 158. 
Power, Balance of, 567. 

0/ Prayer, The, 694. 
" Powwows," Indian, 178, 182. 

Practical Infidelity Portrayed, quoted, 319, 526. 
Pratt, Orson, 647. 
Prayer, A Scheme of, 166. 

Hook modified, 301. 

in Congress, The first, 266. 

Meetings, Statistics of, 712. 
Prayers, Long, 161, 165-167. 
Preceptor Germanice, 230. 
Preface, 3. 
Prelacy, 83. 

Prentice, Rev. George, D.D., 508. 
Presbyterian Church History , Dr. Gillett's, quoted, 
39, 120, 270, 522. 

Church in Maine, 37. 

Church in Middle States, 143. 

Church in New England, Low Condition of, 137. 

Church in Tennessee and Kentucky, 294. 

Church in Virginia, 118, 147. 

Churches in the West, 384, 385. 

Churches, The Associate Reformed, 40. 

Churches, The more liberal, 40. 

Churches, The New York Indian, 189. 

Oeneral Assembly and Temperance, 442. 

General Assembly and the Sabbath, 475. 

General Assembly, quoted, 344. 

Review, 690. 

Southern Church, 679. 

Synod on Morals, 339. 
Presbyterians and Foreign Missions, 414, 703, 708. 

and Home Missions, 401. 

and Publication Work, 424. 

and Slavery, 357, 358, 461, etc. 
* and the Revolution, 270, etc., 280, 283. 
*** Cumberland, 487. 

Cumberland Colored, 676. 

Education, 432. 

Growth of, 294, 295, 373, 384, 385. 

Irish, Scotch, and Swiss, 32, 40, 137, 213. 

Old School and New School, 487, 489, 490, 669, 
675, 678, etc., 680. 

persecuted, 118, 120. 

Reformed, 40, 487. 

Secession and Schism, 462, 487. 

Statistics of, 282, 679, 733, 735, 744, 746, etc. 

The Covenanter, 40. 

The first, in the United States, 32, 39, 136. 
Pr^scott, quoted, 13. 

Presidents of first Massachusetts Temperance So- 
ciety, 444. 
Press, Power of the, 717, 724. 
Pressed to Death, 124. 
Prestidigitators, 641. 

Priesthood of Believers, 691, 694, 696, etc. 
Priestley, Rev. Dr. Joseph, 197, 302, 523, 650. 
Priestly Functions, 783. 
Priests, Orders of, 605. 



Priests, Roman Catholic, 81, 622, 623, 756. 
Prima mali laoes, 196. 
Prime, Rev. N. S., D.l)., 442. 

Rev. Dr. S. Irenaeus, 694. 
Prince, Rev. John, D.D., 493. 

Rev. Thomas, 132, 183. 
Princeton College, 40, 144, 185, 245, 246. 
Printing in early Massachusetts, 177, 180. 
Prisons, Filthy, etc., 298, 299, 344, 346. 
Problem of Religious Progress, 194, 579, 732. 
Problems considered, 83, 125, 126, 763, 787. 
Progress in Ideas, 154. 

in Religion, 698. 
Prohibition of Saloons, Constitutional, etc., 571, 574. 
Propagandas, Papal, 327, 548, 556, 557, 615, 618. 
Proprietary Governments, 84. 
Pro-slavery Mobs, 457. 
Protestant, The, 453. 

Beginnings, 23, 25, 27, etc., 125. 

Bloodshed, 20. 

Carnival, 213. 

Churches, Changes in, 478, 491. 

Churches, Life in, 125, 675, etc. 

Missions, 191, 172, 193. 

Monopoly, A, 551. 

Statistics, 733, etc., 784. 
" Protestantism Generates Skepticism," 651. 

The Problem of, 782, etc. 
Protestants and Catholics, 94, 390. 

and Education, 231. 
Proudfit, Rev. James, D.D., 282, 417. 
Providence, A beneficent, 787. 
Provincial Governments, 84. 
Provost, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 279. 
Prussia, Growth of Population in, 765. 
Public Funds and Romanism, 591. 

Latin School in Boston, 233. 

Opinion, 770, etc. 
Publication Houses, etc., 416, 421, etc., 717, 723. 
Pulpits, Old-fashioned, 159. 

The, and the Revolution, 263. 
Punishment, Future, 210. 

System of, 345. 
Purcell, Rev. Bishop, Defalcation of, 588. 
Puritan Commonwealth, 101. 

Rigidity, 133. 
Puritans banished from Virginia, 116. 

characterized, 28. 

discard Prelacy, 83. 

in Holland, 29. 

persecuted, 27. 

their Religion, 101. 
Putnam, Rufus, 291, 297. 

Rev. Samuel, D.D.,662. 



Quaint Stories, 25, 26, 92, 107. 
Quakers, The, 32, 107, 112-115, 117, 120, 136, 
736, etc. 

and Antislavery, 225, etc. 
Quarter Millennial Anniversary, 97. 
Quarterly Journal, 431. 

Review, 505. 
Quebec, a Papal Focus, 17, etc. 

Act, The,33i. 

captured in 1629, 46. 

founded, 46. 

the early Center of the Papacy, 46. 
Queen Ann's War, 53. 
Quincy, Hon. Josiah, quoted, 241, 242. 
Quitman, General, 567. 
Quivira visited, 21. 

R 

Race Prejudice, 570. 

Raconian Catechism, 196. 

Radical, The, 639. 

Raikes, Robert, 426. 

Rale, Rev. Father Sebastian, 57, etc., 120. 

Ramsey, the Historian, 238. 

Randall, Rev. Benjamin, 285. 

Henry S., LL.D., quoted, 523. 
Randolph, Hon. Edmund, 272, 273, 316, 565. 

Hon. Peyton, 119, 266. 



810 



CHRISTIANITY IX THE UNITED STATES. 



Rankin, Rev. John, 449, 451, 452, etc. 
Rapp. George. 530. 
Rappings, The, 640. 
Rationalism, German, 643. 

in New England, 240. 

Rise of, 104. 
Rawson, Rev. Andrew, 251. 

Edward, 177. 

Rev. Grindal, 1S2. 
Raymbault, Father, 70. 
Rebellion, Shay's, 272. 

The Whisky, 273. 
Rebellions in United States. 779. 
Receipts of Foreign Missionary Societies, 708. 

of Home Missionary Societies, 713. 

of Publication Societies, 723. 

of Young Men's Christian Associations, 686. 
Recollects, The first three. 46. 
Reed. Rev. John, D.D., 493. 
Reform Associations, 469. 

Clubs, 696. 

Penal, 346. 
Reformation of 16th Century, 14, 24, 25, 82, 125. 
Reformed Church, 38, 41, 87, 97, 146, 254, 269, 285 

Manual, 270. 

Messenger, 425. 

Methodist, 478. 

Presbyterian, 40. 

The Associate, 40, 282. 
Reforms initiated, 351-360. 
Refugees after the French Revolution, 338. 
Regeneration a Test of Church Membership, 199. 
Reitter, Rev. E. A., quoted, 615. 
Religion, Alternations in, 125. 

and Antislavery, 357, etc. 

Decline of, 137-139, 145, 146, 152, 181. 

impaired by the Revolution, 261. 

in America, 3, 324. 487. 

in Colonial Churches, 87, 88, 125-152. 

in the Individual Soul, 783. 

in Virginia, 126, 128. 

Practical, 101, 199. 

The Metaphysics of, 194. 
Religious Belief, 94. 

Benevolence, 714, etc. 

Customs, 153. 

Enthusiasm. 46. 

Forces in United States, 625, 753. 

Freedom Act, 275. 

Ideas and the Constitution, 565. 

Intelligencer, 425. 

Intolerance, 108. etc. 

Limitations, 87, 88, 276. 

Monthly Magazine, 509, 632, 651, 662. 

Orders. 604-609. 

Periodicals, 424, etc. 

Statistics on Eve of Revolution, 253, etc. 

Tract Society, 364. 

Visits, Statistics of, 712. 

Vitality, Deep, 609. 
Renan, quoted, 661. _ 
Republican Methodists. 284, 516. 
Republicanism, The Germ of, 98. 
Republics, The Italian, 778. 
Responsibility. Personal, 125. 
Restatement of Doctrine, 671, etc. 
Restorationism, 307. etc.. 514, 627. 
Results of Papal Missions, 81, 336. 
Resurrection of the Body, 210. 
Retribution. Future, 305, etc. 
Reunion of Churches, 675, etc. 
Reverence, Sentiment of, 152. 
Review and Outlook, 687-763. 
Revision of this Volume, 4. 
Revival Extravaganzas, 375. 

Measures discussed, 375. 
Revivalists. Celebrated, 374, etc. 
Revivals of Religion, 287, 288, 693-696. 

2fter the Revolution, 287, etc. 

Dearth of, 374. 

in first Quarter of 19th Century, 372, etc. 

in New England. 132, 141, 202, 371, etc. 

in old Academies, 378. 

in Princeton College, 278. 



Revivals, Influence of, 710. 

of 1800, 367, 369, 775. 

of 1857-58, 693, etc. 

Opposers of, 203. 

rare in last Century, 373, etc. 

rare in South. 370. 

Remarkable, 375. 

Results of. 378. 

Testimonies, 377-379. 

The Edwardean, 200. 669. 
Revolution, The. and Morals, 261, etc., 267, 337, etc. 

and the Churches, 259, etc. 

Causes of, 260. 

Cost of, 261. 

followed by Troubles, 272. 

Lives lost in, 261. 

Parties in, 337. 
Revolutionizing Tendencies, 776. 
Rice, Rev. Asaph, D.D., and the Indians, 188. 

Rev. David, 295, 368. 
Rich, Rev. Caleb, 210, 211, 307. 
Richards, Rev. James, 377, 411, 412. 
Richelieu's Administration, 27. 
Rigdon, Sidney, 539-541. 
Ripley, George, 505. 

Rev. Dr. Ezra, 324. 493. 
Robespierre and other French Skeptics, 321. 
Robinson, " One-eyed," 143. 

Rev. John, 173. 

Rev. William, 143. 252. 
Rodriguez, Rev. Father, 21, 22. 
Rogers. Rev. John, D.D., 146, 265, 280. 
" Rogue's Harbor,'' 348. 
Roman Catholic Almanac, 567, 558. 

Asylums in Pennsylvania, 325. 

Beginnings in America, 14, 44. 

Benevolent Societies, 652. 

Bishops, Lives of, 328. 

Church, 13, 139, 325, 336, 543, 558, 585, 586, 614, 
622, 756, 757. 

Church after the War, 276. 

Church History, 609. 

Church Tenure, 5Q5. 

Colleges, 611, 612. 

Dioceses in 1850, ^46. 

Early Bishops in United States, 328. 

Estimates, 615, 616. 

Female Communities, 328. 

First Synod in United States, 330. 

Foreigners, 771. 

Funds, 591. 

Hierarchy in United States, 327. 

Indian Missions, 335. 

Indian Missions, and Results, 336. 

Orders in United States, 335. 

Protectorate, 600. 

Regiments, 594. 

Statistics in 1800, 327. 

Statistics in 1850, 558. 

the only Religion in Michigan for 132 years, 336. 

Theological Seminar)', the first founded, 329. 

Total Abstinence Society, 573. 
Roman Catholics and Politics, 592. 

and Public Funds, 591, 592. 

and Public Schools, 599. 

Complaints of, 120. 

Demands of, 600-603. 

early in Mississippi Valley, 289, 380. 

E.xifed French Clergy, 329. 

how treated in this Book, 4. 

illtreated, 120. 

in Boston, 333. 

in Cities, 621, etc. 

in Indiana, 335. 

in Kentucky, 334. 

in Louisiana, 334. 

in Lowell, Mass., and School-books, 603. 

in New England, 332, 754, 757. 

in New York, 330. 

in Xew York aided from Mexico, 351. 

in South Carolina, 334. 

in the Revolution, 325. 

in the West, 758. 

Losses of, 618. 



INDEX. 



1 1 



Roman Catholics. Movement against, in Maryland, 

I35> T, 
oppose Protestants, 390. 

Population of, 614, 617. 

Progress of, 585. 

Sharp Contest of, 597. 

Statistics of, in United States in 1830, 555. 
Romanism, Statistics of, 558, 614, 751, 

The Specter of, 787. 
Rouge, John, Protests of, 554. 
Rousseau, 314, 564, 661. 
" Ruling Elders," 102. 
Rum, A Jug of, 213. 

sold to Indians, 184. 
Runaway Wives, 342. 

Rupp's History of Denominations, 4S5. 
Rural Population, 749. 
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 227, 352, 441. 

Rev. Christopher, 478. 
Russell, Lord John, 616, 717. 
Russia, Growth of Population in, 765. 
Ruter, Rev. Martin, D.D., 725. 
Rutger's College, 240, 249. 



Sahha'-Day Houses, 159. 
Sabhath, Abuse of, 576. 

Desecration, 340. 

Documents, Permanent, 477. 

Inquiries, Recent, 577. 

Intermission, 162. 

Manual, 477. 

National Convention, 476. 

Observance, 575-577. 

Observance in the Colonies, 214, etc. 

Organizations, 475. 

Reform, 365, 473, etc. 

Services in New Kngland, 129. 

The, and the Railroads, 477. 

The Puritan, discarded, 576. 

Union, The American and Foreign, 476, 575. 

Voluntary Observance of, 576. 

When the Day began and when it closed, 214. 
Sack, Rev. Father, quoted, 616. 
Sacred Questions popularly investigated, 777. 
Sacs and Foxes. The, 71. 

Sadlier's Roman Catholic A Imanac , 604, 613, 616,617. 
Sailors 1 Magazine, 415. 
Salt Lake, 542. 
Salter's Hall, 137. 

San Diego visited and founded, 20, 79. 
San Francisco first visited, 22 
San Salvador discovered, 14. 
Sandusky Mission, The, 404. 
Santa Fe founded, 21, 22. 
Sargeant, Rev. John, and the Indians, 184. 
Sargon, King oi' Assyria, 653. 
Sartor Resartus , 505. 
Satolli, Rev. M^e, 623. 
Savage, Rev. M. J., 637-639. 
Saybrook, The Synod of, 37. 
Scenery, Romantic, 71. 
Schaff, Rev. Philip, D.D., LL.D., 669. 
Schilling, quoted, 661. 
Schisms, 366, 465, 478-490, 675, etc. 
Schlatter, Rev. Michael, 41. 
Schleiermacher, 663. 
Schmucker, Rev. Dr., 120. 
Scholastic and vital Truth, 668-672. 
Scholasticism discarded, 777. 

School Contest, The public, 551, etc., 598, 600, 602. 
Schools, 47, 95, 171, 229, 233-240. 

Girls not admitted at first in, 235. 

of Egypt, Judea, Greece, and Rome, 229. 

Pagan, 229. 

Parochial, 600. 

The Bible in, 600. 
Schopenhauer, 665. 
Schwenkfelders, The, 41. 
Science and Christianity, 642,652, 658-660. 
Scolding punished, 92. 

Scotch Society for Propagating Christian Know! 
edge, 192. 



Scott, Rev. Orange, 458, 462, 480. 

Seabury, Rev. Bishop, 279. 

Seaman's Progress of Nations, quoted, 139, 256. 

Sears, Rev. E. H., 631, 632, 662. 

Seaton, Mrs., 546. 

Secession, History of the great, 481. 

Sects in early Maryland, 94. 

Segura, John Baptiste, 20. 

Separatists, The, 28, 29. 

Sermons, Length of, 161. 

Serra, Rev. father, Mission of, 80. 

Settlements in Mississippi Valley, 291. 

List of Early, 26. 

The Jesuit, 77. 
Settlers, Character of early, 34, 292. 

Presbyterian, 32. 

Secular Motives of, 35. 
Seventh-Day Baptists, 285. 
Sewall, Hon. S., 159, 166, 183, 207. 

Thomas, M.D., 447. 
Seward, Hon. William H.,552. 
Shaftesbury, Lord, 195. 
Shakers, 312, 625, 640. 
Shakespeare, 27. 
Shaw, Chief Justice, 356. 
Shay's Rebellion. 272. 

Shea, J. G., 18, 20, 22, 54, 55, 78, 80, 94, 336. 
Shepard, Rev. Thomas, 129, 130, 176. 
Sherman, Hon. Roger, 317. 
Shute, Rev. Dr. Daniel, 492. 
Siegvolck, Paul, 209. 
Signs of the Times, The, 519. 
Simcoe, Lake, 49. 

Singing in Churches, 161, etc., 164, 165. 
Sioux City Journal, quoted, 645. 
Sioux, The, 68, 69. 
Sisterhoods, 546, 604-608. 
Six Nations, The, 51, 187, 188. 
Skepticism, 194-196, 317, 521', 537, 640, 651, 664, 

etc., 667. 
Slater, Mr. Samuel, 427. 
Slaughter of Huguenots, 33. 
Slavery, 27, 56, 222, 224, 256, 355. 356, 359, 448-473, 

526, 563, 565, 576, 675-677, 772, 774, 779. 
Sleeper. Hon. Jacob, 443, 686. 
Small, Rev. Samuel W., 695. 
Smalley, Rev. Dr., 251, 252, 669. 
Smallpox in New England, 139. 
Smith, Rev. Cotton Mather, 265. 

Rev. Elias, 516. 

Rev. John Blair, D.D., 265, 281. 

Rev. Robert, D.D., 146. 

Rev. Dr. Samuel Stanhope, 281. 

Joe, 539-542 _ 

Professor Goldwin, 651. 
Smyth, Rev. Dr. Newman, 659. 
Snell, Rev. Dr., 374. 
Snow's History of Boston, 232. 
Social Condition of United States, 343-346. 

Theories of Robert Owen and Fanny Wright, 
.57.8. 
Socialism, 527, 530, 644, etc. 

Failure of, 533. 

History of, 531, etc. 

The latest, 644. 
Socialistic Communities, 531, 537. 
Societies, Antislavery, 455, etc. 

Tract, 417. 
Society for Promotion of Collegiate and Theological 
Education in the West, 433. 

for Propagating Gospel, 182, 185, 255, 401. 

for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 36, 
109. _ 

of Christian Endeavor, 689. 
Socinians and Socinianism, 195-197, 503. 
Soldiers with vitiated Appetites, 347. 
Sounding Board, 159. 
South Carolina, Sects protected in, 95. 
South Church, Boston, 200. 
" South Side Views," 459, 569. 
Southern Colonies, 330, 334. 

Colonies, Founders of, 30. 

Orator in Congress, 115. 
Sovereignty, 569. 



81 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Spain, Growth of Population in, 765. 
Spalding, Rev. M. J., D.D., 329. 

Solomon, 540. 
Spanish Missions, 17. 
Spaulding, Rev. Bishop, D.D., 617, 619. 
Speculation gliding into Doubt, 194. 
Spencer, Rev. Elihu, 146, 189. 

Herbert, 654, 656, 660. 

Hon. John C., 552. 
Spicer, Rev. Tobias, 539. 
Spirit of the Pilgrims, 495. 
Spiritism, 640, etc. 
Spirits, Consumption of, 447. 

Distilled, 347. 
Spiritual Activities, 712. 

Decline of Religion, 181. 

Register, The. 641. 
Spiritualism, Statistics of, 641. 
Spirituality, 696-699. 
Sprague, Rev. W. B., D.D., Lectures on Revivals, 

371, 374- 
Sprague's Annals, 39, 116, 146, 182, 189, 206, 210, 243, 

302, 306. 
Spring, Rev. Dr. Gardner, 378,412, 419, 475, 576. 

Rev. Samuel, D.D., 399, 412. 
Sproatt, Rev. James, D.D., 281. 
St. Andrew's Brotherhood, 689. 
St. Augustine founded, 18, 20. 
St. Domingo Refugees, 330. 
St. Joseph, The Sisterhood of, 606. 
St. Lawrence, The, discovered, 44. 
St. Louis at first wholly Roman Catholic, 390. 
St. Lussom, Daumont de, 71. 
St. Mary, Falls of, 70. 
St. Mary's University founded, 329. 
St. Peter s,_ The, quoted, 616. 
Stack, William, 213. 
Stamford, Rev. Dr. John, 417. 
" Stamp Act," The, 260. 
Standard of France, 72. 

of Judgment, 121-124. 
" Standing Order," The, no. 
Stanton, Hon. Edwin M., 460. 
State and Church sundered, 273, 277. 

Church in United States, 594. 

The, dependent on the Church, 199. 

The, Outgrowth of the Church, 101. 
" State Rights Party," The, 273. 
Statistics of Additions to Churches, 712. 

of Alcoholic Liquors from 1810 to 1893, 575. 

of Church of the New Jerusalem, 626. 

of Churches, 784. 

of Churches at end of Colonial Period, 253. 

of Churches in 1775, 733. 

of Churches in 1800, 733. 

of Churches in 1850, 734, 735. 

of Churches in 1870, 735-737- 

of Churches in 1880, 737, 738. 

of Churches in 1890, 739-743. 

of Churches in 1894, 743-746. 

of Churches in Mississippi Valley in 1830, 392. 

of Clergy in 1760, 254. 

of College Students, 785. 

of Colleges of United States in 1830, 436, 437. 

of Colportage, 711, etc. 

of Communism, 625. 

of Intemperance in 1792, 347, etc. 

of Labor Bureau, 579, 584. 

of Liquor Consumption, 447. 

of Liquors, 572, 575. 

of Lutherans in 1820, 491. 

of Methodist Churches in 1849, 4&2. 

of Ministers and Churches in 1775, 256. 

of Old School and New School Presbyterians in 
1839, 490. 

of Population in Colonial Era, 256. 

of Prayer Meetings, 712. 

of Protestant Churches, 617. 

of Religions in New York in 1771, 254. 

of Religions of Middle States in 1759, 255. 

of Religious Newspapers, 721. 

of Religious Work, 712. 

of Roman Catholic Church in United States, 
555- 



Statistics of Roman Catholic Churches in United 
States in 1850, 558. 

of Roman Catholic Priests in 1771, 325. 

of Romanism, 614. 

of Spiritualism, 641. 

of Sunday Schools, 693. 

of Theological Seminaries, 439. 

of this Book, 4. 

of Unitarians, 635. 

of Universalists, 628. 

of Woman's Foreign Missionary Societies, 702. 

of Years of Labor, 712. 

of Young Men's Christian Associations, 687. 
Steele, 138. 
Stevens,"Rev. Abel, D.D., LL.D., 284, 387, 395, 416, 

417, 421, 426, 463, 658, 691. 
Stewart, Alvan, 450. 
Stewarts, The, 177. 
Stilwellites, 479. 

Stith's History of Virginia, 127. 
Stockbridge Mission, 183, etc. 
Stocks, Punishment in the, 92. 

Stoddard, Rev. Solomon, D.D., 138, 139, 159, 201, 204. 
Stomach Plates, 447. 
Stone, Rev. Barton W., D.D., 516. 
Stool of Repentance, 163. 
Storey, Rev. Daniel, 297. 
Storrs, Rev. George, 458, 463, 519, 520. 

Rev. Dr. R. S., 681. 
Story, Hon. Joseph, LL.D., 84, etc., 773. 

on the Constitution, quoted, 85. 
Stoves in Churches, 158, etc. 
Stow, Rev. Baron, 423. 
Stowe, Rev. Dr. C. E., 434. 

Mrs. H. B., 219, 472. 
Strauss, David, 509, 661, 663, 665. 
Strawbridge, Rev. Robert, 43, 689. 
Streeter, Rev. Adam, 210, 211. 

Rev. Sebastian, 510. 
Strong, Rev. Dr. Nathan, 210, 306. 
Stuart, George H, 690. 

Rev. Professor Moses, D.D., 494, 520, 670. 
Students in Harvard College, Piety of, 131. 

in Roman Catholic Colleges, 613. 

Pious, 130, 437, 730. 
Sturbridge, Mass., votes Lead and Powder, 264. 
Stuyvesant, George, in New York, 43, 120. 

Peter, opposes the Jews, 43. 
^tyles, Rev. Dr. Ezra, 245, 250, 253, 360. 
Sumner, Hon. Charles, 471, 473. 
Sunday Afternoon, The, 731. 

Committee in New York, 575. 

Documents, 477. 

Schools, etc., 168, 170, 426-429, 691, 693. 
Sunderland, LeRoy, 463, 464, 480. 
Superstitions in the Colonies, 219, 220. 
Swedenborg. Kmanuel, 310, 311. 
Syllabus of Errors, 600. 
Synagogues, 43, 286. 
Synod, 40, 118, 131, 150. 



Taber, Hon. Mr., 596. 

Table of Discoveries, etc., 26. 

Tablet, The, 599, 601, 618. 

Tackawambit, Indian Successor of Eliot, 180. 

Talbot, Rev. J., D.D., no. 

Tammany Ring, 602. 

Taney, Chief Justice Roger B., 449. 

Tappans, The, 445, 451, 457. 

Tarbox, Rev. Dr. Increase N., 151, 214, 218, 431. 

•' Taste Scheme," The, 670. 

" Tate and Brady," 162. 

Taxation, Question of, 260. 

Taxes for Religion, 9T, 93, 95, 97, 98. 

Taylor, Rev. Edward T., 416. 

Rev. Dr. N., 670. 
Teachers, 102, 153. 
Teheras, Country of, 21. 
Temperance, 351, 354, 365, 440, 448, 555, 57°~575- 

Eminent Advocates of, 445, etc. 

First List of Presidents of the Massachusetts So- 
ciety, 444. 



INDEX 



813 



Temperance National Society, 447. 

Progress, 575. 

Reaction against, 573. 

Reform inaugurated, 441. 

Societies, The early, 440, etc. 
Temple Emanuel, 624. 
Tennent, Rev. Gilbert, 143, 202, 246. 

Rev. William, 143, 264, 281. 
Tennessee settled, 291. 
Teran, Don Domingo, 79. 
Territorial Area, 710. 
Territories, The, 289, etc. 
Tests, Religious, 276, etc. 
Texas, First Churches in, 395. 

First visited, 22. 

Missions in, 78. 
Thanksgivings and Fasts in New England, 130, 166, 
171. 

Customs of, 166, 215. 
Thatcher, Rev. Daniel, 288. 

Rev. Oxenbridge, 207. 

Rev. Peter, 151. 
Thayer, Rev. John, becomes a Roman Catholic, 333. 

Rev. Nathaniel, D.D., 493. 
Theaters proscribed, 342. 
Theocracy, A, in New England, 103. 
Theological Drifting, 502. 

Schools of United States in 1830, 437. 

Seminaries, 329, 430, 437-439, 730. 
Theology, Purification of, 668. 

Traditional, discarded, 194. 
Thirty Years' War, The, 27. 
Thomas, Isaiah, 722. 
Thompson, Hon. George, 458, 463, 466, 470. 

Rev. J. P., D.D., 100, 103, 472. 

Rev. J. W., D.I). ,631,662. 
Thompson's Island, 234. 
Thoreau, quoted, 665. 



Thorpe, Rev. George, 189, 190. 
es in Uni 
Throat Epidemic, 139 



Three competing Forces 



ted States. 



Thurston, Rev. David, 460. 
Times, The New York, 591. 
Tithing-men, 161, 162. 
Tobey, Hon. E. S., 686. 
Todd, Rev. John, 146. 
Toland, 195. 

Toleration, Religious, 35, 94, 107. 
Tonti's Travels, 76. 
Tories and Whigs, 337. 

driven away, 338. 
Torrey, Rev. Charles T., 468, 470. 
Torry, Rev. Samuel, 137. 
Tortures by Indians, 61, etc., 65. 
Total Abstinence, 446. 
Town Meetings in New England, 156, 157. 
Tract by Dr. Rush, 353. 
Magazine, 425. 
Societies, 364, 416, 418, 419. 
Transcendentalists, 504, 506, 629, 633. 
'• Transient and Permanent in Christianity,'' 507. 
Transylvania Company, The, 291. 

University. 32^, 383, 522. 
Trappers and Traders in the Mississippi Valley, 

290. 
Treadwell, Governor John, 472. 
Treat, Rev. Samuel, 181. 
" Tree of Liberty," 32, 32r, 322. 
Tribune, The Nezv York, 536, 619. 
Tricks, Cabinet, 641. 

Trinity, The, 196, 304. 512, 515, 671, 672. 
A, of Roman Catholic Devotees, 13. 
Church, New York city. 2.4.7. 
• Doctrine of the, 208. 
Troubles, Source of political, 563. 
True Reformed Dutch Church, The, 486. 
Trumbull, Dr. Jonathan, 138. 
Governor, 579. 
J. Hammond, 168, 170. 
Trumpet, The, 307, 511. 
Tuckerman, Rev. J., D.D., 445, 493. 
Tunkers, The, 42. 
Tuns or Towns. The, 156. 
Tupper, Rev. Thomas, i8r. 

53 



Turkey, Growth of Population in, 765. 

Turner, Rev. Richard, 288. 

Twining, Rev. Dr. C. F., 731. 

Two Peoples in the United States, 562, etc. 

Tyler, Rev. Dr. Bennet, 371, 670. 

Tyndall, Professor, 655, 659. 

u 

Ueberweg, 194. 

Ultramontanism in America, 592. 

Unbelief, French, 313. 

Uncas, 178. 

Unchastity in the Colonies, 217, etc. 

Uncle Tom's Cabin, 472. 

Unification of Churches, 678. 

Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, 6jC. 

League Club, 601. 

Meetings, 299, 

Plan of, 386, 488. 
Unitarian Belief, 634. 
Unitarianism, 196-208, 301-303, 494, 498, 499, 628-635 

in Boston, 492, 496,497, 629. 

Leaders in, 500, 505. 

Statistics of, 635, 756. 
United Brethren, 38, 286. 

Presbyterian Church in North America, 678, 679. 
United States Census, 718, 748. 

Gazetteer, 295. 

Growth of Population in, 765. 
Unity of Churches, 679, 680. 
Universalism, 209-211, 304, 307, 510, 515, 626, 628, 756 

History 0/ Modern, by Whittemore, 513. 
Universalist Quarterly, The, 513. 
Universities, '1 he Rise of, 229. 
University, Brown, 249. 

of Pennsylvania, 249. 

St. Mary's. 329. 

Washington and Lee, 249. 
L'pheaval in Europe, 24. 
Upson, Rev. Benjamin, D.D., 252. 
Urban Population, 748, etc. 
Usher, Archbishop, 28. 
Utah, Churches in, 649. 



Vaill, Rev. Joseph, 400. 

Yanderlip, George M., 686. 

Vassall in Trouble, 105. 

Verbi Dei Minister, 154. 

Vermont Telegraph, The, 518. 

Verrazano, 14, 44. 

Vespucci, 14, 16. 

Vex ilia Regis, 71. 

Vibratory Movements, 673. 

Vickers, Rev. Thomas, 632. 

Villeinage, 220, 222. 

Vincennes founded, 81. 

Vincent, Rev. Bishop John H., D.D., LL.D., 692. 

Vinton, Rev. John A., D.D., 103, 114. 

Virgin Mary, Patroness of the United States. 14, 

555- 
Virginia, Buck s History of, 243. 
Colony, 30, 84. 
Company, 128. 
Council, 124. 129. 
Education in, 230, 231. 
Indians in, 189. 
Intolerance in, 116. 
Notes on, by Jefferson, 243. 
Puritans in, 116. 

Religion in, 35, 126-128, 134, 145, 147-15': 1:7. 
Sons of, 243. 
Viscaino, Rev. Father, 22, 80. 
Visits, Religious, 712. 
Vogt, Carl, 650. 
Volney. 667. 

Voltaire, 314, 374, 417, 661, 667. 
: Volume Enterprise, 684. 
, Voluntary Principle, The, 608, 782, 784 
I Vote, The Roman Catholic, 602. 
| Voters, Only Church Members. 198. 
1 Voyages, Early English. 24-27. 
Early, Quaint Stories of, 15, 25. 



814 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



W 

Waban, an Indian Justice, 175, 180. 
Wabash College, 434. 

Country, Products of, 77. 
Wages, Low, 343, etc. 
Walker, Rev. Jesse, 381, 387, 3S0, 390. 
Walworth, Hon. R. H., LL.D., 445. 
War of 1 81 2, 364. 

of the Revolution, Calamities in, 261. 
Ward, Rev. Nathaniel. 262. 
Ward Schools in New York city, 553. 
Wardwell, Lj'dia, the Quakeress, 114. 
Ware, Rev. Henry, D.D., 206, 430, 493, 494, 496, 
506. 

John, M.D., 444. 
Warren, J. Collins, M.D., 443, 535. 

Rev. William F., D.D., LL.D., 523, 530, 650. 
Washington and Lee University, 249. 
Washington, General George, 249, 284, 316, 322, 

34o. 341, 565- 
Washingtonian Movement, The, 446, etc. 
Wasson, Rev. David A., 632. 
Watchman, The, 425, 480, 686. 
Waters, Rev. Francis, D.D., 479. 
Watertown, Mass., Church in, 130. 
Wayne, General, Victory of, 291. 
Wealth, Increase of, 699. 

of Evangelical Churches, 716. 

of United States, 715, etc. 
Webster, Miss Delia, 471. 

Rev. Noah, D.D., 494. 
Weekly Investigator, The, 452. 
Weiss, Rev. George M.. 41. 
Weld, Theodore D., 450. 
Wellesley College, 701. 
Wellons, Rev. W. B., D.D., 677. 
Wells, Rev. William, D.D., 493. 
Welsh Settlers, 32. 
Welton, Rev. J.,D.D., 116. 
Wesley, Rev. Charles, 43. 

Rev. John, 42, 43, 226, 268, 309, 317, 351, 426. 

Life of, by Watson, 416. 
Wesleyan Books, 42. 

Journal, 425. 

Quarterly Review, 464. 

Revival, 416. 

Schism, 465. 

University, The, Middletown, Conn., 437. 
Wesleys, The, in Georgia, 190. 
West India Companj', 31, 87, 96, 97. 113. 

Emancipation, The, 455. 

Rum, 212, 440. 
West, Rev. Samuel, D.D., and the Indians, 185. 

Rev. Stephen, 251. 
West, The Moral Condition of the, 381, etc. 
Western Missionary Society. 402. 

Reserve, 292, 298, 434. 

States, Romanism in, 544. 
Westminster Assembly, The. 105. 

Catechism, 670. 

Review, 665, 669. 
Whatcoat, Rev. Bishop Richard, 284. 
Whedon, Rev. Daniel D., D.D., LL.D.. 463. 
Wheelock. Rev. Eleazar, 180, 191, tq2. 248, 251, 

Rev. John, 248. 
Whewell. Dr., 658. 
Whining Tones, 152. 
Whipple, Edwin P.. 133, 655. 
Whisky Rebellion, The, 273. 
Whiiaker, Rev. Alexander, 127, 128. 

Rev. James, 312. 
Whitbv's Commentary. 197. 
White; Rev. Andrew, S. J., 66. 

Kev. Bishop, 426. 

Hon. Joseph, LL.D., 238. 
Whitefield. Rev. George, 43, 140. 142. 144. 190, 

206, 211, 226, 317. 
Whiting, Prof. N. M., 519. 

Whittemore, Rev. Thomas, D.D.. 307, 510, el< . 
Wickenden. Rev. William. 120. 



Wigglesworth, Edward, 163. 
Wilberforce, Rev. Bishop, 127, 172. 
Wilder, Hon. S. V. S., 418. 
Willard, Rev. Samuel, 241. 
William and Mary, 33, 85, 135, 246. 

College, 135, 230, 242, 243, 316, 377, 521. 
Vv ilhams, Chief Justice, 476. 

Robert, 421. 

Roger, 111-113, 123, 183, 240. 
Williams College, 411. 
Wilson, Hon. Henry, 355, 357, 360, 451. 
Wimer, Rev. James, 311. 

Winchester, Rev. Elhanan, 211, 304, 309, 510, 672. 
Winebrenner, Rev. John, 484. 
Wines, Bible Views of, 447. 
Winnebagos, The, 69. 
Winship, Rev. A. E., 646. 
Winslow, Edward, 177. 
Winsor, Justin, LL.D., 109. 
Winthrop, Governor John, 29, 106, 128, 129, 132, 240, 

262. 
Wisconsin, First Churches in, 395. 

River. The, 70, 73. 
Wise, Rev. Daniel, D.D., 428. 
Witchcraft, 104, 219, 224. 
Witherspoon, Rev. John, D.D., LL.D.. 246, 280, 

264. 
Witness, The New York Daily, 595. 
Wives, Runaway, 342. 
Wolf, George, 290. 
Woman's Crusade, The, 573. 

Christian Temperance Union, 573, 696. 

Missions, 701, 702. 

Work, 688, 689. # 
Women punished in Virginia, 02. 
Wood, Rev. Aaron, 386. 

Woodbridge, Rev. Timothy, and the Indians, 188. 
Woods, Rev. Leonard, D.D., LL.D., 444, 404. 
Woolman, John, 226. 
Worcester, Rev. Samuel, D.D., 412. 431. 518. 

Rev. S. M., M.D., 311,598. 

Rev. Thomas, 518. 
Word of God, Appeal to the, 103. 
World, The Catholic, 616. 
World's Temperance Convention, 447. 
Worship, Attendance on. 97, 116, 132, 153, 21 

Rude Houses of, 298, etc. 

Style of, 161. 
Wright, Hon. Carroll D., LL.D., 579, 584. 

Rev. Ehzur, 457. 

Fanny, 526, 527. 
Wyatt, Sir Francis, 91. 



Yale College, no, 234, 244, etc., 301, jig, 
376. . 

Infidelity in, 319, 320. 

Revivals in, 376, etc. 

Rules of. 245. 
Yale, Elihu, Esq., 244. 
Yancy, Hon. Mr., 568. 
Year Books. Roman Catholic, 607. 
Yearly Meetings. 39. 
Years of Labor, 712. 
Yeomans, Professor. 666. 
Yoacomico, an Indian Chief, 67. 
Young, Benjamin, 386, 387. 
Young, Brigham, 541. 

Rev. Jacob, 381. 
Young Men's Christian Association, 665. 667, 65 
685, 695, 752. 

Women's Christian Association, 689. 752. 
YoutfCs Companion, The, 425. 



Zeisberger, Rev. David, 293. 
Zinzendorf, Count, 42. 
Zions Herald, 309, 425, 463. 
Watchman, 463. 



022 012 453 8 





